Tackling a Crisis Head-on

This week, we will be starting our work on Assignment 2. Go to The Wall Street Journal menu item and find an article about a crisis that occurred at a specific organization in the last year.

Considering the course materials for this week, answer the following:

Describe the crisis faced by the organization.

• To what extent, if any, was the organization’s crisis communication plan effective?

This week and next, continue to research this specific crisis so that you can better prepare for Assignment 2.

Post your initial response by Wednesday, midnight of your time zone, and reply to at least 2 of your classmates’ initial posts by Sunday, midnight of your time zone.​

1st response

The Bank of America Earnings Crisis

In 2020, many businesses experienced notable challenges due to the outbreak of the coronavirus. The Bank of America was no exception based on its reports of firm earnings in 2020. According to Eisen (2021), many large financial organizations in the United States withstood the recession due to COVID-19. However, the author explains that the banks have not been fully protected against the minimal rates brought about by the pandemic. For Bank of America, the outcomes of the COVID-19 outbreak have been felt in many ways, particularly the reduction of earnings by 22%. Additionally, lenders have also experienced significant challenges based on low-interest rates, and Bank of America is among them. Since the financial institution gains earnings on the difference between their lending payments and what they pay to depositors, the bank’s interest rates downfall. The earnings crisis also affected the firm’s operations in the last quarter of 2020 even though it made considerable profits.

Communication Tactics and Addressing the Crisis

Handling a crisis in organizations presents notable problems for managers and leaders that do not understand the proper ways of solving a crisis. Warren Buffet explains that there are four significant steps a leader can take to address a crisis. First, getting the crisis right and understanding why it happens and what can stop it will help address the crisis. The Bank of America leaders understood that the company needs to introduce measures that will increase the earnings. Secondly, according to Buffet, responding to the crisis fast is also a core step in managing a crisis. The Bank of America did not wait until the last quarter of 2020 to react to the earnings crisis. Rather, they resorted to ensuring the loan demands are stabilized by business consumers and focused more on investment activities (Eisen, 2021). The third and fourth steps based on Warren’s advice involve getting the crisis out by dealing with it and getting over with. The Bank of America handled the crisis well by focusing on solutions rather than wondering what it means for the financial institution. In this sense, addressing a crisis requires understanding every detail that comes with the crisis.

Effectiveness of the Communication Plan

Several ways can be associated with the Bank of America’s communication plan for addressing the earnings crisis. First, the plan focused on what caused the crisis for the organization. Managers and leaders that comprehend the causes of a problem find easier ways to approach the issue, which becomes easier to solve. Secondly, the plan also presented possible solutions to the crisis, including loan demand stabilization and investments (Eisen, 2021). An effective communication plan comes with essential solutions to a crisis. Additionally, the communication plan advocated a fast response to the crisis, rather than waiting for some time. Solving a crisis with immediate effect increases the chances of handling it well. Thus, the plan presented by the Bank of America was effective in handling the earnings crisis.

How I would have Responded

If I were a senior leader at Bank of America, I would not have responded differently from how the leaders did. However, there are a few things I would have done besides the actions they took to handle the crisis. First, I would have established significant plans that consider any crisis in the future. The business world is filled with uncertainty, and ensuring there is a response plan to unexpected events puts the organization in a safe business place. Secondly, I would have ensured that every working member in the organization understands what the crisis means to the company and how to turn the events around.

References

Eisen, B. (2021, January 19). Bank of America Earnings Weighed Down by Low Rates. Retrieved 19 January 2021 from https://www.wsj.com/articles/bank-of-america-quarterly-profit-falls-22-11611058056?mod=searchresults_pos9&page=1

2nd Response 

George Holobetz 2 1 21 Week 5 Discussion Case: Tackling a Crisis Head-on

Describe the crisis faced by the organization. 

JC Penney filed for bankruptcy in May 2020. It was recently sold in November 2020 for $300 Million to the landlords of most of its stores, Simon Property Group and Brookfield Property Group.

The crisis was to survive through Bankruptcy and emerge to be sold if possible. The company had about $8.0 Billion in assets and about $8.0 Billion in debt in 2020 when it filed for bankruptcy protection, not good. The crisis was in the making for at least a decade and was never fully addressed until it was too late (Kapner, Scurria, 1).

