Crisis Leadership Blog
Insights and perspectives on being the lighthouse during a crisis.
Kith at 10: A Decade of Building Crisis-Resilient Leaders
35 percent. Did I get your attention? It got mine. Only 35% of consulting startups make it to 10 years. Today, I’m proud to say that Kith is part of that 35%. That statistic says a lot. It says that what we do matters. It says that our clients have trusted us through...
Breaking the Crisis Wheel
Like my Kith colleagues, I cut my proverbial teeth in politics. Not as a candidate, but as a campaign staffer and, later, political consultant. Campaigns are great places to train for reputation management and crisis communications because everything is a crisis. The...
Hot Potato: What To Do When You’re Targeted
We’re taking you way back in the wayback machine to when I was a little kid in Canada. It was 1991 when Winnipeg-based Old Dutch Foods entered the Ontario market hoping to gain ground but instead faced a salty standoff. Rival Hostess Frito-Lay was accused of buying...
How a Clear Chain of Command Creates Strategic Speed in a Crisis
If you’ve ever seen the classic Abbott and Costello sketch "Who’s on First?," you know how quickly things can unravel when no one knows who’s doing what. It’s hilarious on stage, but in a real life crisis, that kind of confusion is anything but funny. Think back to...
When “Natural” Turns Toxic: The Cost of Broken Brand Promises
You may have heard recently that Perrier’s fizz has gone flat overseas. Parent company Nestlé Waters is facing a major environmental scandal after investigative reports revealed years of illegal waste dumping at its bottling sites, including massive landfills filled...
By definition, Kith means a cadre of peers who shape opinions and attitudes while instilling sophisticated habits for action. As a way to live this value, we like to share resources that are building blocks to good crisis management and can help you start the path of protecting your reputation.
More Recent Insights
(Un)Welcoming a One-Drink Minimum Policy
A few weeks ago, Starbucks announced that it would be ending its open-door policy, which allowed people to use the store's seating and restrooms even if they didn't make a purchase. The company stated that the change was made to "enhance" the customer experience. However, many critics have expressed that the move seems more focused on keeping out “the riff...
A Resolution Worth Sticking To: Crisis Vigilance in the New Year
With the holidays in the rearview mirror, many of us now turn to making personal resolutions for the new year. Whether it's training for a Tough Mudder, getting more sleep (hello, melatonin), saving more money for your dream retirement beach house, or remembering to call your elderly aunt at a more regular cadence, focusing on your intentions for the new...
When an Apology Isn’t an Apology
Saying “I’m sorry” shouldn’t be hard. When we say or do something that hurts someone else, then we as humans should own it, apologize for it, and try to make it right. But, many public apologies seem to miss this relatively easy target. Is someone sincerely apologizing when their apology apologizes for the wrong thing? Many publicly issued apologies rely...
Hanging in the Balance: Why and How Financial Leaders Should Prepare for the Unexpected
Any crisis comes with costs – economic costs, social costs, psychological costs – and long-term implications for your business’ bottom line, reputation, and team morale. No industry is immune to the threat of a crisis. Some sectors, including finance, face heightened risks due to the uncertainty and unpredictability of external factors such as the state...
When the Truth is Forced: Communicating when Caught off Guard
A number of companies have announced layoffs recently. One in particular had the news released because of a necessary regulatory filing. Marriott, the hotel giant based in Maryland, where it is the largest private-sector employer, is set to lay off hundreds of employees. While layoffs are not unusual, the fact that staff learned about the upcoming job...
Owning the Disappointment when You Have to Say Hard Things
No one likes to say hard things, but it comes with the responsibility of being a manager, a leader or a communications director. Saying hard things inevitably disappoints people we care about, and we as humans feel badly when we disappoint people who matter to us. At its heart, disappointment is a feeling of dissatisfaction caused by the non-fulfillment of...
Do it for the Algorithm: Embracing Social Media during a Crisis
“OMG, we’re blowing up on social media” I’ve been in a number of crisis management situations where the person responsible for a company’s social media will run into the room, look at their iPhone, utter those fateful words, and then disappear. As a crisis strategist, this information is largely irrelevant to me. Without context, I can't assess whether an...
Very Scary Marketing Decisions
Have you ever seen a social media post or TV commercial from a well-known brand and said, “What the hell were they thinking?” Especially if it bordered on or crossed into being perceived as racist or prejudiced? That’s exactly what Bath and Body Works faced when they launched their new line of holiday candles, which included one bearing the design of a...
Be Prepared for What Comes after Election Night
It’s almost here. Based on retail stores, you might think “it” is Christmas, but “it” is not. No, “it” is Election Day. Most years, elections just kind of happen. People vote, wait for the results to be announced, celebrate or not, and then go on with their daily lives. This is not one of those years. For the third national election in a row, tensions are...
It’s a Litigious World after All
Are you signed up for Disney+? Well, according to a now-withdrawn lawsuit defense, if you are a subscriber, you’ve signed away your rights to sue the company for anything regardless of what happened and where. Does this make you mad? Or think a little differently about Disney? You wouldn’t be alone. Here are the facts: the widower of a woman who passed...
The Kith Method
Good crisis management comes from a plan. Great crisis management comes from capability – and starts before you even smell smoke. That’s why we developed the Kith Method. We can help build and maintain a flexible capability that works for you.
Your reputation is an investment; time-consuming and costly to build and expensive to repair. Protect it.