On Saturday morning while relaxing in Cornwall I bought a paper and sat down to read it with a coffee. Like most people I was saddened to see on the front cover of The Times the story about the Virgin Galactic spacecraft that crashed on Friday, killing a test pilot. It was also impossible not to read the story and feel sorrow for the families of those involved, but also from a professional perspective, think what a disastrous piece of PR it was for the Virgin brand. Both headline and opening paragraphs screamed about it being a Virgin product and talked about the what-if the rich and famous had been on-board, as Branson had been predicting in the near future.
All that aside, what did impress me was Branson’s reaction. Straight away he tweeted that he was on his way to the crash site to be with his team and upon arriving fronted a press conference in the Mojave desert. He didn’t hide, he didn’t let others take the flack. He got there as fast as he could and fronted it out. In every interview I have seen he has tried to be respectful to the families of the pilot who has lost his life and the other who is injured. He has talked about how seriously his company is taking this disaster and the steps they are taking to find out what happened and to ensure this never happens again. He has also communicated how they will continue with their mission to achieve space flight for customers.
There is no getting away from the fact this will have hurt Virgin, but it could have been so much worse.
Think back a couple of years ago when BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded, killing 11 workers and spewed millions of gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The former CEO, Tony Hayward, was visible stressed and was dismissive of the situation with statements such as: the spill is relatively tiny when compared with the big ocean and I want my life back. He also made the unwise decision to go sailing in the Solent at the height of the disaster rather than be in Florida with the team facing up the wrath of the locals.
For all his fault, I genuinely think that Branson has reacted well to such a horrendous situation. The golden rules of any crisis comms is to get your facts straight, get to the site, prepare a statement for the media but most important – be seen. Don’t hide. People don’t trust people or companies that try to hide when a crisis hits and as a result look for more dirt or a different angle. By being open and honest a company can show it cares but also stop the media and the public from making their own conclusions or misreporting the situation.
It will be interesting to see how Virgin continues to communicate over the coming weeks and months.
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