There is no question that turmoil at the top helped the company slide into mediocrity. I once had JC Penney as a corporate client. They were over 100 years old, as was the company I worked for. We were their first paper supplier for catalogs, newspapers, and ad flyers. I sold them about $30 million a year worth of product, and at one time, it was as high as $100 million/yr.

The company was late to adopt an internet presence and never really invested enough to help its sales. As mall shoppers continued to decline, they never addressed how to deal with it. However, online retailers and even Kohl’s had a strategy. JC Penney had none that was effective and obviously never determined how to address it.

It went from a $500 million profit in 2011 to filing for bankruptcy last year. There is no question the Covid Virus Pandemic put the nail in the coffin. They had to shut down for over a month when the pandemic hit.

• What communication tactics did the organization use to address its crisis? Refer to Jack and Warren’s guidance for dealing with crises. 

Both Welch and Buffet talk about the crises being bigger than they are. JC Penney was on a slope downward for a decade, so the crises were growing and accelerating. In my mind, they attempted with little forethought to the nitty-gritty of how to stay relevant and kept bringing in outsiders with little clothing retail experience relative to their offerings. This was a disaster (Buffet, Welch, 2).

The company floundered aimlessly for a decade before Covid all but killed it. Had they not been purchased, they would have been liquidated, and about 60,000 employees would be gone, and the remaining 650 stores closed. They once had over 1600 stores.

There was no hiding the decline of JC Penney, Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart, “once said that JC Penny was the Cadillac of the Retail Industry,” and he started his retail career there. The decline of the company started in about 2010 mainly due to Kohl’s and discount retailers in clothing like TJ Maxx, Old Navy, The Gap, and the proliferation of the upcoming offerings through retail online sales.

They wasted much time by keeping floundering stores open and sticking to the Mall presence scenario as their model. Kohl’s built mostly independent buildings, owned them, put them in strategic locations, and built them mostly with their own cash. Very smart!  They built them mainly in growing suburbs throughout the US. While JC Penney was stuck in malls, many of which were located in older, less shopped locations. Those locations became increasingly less relevant. They were stuck in long-term leases in increasingly undesirable locations and did not feel the strategy to go to freestanding stores made sense.

So they did not follow Jack’s or Warren’s advice about getting on with what to do. The Pandemic forced their hand after they failed to make a profit. They had no offense and their defense of staying who they were and to become had no plan. They were great at logistics at one time, but those facilities became less utilized and needed modernization to stay productive with declining sales. Their lack of profits over the 2010-2020 period hurt their highly-touted distribution hub system because they could no longer afford to keep them in good enough shape to stay productive.

To what extent, if any, was the organization’s crisis communication plan effective?

None.

There is no doubt there was never a clear plan to alleviate their downward spiral. They had to close stores that were losing money, and they did not. They had to put more oomph into their internet sales organization platform they did not. They had to offer more cash coupons and rewards like Kohl’s. JC Penney had them. However, when they brought in Ron Johnson from Apple to upgrade the image and products to a more elite clientele. He got rid of them. He fired 100’s of long-term retail veterans upon his arrival, and he was fired 17 months after hired. He failed miserably because upscale shoppers were not shopping at JC Penney. He created a brain drain on what made them profitable. Kohl’s stepped in with a bigger and better Coupon, Rewards program after Ron Johnson stopped them. When they got rid of Johnson, they brought them back, but Kohl’s had become the place to shop for the best deals in the same lines JC Penney was selling. That move alone cost the company over $5.0 billion in sales in one year. Thus the spiral began. I wonder how these X-CEOs of JC Penney ever got jobs after driving JC Penney into the ground. I would have ever hired them afterward. They ruined a good company,

Then they brought in another CEO, Marvin Ellison, from Home Depot. Another senseless move since what the heck did he know about the retail clothing industry. JC Penney was not selling lumber and nuts and bolts. That was another disaster, particularly when sales again took a slide when he started to bring appliances back into stores to be sold. This was again a hit against their strength in retail clothing sales, particularly to middle-class women. He was focused on trying to make JC Penney something they were not. Instead of strategizing to optimize who they were. He left and went back to nuts and bolts by becoming the leader of Lowe’s. Interestingly and predictably enough, the losses went down after he left. So it was good he left, and I think had he not, he was on his way out as well. 

