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Global crisis management guru in SA

By Fay Humphries, Events programme director
Johannesburg, 05 Nov 2014
We live in a VUCA world, says Alan Hilburg, president and CEO of HilburgAssociates.
We live in a VUCA world, says Alan Hilburg, president and CEO of HilburgAssociates.

Inadequate crisis management planning, a lack of commitment from local company boards and directors, and strategic gaps in crisis communications mean South African corporates are leaving themselves exposed to a multitude of often avoidable crises.

This is according to Alan Hilburg, president and CEO of HilburgAssociates. For nearly 30 years, Hilburg has been one of the most sought-after strategic counsellors in some of the most complex, high-visibility, high-risk crises and 'impossible' situations.

Hilburg will present a master class on crisis management, communication and brand protection in Johannesburg next year, aimed at providing delegates with a 10-step plan on how to address crisis management shortfalls.

Hilburg led the Johnson & Johnson team in the textbook management of the 1982 Tylenol crisis, the number one crisis management case history studied worldwide. He has advised national presidents, university chancellors, members of congress and many other high-profile individuals in crisis situations. He has also successfully represented clients in 107 trials, including Love Canal, Exxon Valdez and Enron.

Commenting on the latest high-profile organisation to yet again hit the headlines as a result of a lack of crisis management, Eskom, Hilburg says: "Eskom dramatises the 'high cost of low trust!' It is a victim of a history of 'interventions' that caused it to take its eye off the brand ball, as well as what appears to be a reactive crisis strategy versus a responsive crisis strategy."

His advice for the parastatal, which continues to struggle to manage supply due to a complicated combination of factors, is: "Eskom needs to effectively recruit corporates and consumers to come together to eliminate the frequency, scope and scale of power outages by helping them play an active role in meeting the needs of the country (vs themselves). Its people need to quickly calculate if everyone, for example, did 'x', it would enable 10 000 South Africans to have 'y'. The power story needs to be taken down to the human level and forgo all the corporate speak."

ITWeb Future-proof your company - 18 February 2015, Johannesburg

This comprehensive one-day master class from Alan Hilburg, a world-renowned expert on crisis management, is a not-to-be-missed opportunity to access his decades of international expertise in assisting national figures and high-ranking corporates across the global. Click here to find out more and register to attend.

When asked why he believes it is important to attend his master class next year, Hilburg says: "We live in a VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity) world. Risk mitigation is everyone's job. Delegates will leave with the tools necessary to audit their existing plans, fix them and know they are sheltered from trust-threatening risks."

Hilburg's one-day master class on crisis management, communication and brand protection takes place on 18 February in Johannesburg. Click here to find out more and register to attend.

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