Like in any crisis, communication is key. I mean, do we know enough, have we communicated enough. Have we learned enough from SARS and bird flu to put a lid on this crisis?

"Ray Rudowski" - I think what we are seeing in the last two weeks and especially in the last couple of days, it is not "are we communicating enough?, it is "are we communicating too much?". There is so much information out there that I think it is important for clients and corporate, to look at what is being done and filter it and monitor what is important for their particular businesses, so that they can align their communications with their response strategies. That's the real challenge right now. And I think that rather than looking at the gloom and doom of this, we know how bad it can get, I think companies really need to look at the opportunities presented here. And some of these opportunities include getting closer to their employees, getting closer to their stakeholders, getting closer to government and regulators and working together to try to find a way to make sure it does not get as bad as it was with SARS six years ago.

Are you saying we are approaching this swine flu crisis in the right way, have we taken the right measures?

"Ray Rudowski"- I think that what we are seeing right now is that again there has been a flood of information, but the issue is really right now at the epicenter of it is the United States – so that gives companies here in Asia an opportunity to be on the front foot and plan for it. In fact in the last couple of days, I have been going through some of our own clients and the crisis plan that we have developed for the last couple of years, reviewing, sending them back out with either a note saying "remember we planed for pandemics" or "perhaps you might want to consider implementing or creating a scenario or situation and responses to a possible escalation of this."

Planning for Pandemics
Plan development
Testing
Communications Training
Response
Recovery

Ray, question from Silas here – How do you think is the preparation like in the north of the hemisphere to this flu, particularly in the states. Are you comfortable with the measures the USA has taken so far?

"Ray Rudowski" - Again, I think we have seen this right from the very top the president himself and the administration has been on the front foot, they are communicating immediately. I think they are trying to do the right things and align their communication with that. We have seen the classic crisis response of concern, action and perspective and the president I think in his level-headed response has been leading that and I think has granted some reassurance especially around the world that there is still time to catch up and make sure this thing does not spin out of control the way that SARS did. It is a very clear contrast with the slow and secretive response that we saw with SARS six years ago, so clearly the lesson has been learned and I think that's a positive thing for the world in general.

The lesson has been learned but the risks are there, that's the reason why the markets have reacted negatively. We have seen commodities slump over night and slump in Asia as well. I mean, surely people are concerned by the risks involved despites the lessons learned?

"Ray Rudowski" - Absolutely, what we are seeing is not unusual. I mean the biggest landmark study, looking at how the markets react to crises, was done about 12 years ago. It was the "night and pretty" study that you can reference and look at, but it looked at the fact that companies, the share price of companies, naturally goes done within the first few days of any type of crisis. The response from investors will be to look at how they respond, how the authorities respond to this and often if the response and the transparency is there, markets will bounce back not only where they were before the depth of the crisis began, but they may even actually increase in value. So what we are seeing should be put in a wider context that this is part of the process. Recovery is really about how well the companies in crisis respond and I think again this is a tremendous opportunity for corporate in Asia to ramp up their own communication and begin looking at where is the risk within their own organizations, prioritizing stakeholders and then developing responses that are aligned with businesses. That can range from anything. If you are a logistics company – who do I need to be talking to, suppliers, customers. If you are an airline, looking at passengers, government, regulators – making sure you have the right information and that you seem to be on the front foot of this. And that's what we have seen to the question of what the president and the response in the Unites States has been. And I think that's encouraging. We still don't know how this is gonna play out but what we are seeing is a pattern, which if it is played out properly, we will see a recovery fairly quickly.

Phase One
Identify key threats
Develop response strategies

Phase Two
Crisis Website
Customer letters
Media Releases