• If you were a senior leader in the organization, would you have responded differently? Why or why not? 

I would have responded very differently than the senior leadership did over the last 10 years in which JC Penney was in crisis but not responded to. This crisis, along with Sears and K-Mart, are filled with absolutely wrong decisions in so many ways. It is tough for me to understand how poorly the boards of these companies managed them. 

I would have done the number one thing would have been to go back to their core strength of women’s clothes. Moreover, offer innovative new clothing lines to attract more than middle-aged to older women. Marketing was awful. Adds did not bring people into the stores. People shop at a place that offers them what they want, not what the company brand managers think they want. They have to start offering lines that would attract all age groups, particularly the millennials. What teenager wants to go shopping for clothes at JC Penney?

They should have noticed what was attracting shoppers to Kohl’s, TJ Maxx, Old Navy, The Gap, and Amazon and implemented more of their strategies versus their own.

I would have fired the board. They elected irrelevant CEOs and did not hold them accountable and thus floundered for 10 years before finally, out of desperation, they filed for protection under bankruptcy. I knew 3 CEOs of JC Penney, and the company was successful under them. Nevertheless, even they failed to have a long-term sustainable strategic plan. Within the first year of running my division, I created a strategic plan for each year that folded into a five-year plan, and each year the yearly plan was updated, and so was the five-year plan.

Their new owners need to force the current leaders of JC Penney to wake up to the competitive realities of the retail clothing industry. If they do not, they may not survive the decline to nothingness but may just have slowed the inevitable.

I would immediately form a Cross-functional business team across all business functional areas to ask what I did when I turned around an $800 million division of a company losing money into a $3.5 billion division making about $75 million in net profit.

I asked the divisional leaders of every business function; why do we do what we do? If you wanted to do it better, what would you do? How much do you think we need to get from the board to make it happen?

Once that is all assessed, come up with a new Mission and Strategic Vision to get it done. They will not survive if all they do is continue aimlessly. Their new CEO, Ms. Soltau, refocused the company on apparel. It sold its headquarters in Plano, TX. Which I had been to dozens of times. It was a palace, and at one time itself could have been sold for over $100 million. It was sold for far less. Furthermore, they just closed it since they were paying $2.45 million a month just in rent! It should have been sold the first year they lost money in the 2011-2012 time frame. Their stock is worth about $.25/share. When I worked with them, it was in the mid $30’s/share range.

I grew up when Penney’s, Sears, K-Mart, US Steel, and countless other major companies were successful. Their number one failure in my mind was that they did not strategically plan for sustainability in various market conditions. These have to be part of the annual and five-year or longer strategic plans with deviations to cover multiple market realities. I addressed at least 3 of them in each plan I had to build. Moreover, that was sufficient (JWI505, WK5 LN, 3).

Reference:

1. Kapner, Suzanne and Scurria, Andrew. 2020. WSJ Article. J.C. Penney, Pinched by Coronavirus, Files for Bankruptcy. https://www.wsj.com/articles/j-c-penney-pinched-by-coronavirus-files-for-bankruptcy-11589582224

2. Buffet, Warren and Welch, Jack. 2021. Tips on Handling a Crisis Video. https://blackboard.strayer.edu/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?course_id=_312212_1&content_id=_34421029_1&mode=reset

3. JWI505.2021. Week 5 Lecture Notes. https://blackboard.strayer.edu/bbcswebdav/institution/

JWI505: Business Communications and Executive Presence

Week 5 Lecture Notes

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JWI 505 – Lecture Notes (1206) Page 1 of 7

Crisis Communication

What It Means

What was the biggest mistake you ever made at your workplace? Did you send an email to a
colleague containing information they should not have seen? Did you miscalculate some
financial data and pass the wrong numbers to your supervisor? Perhaps it was something
easily remedied, such as sending a customer the wrong invoice. Alternatively, maybe it was
something you could not easily fix, like gravely offending your biggest client. In the face of
adversity, what did you do? Whom did you reach out to, and what did you tell them?

