Crisis? What Crisis?
Issue 29: The reputation management issue
We all love a crisis. We just don’t like to be in one.
In the same way civilians used to have picnics to watch the American Civil War unfold (no really), the public – especially the Australian public – are big fans of vocally and lasciviously airing their long-held and perhaps rather petty grievances whenever a company with really any sort of public profile finds themselves on the unfortunate side of mishandled mishap. Call it vindication, call it schadenfreude, whatever it is, it’s a shit result for shareholders and an existential threat to the longevity of any CEO’s career.
Too many Australian CEOs still don’t understand that reputation management has become a business-critical capability that can determine the success of their company and their career. In an ideal world, no company would run into a crisis. But the world isn’t ideal. People, including CEOs, are fallible and make mistakes. The question isn’t whether a company will face a crisis: it’s whether it’s handled with the sophistication, authenticity and honesty that today's stakeholders demand. Moreover, it’s about what the business has been doing when it’s not in a crisis to earn the public’s goodwill and their trust that they will handle the issue in good, efficient faith.
Recent examples prove that public issues don’t have to become public disasters. Qantas detected unusual activity on 30 June, contained the system immediately, and by Wednesday that week had established dedicated support lines while working with cybersecurity experts. The breach affected 5.7 million customers yet the airline emerged with minimal long-term damage (at this stage; things can turn quickly in a crisis). As Andrew observed in TechDay: “Qantas’ reputation remains a raw nerve for most Australians, making new CEO Vanessa Hudson’s crisis management crucial. Early signs suggest she’s handling this cyber incident better than her predecessor.” Incidentally, for our thoughts on said predecessor, look no further than the rant in the Explain section of our Come Fly With Me COMMPRESS issue last year.
Meanwhile, the Tasmania Devils AFL team faced an existential political crisis when Labor filed a no-confidence motion against Tasmanian Premier Jeremy Rockliff, threatening their stadium funding and AFL license. But rather than becoming passive victims, the team and its CEO transformed uncertainty into deeper community connection, continuing to grow their membership base beyond 200,000 founding members from 55 countries.
Gone are the days when Australian CEOs could hide behind corporate anonymity. As communications specialist Lanna Hill observed in The West Australian, today’s CEO “isn't just running a business. They’re expected to be brand ambassadors, crisis managers, cultural translators, ESG navigators, seasoned media spokespeople and speakers.” Can one person be expected to do all this? We all know the answer to that one.
The sophisticated response operates on three pillars — Act, Explain and Amplify — as it always does. Understanding the distinction between these elements – and executing them strategically – can transform potential disasters into trust-building opportunities.
Act
It’s not a smart conversation if there’s nothing to talk about.
Start with the right strategy and execution to prove you can walk the talk.
According to a new report from Medianet, CEO visibility has become both the ultimate weapon and the most dangerous liability in modern corporate leadership. Seventy per cent of consumers feel more connected to brands when CEOs are active on social media, according to Sprout research. But visibility carries risks. Atlassian’s Mike Cannon-Brookes built a powerful brand through social media activism, but his use of private jets turned online sentiment against him virtually overnight. Cannon-Brookes tried to defend himself, probably doing more damage to his reputation. He learnt an old comms lesson: trust can be destroyed faster than it can be built.
The most effective crisis responses begin long before any crisis emerges. This involves building operational resilience and making strategic choices that either strengthen or weaken your position when pressure arrives.
When Qantas detected unusual activity, it took immediate steps and contained the system, then notified the Australian Cyber Security Centre, Office of the Australian Information Commissioner and Australian Federal Police. It established a dedicated customer support line available 24/7. This rapid response prevented the breach from becoming a prolonged security emergency and demonstrated that perfect information can often matter less than immediate action.
Sometimes the smartest action is strategic silence. When Four Corners ran a critical story on Bunnings in May, CEO Mike Schneider declined to be interviewed. The harsh report led to about 20 print and online stories. Compare this to Woolworths CEO Brad Banducci’s decision to participate in a Four Corners interview in February 2024, which led to about 600 print and online media stories, most of them negative, after he famously stormed out of the interview and created a series of YouTube videos known as “The moment he realises”.
Schneider’s approach is part of what Medianet calls the “humble CEO” strategy. Despite leading one of Australia's biggest and most successful retailers, he has deliberately cultivated a very, very low profile. But there’s a very important distinction to make here: depending on the brand, a low CEO profile might be the correct choice, but we would never advocate for a no-profile strategy. The public should be introduced to the CEO and the CEO should build trust in line with the brand so the public know that when a storm hits, the right person is steering the ship. Schneider rarely makes public appearances, but when he does, he’s usually wearing a Bunnings apron. When he does appear publicly, it’s in contexts that reinforce Bunnings’ community-focused brand identity, and by proxy, him as the man with the right values to lead Bunnings. He’s also built credibility through carefully chosen platforms, like 15 Minutes With The Boss and The High Flyers podcasts. Despite recent criticism – not just from Four Corners, but from rival hardware retailers that have long raised concerns about its oligopoly – Bunnings is still Australia's most trusted brand.
