Seeing the Opportunity in a Crisis

An ancient Chinese proverb states that "a crisis is an opportunity riding a dangerous wind". It has been shown time and again that this statement is true. From every crisis comes the opportunity for an organization to learn from past mistakes and take action to prevent a similar crisis from occurring in the future.

The steps to organizational learning are clear. According to our textbook Crisis Management in the New Strategy Landscape, you should first assess "what went right and what went wrong" with you crisis communication plan. From there, changes can be made to the plan to ensure the stability and safety of your company in the future. This is why learning from previous mistakes is one of the most essential steps in crisis communication.

Throughout this blog, I have outlined several potential and realized crises surrounding the fashion-house Marc Jacobs. Most recently, my post discussed how Jacobs faced a crisis at the company's NY Fashion Week after party, when company President Robert Duffy uploaded a nude photograph of a model to his Twitter page. This offended many publics and was scrutinized by the media. Duffy publicly apologized for the post, and eventually closed his Twitter page.

Although the crisis had little effect on the overall image of the Marc Jacobs brand, the company can still learn from this event. I would suggest making changes to the company's decision to launch a twitter page. Instead of using Duffy to carry out this tactic, I believe that a member of the PR team would be more successful. Through changing who controls the Twitter page, Marc Jacobs can continue 2-way communication with their audiences while monitoring what it tweeted and therefore decreasing the chances of a similar crisis occurring again.