Crisis and Issues

This chapter (Chapter 10 – An Issues-Crisis perspective) helps me to understand better on what the differences between an issue and a crisis. It gives us tips on how to identify issues, the stages of a crisis development and how to handle crisis.
It will be easier for the public relations practitioners once the crisis is spotted early and then they can start to find strategies to solve the crisis.
Crisis is a tougher problem for the practitioners as compared to an issue.

Given for example, the Jack Neo’s case again, that is a crisis for Neo. In my opinion, his case is already in between phase 3 and 4 stages.

For Tiger Woods, his would also be in between phases 3 and 4.

Link to the picture on the right:
http://blogs.smh.com.au/lostintransit/archives/2006/10/crisis_manageme_1.html

One example of a real-life crisis would be the Apple Corporation. During the 1990s, it was not as successful as now. The demand for their products was low. This was because it was targeting to a small audience. There were also reasons like Apple was not selling their products with the right points. Consumers find few or no reasons to buy a Mac.

Link: http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/Q4.06/9FD12E37-8DC7-4AD1-872F-2021BEDE6D96.html

Apple bounced back later. With the software equipped in Mac itself, Apple used this as a selling point of this product. Its sales increased. The softwares include Final Cut, Garage Band and Aperture.

Link:http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/Q4.06/8F4B780E-674F-4421-A44D-7B1EAE9C1BA6.html

So from this case, we can see that the role that the public relations practitioner is to find the right angle to face the crisis, only then it can be solved. With the wrong angle or method used, it can make matters worse and thus causing the crisis to escalate further.