For an example of when a high-profile CEO strategy works, consider Matt Comyn at CommBank, who has taken the opposite media and comms strategy approach to Bunnings’ Schneider with spectacular success. According to Medianet’s analysis, Comyn “proactively engages with a wide breadth of media channels, from financial mastheads to local television segments”. His transparency and willingness to “invite stakeholders into his personal life and leadership style” has helped him dominate among the big four bank CEOs, correlating with CommBank’s “dominant media performance and consistently positive media mentions”.
Beyond determining which media profiling strategy is appropriate for the CEO, the best crisis actions include immediate operational changes to prevent similar problems. Back to Qantas: what helped them in the recent cyber attack was their increased resourcing in contact centres and work with specialist cybersecurity experts to actively monitor for any data release. These steps showed stakeholders that security improvements were already underway, moving beyond promises to demonstrable action.
When the Tasmania Devils faced their crisis in June this year, club officials didn’t wait for politicians to determine their fate. CEO Brendon Gale emphasised that while the stadium deal was outside their control, the Devils would continue building the organisation. This prevented external forces from defining the club’s response and positioned them as active participants working toward solutions rather than passive victims of political turbulence.
Finding and demonstrating forward momentum will always cushion the blow. Wise businesses make a point of demonstrating this forward momentum outside of moments of crisis, better positioning themselves for when something throws the company off tilt.
Here’s a challenge: identify the greatest point of potential pain in your business that could cause a crisis – say it’s cybersecurity – and think about how you can make efforts now to start telling your customers what you’re doing about it. No, don’t explicitly tell them you’re afraid of a breach (that would be daft), but let them know when you implement new procedures, invest in resources, send staff to a training day or just that you even have an internal procedure in place. Do whatever you can to build goodwill with your customers outside of a crisis, so at least when one hits, they know you did your best.
Explain
How big ideas are translated into words that resonate, build identity and set the context for a smart conversation.
We know from our Come Fly With Me issue last year that when an issue unfolds, how you respond in the first five minutes is critical. Then the first hour. Then the first day. Being prepared, understanding where your risks lie, and actively preparing response strategies that enforce consistency is what often determines whether an issue becomes a crisis.
The language you choose, the tone you adopt and the structure of your messaging can either defuse tension or accelerate it into something much worse.
Last month, Qantas’ Vanessa Hudson demonstrated how authentic crisis communication should sound: “We sincerely apologise to our customers and we recognise the uncertainty this will cause. Our customers trust us with their personal information, and we take that responsibility seriously. We are contacting our customers today, and our focus is on providing them with the necessary support.” While we’re not always fans of the phrase “sincerely apologise”, this statement acknowledged impact without making excuses and led with genuine concern for customer experience.
Hudson’s approach contrasted sharply with her predecessor Alan Joyce’s handling of previous crises. Where Joyce became infamous for blaming customers who weren’t “match-fit for travel”, Hudson focused on taking responsibility and providing support. She inherited Alan Joyce’s brand reputation problems at Qantas, yet she faces more intense scrutiny, despite the fact she has clearly learnt from the many blunders Joyce made and is trying hard to improve the airline’s communication to customers and other stakeholders.
Side note: if you think life as a male CEO is tough, try being a female CEO (or ask Vanessa Hudson). Despite representing just 8% of ASX 300 CEOs, women receive 52% of crisis-related media coverage according to Medianet’s analysis. If you’re a female CEO, you are a much, much taller poppy than the guy standing next to you. The “glass cliff” phenomenon is real. Female leaders like Vicki Brady at Telstra and Melanie Perkins at Canva face different expectations around DEI initiatives than their male counterparts. As a recent report from Clarity Global spells out: “Women [CEOs] are under more scrutiny than ever. Many have become the ‘fixers’ expected to turn a company, or organisation around after a man has departed. They’re expected to clean up messes they didn't create while facing media attention their male predecessors never endured.”
When responding to a crisis, your spokesperson should offer a clear, confident and succinct statement that demonstrates empathy, accepts responsibility and throws the issue forward to what you’re doing about it. What would you want to hear if this crisis was affecting you? You don’t always have to apologise, but you do need to accept some share of the responsibility. Understanding the difference is critical. And nobody really cares about excuses; they want to see a demonstration of action.
