To wrap up 2023, Mediaweek is looking at the biggest trends, events, platforms, and brands of the year.
Welcome to Mediaweek’s A to Z of 2023 … and beyond.
By Robyn Sefiani, president ANZ & reputation counsel, Sefiani Communications
In 2023, a trend that emerged in corporate reputation management and crisis communications in Australia was the pivotal role of the CEO. While this in itself is not unusual, it was how the CEOs responded or didn’t respond to the crises in which their companies were embroiled that was notable.
Good reputations take years to build and can be destroyed in days or weeks if a crisis is mishandled and public trust is lost. Trust, once lost, is hard but not impossible to regain.
Optus experienced two crises in the past year or so, both sudden shocks. The first was a significant cyber-attack in September 2022, and the second was a significant national service outage. In both cases, the lack of fast and accurate information to impacted customers from Optus and its CEO became part of the crisis. This ultimately led to mounting pressure on the CEO and her decision to resign.
For PwC and Qantas, both had unfolding crises over many months, as one revelation after another fuelled anger among stakeholders, eroding brand trust and brand value. PwC’s “tax scandal” in Australia was the crisis of the year, reported on globally and talked about in bewildered tones in boardrooms and bars around the country. It was triggered by the AFR’s revelation that a PwC tax partner had breached the confidentiality of the firm’s client, the Australian Tax Office, and used information for commercial gain. Through ongoing AFR revelations and interrogation by senators at parliamentary inquiries, the full extent of PwC’s unconscionable behaviour excruciatingly emerged. PwC’s CEO, who had previously enjoyed arguably the highest profile of the Big Four firms in Australia and was typically known to be on the front foot in communication on problematic issues, appeared reluctant to address the full unfolding scenario and resigned. So damaged was the tax division of PwC that private equity firm Allegro purchased it for $1, took its 1500 staff and relaunched it with a
new corporate structure as Scyne Advisory.
On the other hand, Qantas’ CEO was riding high in the opinion of government and shareholders when he led the impressive rebuild and return to profitability of the national airline after Covid. However, the public saw that success in a completely different light when service levels failed to meet expectations. A catalyst was needed. The CEO announced he would depart two months prior to his planned resignation date and hand over to the new CEO.
So, can these companies regain their reputations?
I don’t have a crystal ball but my best guess is that Optus will recover quickly. The company will have learnt an important lesson about being crisis-ready with its communications for when another crisis incident hits – because it inevitably will, and Optus can’t get it wrong a third time.
Qantas, as the once-loved national airline brand, will recover if it can return service levels to that expected by the travelling public. On the plus side, Qantas is now starting to take delivery of a whole new fleet of aircraft, including the Airbus A350s, which will fly non-stop from Sydney to London and New York. There will no doubt be excitement as these take to the sky.
For PwC the jury is still out. Its reputation has taken a devastating blow. Can the firm rebuild trust to have a viable future under new leadership in Australia? Only time will tell.
(Disclosure: Airbus is a client of Sefiani)
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