Association-wide sessions offer delegates breadth of insight
By David Pickle
The NCAA News - January 19, 2004

How ready is your campus?

Crisis management, an interactive simulation

Administrators living in the post-September 11 world may be so fixed on security issues that they have lost sight of other important elements of crisis management.

"Every administrator should think of crisis management as the protection of the institution's people, property, and its reputation or image," said Dan Donovan, chief executive officer of Inocon, a crisis management firm.

To illustrate the important of image, he cited the case of Coca-Cola. He said if Coke sold all of its worldwide assets, they would total about $35 billion. But he said that the total value of Coca-Cola stock is closer to $50 billion, which reveals the huge value of the corporation's image.

Donovan said that 80 percent of all crises result from communication or character failures, and that 80 percent involved mismanaged incidents. With that in mind, he stressed the importance of management and planning -- "having the right information to the right people at the right time to make the right decision." He also said that when confronted with a crisis, administrators need to make important distinctions between being "in it" (tactical) vs. "on it" (strategic). Key planning elements involve prevention, assessment, management and recovery, he said.

-- David Pickle