Regardless of your role in your organization, you have had to respond to a crisis at some
point. That is perfectly normal! In fact, you can expect to face a number of pressing situations
every year. But even if crises are inevitable, you still need a communication plan. You must
be prepared to mitigate whatever problems may arise, all while exercising a strong executive
presence.

In this lecture, you will learn the fundamentals of strong crisis communication. We will explore
Jack’s assumptions for crisis management, the resources available to you during a crisis, and
what to tell stakeholders if the worst should happen.

Why It Matters

• Poor crisis management can damage your company’s image and your reputation.

• During a crisis, you will not have access to the same resources you normally have.

• A comprehensive communication plan for one issue can serve as a foundation for
future crises.

“There is a silver lining to crisis management in that you rarely have to live
through the same disaster twice.”

Jack Welch

JWI 505: Business Communications and Executive Presence
Week 5 Lecture Notes

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copied, further distributed, or otherwise disclosed, in whole or in part, without the expressed written permission of Strayer University.

JWI 505 – Lecture Notes (1206) Page 2 of 7

What Is Your Gut Instinct?

The biggest mistake you ever made was likely an individual workplace crisis. These happen
to everyone and, while they are serious, they rarely threaten the long-term health of your
entire organization. Your company will not go out of business because you accidentally filled
the company car with the wrong type of fuel. But an organizational crisis, such as a huge
public relations scandal, could jeopardize the entire organization’s future.

When you are faced with any crisis, you may be tempted to take one of two actions based on
an emotional fear response. Some leaders opt to fight. This often means denying any
wrongdoing or loudly denouncing accusers and critics. There are many reasons why this is
usually not the best response. You know that passion is a necessity for strong leadership, but
you also do not want to have to retract a hasty statement. Emotional outbursts or unfounded
claims can also exacerbate your situation. Take United Airlines, for example. In April 2017,
the company faced a massive public relations crisis when a passenger was forcibly removed
from a sold-out flight; footage of the injured and bloodied passenger being dragged off the
plane went viral online. Shortly afterward, United delivered a press release that contained
erroneous information. United CEO Oscar Munoz then issued a statement apologizing for
“having to re-accommodate” customers. In an email to employees, he also referred to the
passenger as “disruptive and belligerent.”1 Both Munoz and United were lambasted for their
response, which came off as rash and uncaring.

The other tempting option for leaders is to take flight. They will take extreme steps to avoid a
confrontation, including retreating to a remote location or booking meetings all day, so they
are unavailable for comment. This is not how a strong leader manages a crisis. The problem
will still be there when they finally get around to confronting it, and by then, it may have gotten
much worse. In July 2017, Equifax, a consumer credit reporting agency, discovered a
cybersecurity breach; the personal data of roughly 143 million consumers had been taken.
Neither the company nor CEO Richard Smith made a public announcement about the breach
until September. They also did not immediately disclose whether sensitive information like

1 Matt Rosoff, “United CEO Doubles Down in Email to Employees, Says Passenger Was ‘Disruptive and Belligerent’,”
CNBC, April 11, 2017, https://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/10/united-ceo-passenger-disruptive-belligerent.html.

JWI 505: Business Communications and Executive Presence
Week 5 Lecture Notes

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copied, further distributed, or otherwise disclosed, in whole or in part, without the expressed written permission of Strayer University.

JWI 505 – Lecture Notes (1206) Page 3 of 7

personal identification numbers had been stolen. This late, inadequate response did not help
the company’s image at all. Equifax was sued by hundreds of upset consumers; Smith
resigned just two weeks after his announcement.

Neither fight nor flight should be your first impulse during a crisis. Instead, you should focus on
upholding your best business communication practices. Your messaging must be clear and
consistent, and you must be ready to listen and accept feedback from all of your relevant
listeners. Shared understanding and alignment of your team’s efforts are essential. When a
crisis poses a threat to your company, your reputation, or your career, an effective messaging
strategy is vital.

Principles of Crisis Management

Speed is critical in all crisis scenarios, so do not let the situation get ahead of you. As Jack
argued, there are five assumptions to apply to any crisis you face, regardless of its scope or
whom it affects. Here is what to remember:

1. Assume the worst.
Do not think the situation can be easily contained. You will invariably find out that the
crisis is much bigger, and affects far more people, than you initially thought. By the
time that happens, you cannot stay ahead of the situation, so you need to
communicate with stakeholders and the public in a timely way.

