Romanian entreprenuers dealing with crisis communication

According to a study conducted by GMP PR, the Romanian entrepreneurs aren’t ready to handle an image crisis, even though 60 percent of them have dealt with such a situation in the last year – from negative comments in social media, to press articles and boycott threats from the consumers.

Despite all these they have kept their optimism – 75 percent of them don’t believe that the next year they will face the same problem. Also, communication is not a priority for them. 62 percent of the Romanian entrepreneurs don’t have a person responsible for the communication in their company, over 80 percent never had a media training and 76 percent of them haven’t thought about the vulnerabilities specific to their business that could potentially get to an image crisis.

Only 20 percent of them see the risks coming from the social media, where their biggest fears are related to product’s crises. Moreover, 72 percent of them use social media in the corporate communication and don’t take it in account in the case of an image crisis. The good news is that 73 percent of them have in their agenda the telephone number of a communication expert.

“The Bradet case should be considered an alarm sign for the Romanian entrepreneur. The study shows that 40 percent of the entrepreneurs see the crisis potential communing from the product zone. The crisis potential exist no matter the business, especially if we think at the social media breadth. The Romanian entrepreneur has to understand the fact that the crisis management doesn’t mean only a communication plan, but a business continuity plan. A crisis plan helps him know what to say, but also how to continue his activity,” said Ana-Maria Diceanu, head of crisis department and senior partner at GMP PR.

The study had sample of 85 entrepreneurs from Romania. Most of them have over 20 employees and with businesses that have been active for more than five years.