Miller Ink’s Post

Last month, Microsoft software applications around the world were paralyzed by a defective update put out by the cybersecurity company CrowdStrike. The chaos that ensued has provided ample material for a crisis communications case study that will soon be taught in classrooms. Millions of stranded travelers. 911 phones lines disconnected. Hospitals offline. Live television broadcasts disrupted. Delta Air Lines and Microsoft suing each other in a heated, public fight. I’ve been exchanging notes with my team and journalists about how the crisis communications surrounding all of this has played out. Here are three high-level thoughts about CrowdStrike that keep coming up in our conversations. (Also, I’ve put into the comments section below a recent appearance on Fox Business Network and article in Business Insider where I go into greater detail on some of these ideas.) 1.      The CrowdStrike mess demonstrates the increasing importance of high-quality and nimble crisis communications in a deeply interconnected and technology dependent world. All it took was one company to ship one piece of faulty code for millions of people to be left stranded and many Fortune 500 companies vulnerable. When something goes wrong, organizations big and small have to rely on their communications team to quickly get their bearings and deliver an effective message. So many failed to live up to that mandate. For instance, Delta declined to comment on many articles as the plaintiff’s lawyers bringing suit against them had free reign to define the narrative, and paint the airline as incompetent and uncaring. You do not get another bite at that apple. The damage could be lasting. 2.      This case highlights the need to balance legal risk with reputational risk. Very often, the legal team will tell you not to say anything. They are not always right. There are times when it makes sense to take some legal risk to deliver a message that will mitigate the reputational risk of a crisis. 3.      Nontraditional approaches to corporate and crisis communications – including humor— can be very effective in a meme era. For instance, the Crowdstrike President’s decision to accept the “Most Epic Fail Award” provided a very effective vehicle for his company to take responsibility and focus attention on what they are doing to improve in the future.