Two fatal crashes in late 2018 and early 2019 called into question the safety of
Boeing’s 737 MAX airplanes. CEO Dennis Muilenburg sought to reassure investors
that he was confident in the planes, saying, “We know our airplanes are safe. We
have not changed our design philosophy.”2 His outlook became hard to defend when
aviation authorities grounded all 737 MAX planes. Matters got even worse in May
2019, when The Wall Street Journal reported that Boeing had withheld information

2 Cindy Silviana & Eric M. Johnson, “‘Our Airplanes Are Safe,’ Boeing Says as Officials Push Training,” Reuters,
December 6, 2018, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-indonesia-crash/our-airplanes-are-safe-boeing-says-as-
officials-push-training-idUSKBN1O51QC.

JWI 505: Business Communications and Executive Presence
Week 5 Lecture Notes

© Strayer University. All Rights Reserved. This document contains Strayer University confidential and proprietary information and may not be
copied, further distributed, or otherwise disclosed, in whole or in part, without the expressed written permission of Strayer University.

JWI 505 – Lecture Notes (1206) Page 4 of 7

about the 737 MAX’s safety issues for roughly a year before the first crash.
Muilenburg’s reassurances that everything was fine rang hollow. By the end of 2019,
investor confidence in Boeing was shaken, and Muilenburg was out of a job.

2. There are no secrets.
Do not think you can hide the crisis or keep it out of public view. Eventually, everyone
will find out what happened. Never presume you can buy people’s silence, because
everyone involved will – and should – be documenting everything.

Uber has drawn intense scrutiny over its workplace culture, especially regarding
sexual harassment. Managers and human resource representatives received multiple
complaints about certain employees’ behavior. Even CEO Travis Kalanick was alleged
to have heard reports of sexual harassment. Not even a major company like Uber
could keep this crisis hidden. In 2017, former employee Susan Fowler posted on her
blog, detailing her harassment and the threats she received for trying to report it.
Kalanick resigned not long afterward.

3. Your crisis management will not be portrayed favorably.
Do not think for one minute that outside observers will be on your side, especially if
the crisis originated within your company. And you will only make matters worse if you
purposely antagonize your critics. Withholding information, blaming others, or lashing
out gives people no incentive to sympathize with you.

In early 2018, The Times reported that aid workers from Oxfam, a nonprofit human
rights group, committed sexual exploitation while delivering humanitarian relief to Haiti
in 2011. The accused workers were removed, but Oxfam now found itself in a massive
crisis. Mere days after the report broke, CEO Mark Goldring sat for an interview with
The Guardian. While he expressed remorse, he also complained that “people are
gunning for Oxfam,” and “anything we say is being manipulated. We’ve been
savaged.”3 This was a terrible way to respond to Oxfam’s dilemma; Goldring’s words

3 Decca Aitkenhead, “Oxfam Boss Mark Goldring: ‘Anything We Say Is Being Manipulated. We’ve Been Savaged’,”
The Guardian, February 16, 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/16/oxfam-boss-mark-goldring-
anything-we-say-is-being-manipulated-weve-been-savaged.

JWI 505: Business Communications and Executive Presence
Week 5 Lecture Notes

© Strayer University. All Rights Reserved. This document contains Strayer University confidential and proprietary information and may not be
copied, further distributed, or otherwise disclosed, in whole or in part, without the expressed written permission of Strayer University.

JWI 505 – Lecture Notes (1206) Page 5 of 7

made it sound as if he and the company were being victimized. He resigned by the
end of the year.

4. Your organization will undergo changes.
Often, a crisis arises due to a failure in policy or process; something went wrong that
your company did not catch in time. Stakeholders will demand that you take major
steps to prevent such an issue from happening again. They will also expect you to
hold people in your organization accountable. It is likely you will have to reprimand or
even let go of some of your workforce.

