Feature

Strategic Crisis Leadership - Are you ready to lead in the midst of chaos?

By: Bruce T. Blythe, CEO Crisis Management International, Inc.

What would you do in the three situations briefly outlined below?

Crisis Leadership Moment #1  Imagine that it finally hit! The avian flu has just been confirmed to be contagious. One of your traveling employees has just been diagnosed with this dreaded disease after returning home. Your workforce is fearful. Employees in mass want to take time off. What do you do?

Crisis Leadership Moment #2  You learn that one of your facilities has been emitting low-level toxic substances for an undetermined amount of time. It is the company's fault due to a prior decision to delay replacement of a faulty system in one of your facilities. But, it is quickly remedied.  Do you proactively go public and risk the feared personal, reputation and legal damage or try to resolve the situation quietly with (hopefully) no public harm done? 

Crisis Leadership Moment #3 Two bombs hit your facilities simultaneously in different locations with a note from an activist group taking credit. Do you close all your facilities throughout the enterprise as a safety precaution?

To find out what you could do in these Crisis moments, click here

News From TwinEngines

When You Need A New Website

We launched two websites in the past two months that are worth mentioning, because of the impetus and approach of the work.  In both cases, the companies had a website that was 3-5 years-old. Both realized that a corporate website can be an effective marketing/sales tool, and that their websites were losing their effectiveness. (See our featured blog article for more on that topic.) 

The companies started with an objective website evaluation, confirming business goals and analyzing performance against those goals. In both cases the companies determined that their website was not working hard enough for them.  The design, information architecture and content in the websites did not:

• enable people to find their websites
• help people find information easily and quickly, once on the website
• impel people to take the next actionable step towards engaging with the companies.

After the website evaluation, TwinEngines executed a website design work phase to establish a new look-and-feel with information architecture for the website.  A development work phase including content management system intergration followed. After launching the new website, a continual improvement program was established to measure performance against goals and objectives.

The first company is ADVA Optical Networking, a global provider of telecommunications equipment, with innovative Optical+Ethernet transport solutions for high-speed, next-generation networks. Their new website, http://www.advaoptical.com/, launched in April, and you can read more about the ADVA Optical Networking website here.

The second company is ourselves - TwinEngines.  We launched our new website last month - built using the umbraco open-source content management system.  Follow the links at the top of the newsletter, and please let us know what you think.  We are continually trying to improve our website for you.

To recap, here are the major work phases for a new corporate website:

1. Objective website evaluation - SWOT Analysis - Re-establish Goals
2. Website Design - Information Architecture - Site Map
3. Website Production - Content Management System - SEO
4. Launch
5. Monthly Analysis and Improvements - SEO and Website Analytics

Industry News

Georgia Tech Helps Economic Development Organizations Improve Performance
A set of tools developed by GA Tech's Enterprise Innovation Institute helps economic developers improve their organization's performance through the use of quality management techniques. This service - dubbed the Calibration Program™ - leverages GA Tech expertise in such areas as strategic planning, budgeting, professional development, public relations and metrics.

Google Unleashes Web App Tidal Wave        Google Wave: A New Kind of Mega-Application
2 Articles on Google Wave, a new communications platform that combines disparate methods of connecting -- such as instant messaging, email, wikis, photo-sharing and document-sharing -- and puts them all together.

Shocks To The Supply Chain
What happens when your carefully orchestrated logistics fall apart?

The Top 25 Supply Chains of 2009
When it comes to determining best-in-class supply chains, inventory turns is the name of the game.

Lenders Hesitant on Small Biz Stimulus Loans
Struggling small business owners can begin applying next week for an interest-free debt-relief loan through a new Small Business Administration program -- if, that is, they can find a bank to process their application.

Lean & Green Government Style
Everyone wants to be green and it turns out a variety of players are willing to work together to reach that goal. So the government joined with large manufacturers to help medium-and small suppliers join the green revolution.

Manufacturing Institute Receives Gates Foundation Grant For National Skills Certification System
The Manufacturing Institute (MI) has been awarded a $1.5-million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to plan and implement postsecondary education programs that include the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM)-endorsed Manufacturing Skills Certification System.