No communications challenge demands greater intensity or commands higher stakes than that summoned forth in time of an emergency.

Crisis Communications exists to:

• Help minimize damage and
• Bridge a company or organization into brighter, calmer times.

Today's best practice insists on timely, open messages and as much of the truthful 'Big Picture' as can be told without creating public disorder.

Ruder Finn Israel exercises techniques through which our clients can leverage their information, messages and breaking developments into a sympathetic and just presentation of their position.

Key Crisis Communications tenets include:

• Planning for crisis before it occurs. Contingency plans can help assure steady footing if needed, and should be waiting as guidelines in the CEO's drawer.
• Getting the facts: Information is at a premium in times of crisis and clear lines and infrastructures for communication must be clearly defined.
• Damage assessment must be conducted effectively.
• Key messages, always protective of both the company and the public's needs, must be created and communicated.
• Continuing evaluation and change as necessitated by the specific situation as developments unfold.
• Post-crisis evaluation and recommendations for the "next one" are essential before closing the circle.

No two crises are ever identical. Yet the steps of dealing with them through effective crisis communications are similar.