In April 2018, two African American men were arrested at a Starbucks in Philadelphia.
The manager called the police on them when they sat down in the store without
ordering. Protests ensued, and Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney called it a clear
example of racial discrimination. In response, Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson met with
the two men and apologized for the incident. The manager who called the police
parted ways with the company. Starbucks moved to shut down its U.S. stores for part
of a day to hold a racial bias education program. The company also announced a new
policy allowing anyone to sit in their stores, regardless of whether or not they were
buying anything. By implementing these changes, rapidly and comprehensively,
Johnson helped Starbucks stay ahead of the crisis.

5. Your organization will come out of the crisis stronger.
It may not feel like it, but the crisis will eventually end. If your company takes the
necessary steps to defuse the situation, you will be better equipped to handle any
future problems. The key is to draw lessons from the crisis and actually act on them.

Between 2015 and 2016, reports of E.coli and norovirus infections significantly hurt
Chipotle’s reputation. In response, company founder Steve Ells issued an apology on
national television. For each of its restaurants, Chipotle created the new position of
food safety leader to help oversee both food preparation and employee health.
Company leadership undertook a series of initiatives, including guaranteeing that
employees get paid if they call in sick. Thanks to the major steps Chipotle took, the
company weathered its crisis, its stock price rebounded, and customers came back.

JWI 505: Business Communications and Executive Presence
Week 5 Lecture Notes

© Strayer University. All Rights Reserved. This document contains Strayer University confidential and proprietary information and may not be
copied, further distributed, or otherwise disclosed, in whole or in part, without the expressed written permission of Strayer University.

JWI 505 – Lecture Notes (1206) Page 6 of 7

Your Crisis Toolkit

During a crisis, you may feel as if everything is collapsing around you. You may think you
cannot control your situation or the narrative being told about you. A crisis can feel particularly
disheartening because there is one very important move that you cannot make. Throughout
your career, you have hopefully created strong relationships with your superiors, colleagues,
and clients. These people can attest to your authenticity and integrity. You will need to rely
heavily on these relationships, because during a crisis, you cannot build new ones. This is
especially true if your organization created the situation. Few people will want to associate
with you in the middle of a crisis since doing so may jeopardize their own reputations. Some
of your associates may even cut ties with you altogether. It is painful when this happens, but
you cannot blame them.

Whatever you may be feeling, remember that you are not powerless. You have a number of
resources at your disposal to mitigate your situation. First, you have more information than
anyone else. There may not be any secrets in the end, but you will know the details well
before any of your stakeholders or critics do. Use this knowledge to build a comprehensive
crisis plan that addresses every possible issue. Because you know more than anyone else,
your second key resource is time. You have a head start on responding to your crisis. Issuing
a statement as soon as possible shows that you are aware of the situation and are acting
immediately to fix it. Having this extra time also gives you a chance to shape your own
narrative. How you frame the crisis will set the tone for how everyone else depicts it, whether
they are your allies or your critics. Third, you have a wealth of communication channels.
Delivering public speeches is usually helpful, but make sure you tell your narrative through
social media, too. This allows you to give more frequent updates on your situation, and it
helps you reach a wider audience. Finally, you know who all of your stakeholders are. This
means you can tailor your crisis communications to different listeners. If your employees are
affected, explain what policy changes you will implement and how you will reinforce your
company’s values. If you need to communicate with customers, address their concerns before
they escalate their complaints.

Above all else, be proactive. Every crisis will lead to change, and you will survive it. How you
survive that change will determine what you learn from that situation and whether your
company emerges stronger when the crisis is over.

JWI 505: Business Communications and Executive Presence
Week 5 Lecture Notes

© Strayer University. All Rights Reserved. This document contains Strayer University confidential and proprietary information and may not be
copied, further distributed, or otherwise disclosed, in whole or in part, without the expressed written permission of Strayer University.

JWI 505 – Lecture Notes (1206) Page 7 of 7

Looking Ahead

In this lecture, we explored how to communicate during a crisis. We analyzed Jack’s principles
of crisis management. We also assessed an array of response tactics. Remember that all of
your communications during a crisis must be grounded in openness and honesty. That is what
your stakeholders will respond to best, and that is what will help you weather the storm.

In the next lecture, you will learn how to communicate strategically. We will discuss how to craft
purposeful messages that accomplish specific goals. We will also examine different
communication styles and assess when to apply them.