Sometimes emotion becomes your strategic asset. When Tasmania Devils executive Kath McCann broke down in tears during a media conference, saying “This club is powered by future generations... our young people deserve it”, the emotional moment became a powerful symbol of the organisation’s authentic commitment: it showed empathy for the audience rather than defence of the business. It demonstrated genuine investment in the cause. Stakeholders respond to leaders who show real stakes in outcomes, rather than polished indifference.
Amplify
A conversation means someone has to listen and respond. Cleverly amplifying the message to the right audience, at the right time, is the final piece of the puzzle.
Two little letters give part of the answer to why modern crisis management has become so complex. AI has fundamentally changed the crisis landscape in ways most CEOs don’t always understand. As the Clarity Global report says: “AI’s duality – threats and solutions emerging from the same technical foundations – has created an online ‘battleground’ to which crisis teams have been conscripted.”
Traditional crisis management assumed that negative coverage would eventually fade from public memory. Wrong. Crises and how companies and CEOs handle them are now recorded forever online and can be accessed with a few keystrokes. Semantic search capabilities mean AI can uncover information about past crises even if brands aren't directly mentioned. Unresolved or poorly handled crises can’t easily be buried. Large language models may present outdated crisis information as current, creating new reputational risks years after events conclude.
The strongest amplification strategies require coordinated outreach across all stakeholder groups while maintaining narrative control. Qantas worked with federal cybersecurity coordinators, law enforcement and industry specialists while maintaining direct customer communication through a dedicated webpage and support line. This comprehensive approach ensured consistent messaging reached every relevant audience and prevented conflicting information from creating additional confusion.
Now, that’s all well and good, but the key difference between Qantas and other businesses who suffered worse in similar situations, is that Qantas amplified the message fast.
When the airline was contacted by potential extortionists, it immediately disclosed this development: “A potential cybercriminal has made contact, and we are currently working to validate this.” This transparency prevented speculation and demonstrated openness. Rather than hoping the extortion attempt would remain private, it controlled the narrative by being the first to share the information. It took the fire out of potential speculation from media and public outrage at radio silence across social media. Sometimes it’s about minimising the noise rather than maximising.
The Tasmania Devils used their political crisis to deepen community engagement rather than retreat from public attention. The crisis became a rallying point that strengthened rather than weakened stakeholder commitment. Devils CEO Brendon Gale described the organisation as “a powerful enduring stimulus” that would create economic, social, and cultural benefits beyond football, transforming immediate political uncertainty into part of Tasmania's broader development story.
Modern amplification requires a sophisticated digital strategy that reaches stakeholders where they consume information. And everyone has a part to play, As we observed in our Come Fly With Me issue: “Today, every member of the organisation is a spokesperson. And whether or not it’s a good thing, airline employees are being recorded. Passengers board with their phones charged and metaphorical knives sharpened, hungry for potentially viral content ops.” This reality means that crisis amplification extends far beyond official channels to include every customer interaction and employee encounter.
The companies and CEOs that will thrive in today’s challenging environment share several important qualities that set them apart from those who struggle. They have learned to embrace uncertainty rather than trying to control every outcome. They focus on building their ability to adapt quickly when things change, understanding that staying flexible is far more valuable than sticking rigidly to predetermined plans.
Smart leaders invest heavily in building strong relationships long before they actually need them. They recognise that trust developed during quiet times becomes incredibly valuable when everything hits the fan. They treat crisis communication as a fundamental part of their business strategy, rather than as a specialised function they can delegate to others.
They also recognise that reputation has become a real-time asset that requires constant attention. In a connected world, reputation is global and permanent, which means it cannot be managed only during crises. Rather, it must be built and maintained every single day through consistent actions and communication.
As Andrew noted in his TechDay analysis: “Hudson has a real opportunity to rebuild trust through action: customers don’t need all the answers upfront, but they do want evidence of work being done to find them.” This insight captures the essence of modern crisis management. The question isn’t whether crises will emerge: it’s whether organisations will be ready to act decisively, explain authentically and amplify strategically when they do.
Picks & Recs
SKMG’s Crisis Cocktails
Because in the worst moments, liquor never lets you down.
Sam
The Ctrl+Alt+Deluxe
Cheap tequila in a mug.
Neil
The Lifeboat
25ml Cointreau, 25ml Blue Curacao, 25ml Croatian plum liqueur, two maraschino cherries. The cherries are only included for some colour contrast. Down it. Shudder. Cough. Exhale. Repeat. Often.
Andrew
A nice daily lager
Exactly as it reads.
You make or break a crisis by putting in the reps every day, did you learn nothing?
Tess
The Espresso Martini Express
An espresso martini, made badly and fast. The coffee powers you through the work you missed during the crisis. The vodka helps you forget there was a crisis. Repeat as required.