Crisis Response and Crisis Management: The Fate of The Many, In The Hands of The Few | The Communication Blog

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Crisis Response and Crisis Management: The Fate of The Many, In The Hands of The Few

By Jessica Blanch


Behind the dark veil of corporate defamation and politician's being exposed for realities that aren't so becoming of a leader in the public eye there is a rabbit hole that spirals to the pit of hell and there are two types of people that exist in this domain, godless sinners and the puppet masters of the rise and demise of our leaders. It's not that they are godless or overly evil, they are just impartial and they sit around a table playing poker with the careers and souls of the most influential people on the global scene.

They don't mind the heat because it's considered icy cool air conditioning compared to the environment in which they've become accustomed. Hell is where they go for some spiritual R and R. Just what exactly is crisis management? Social media has given everyone a voice and sometimes people choose to defame others with untruths and reputation crippling slander. The publicist or PR firm on retainer will typically issue a statement with a series of press releases, the CEO will hit the radio circuit and news spots and the outsourced and off shored $4 per hour social media guise will regurgitate messages fed to them by their western employer on the social media portals. This is your typical response, general PR firms can handle this without a hitch and companies bid and market for this type of business.

But what happens when things get ugly, I mean really ugly? What happens when a senior conservative republican is caught under the covers with his intern, who happens to be a 21 year old blonde hair, blue eyed male from a Christian evangelical university or when the CEO of a Fortune 50 corporation has micro cameras hidden in his office, record him during passionate sessions of intimacy with his secretary while one night and sniffs white powder on his desk before a board meeting another night? Worse yet, what happens when any of these instances are the work of a direct political or corporate competitor, even worse yet, what if it's an inside job by a career climber and blackmail becomes an issue? When the poop hits the fan and a rumor becomes viral video plastered on the internet, you then call a specialist.

Sure you have corporate security specialists that can protect you against hacking, proprietary process theft and other issues that can have precautionary or monitoring processes put in place but we are talking about the dark side. I spoke to a security specialist with a resume that you would need a security clearance to even look at. This private contractor had a security service that protected some of the world's most elite and despised people who existed in a world riddled with chaos, crisis and other threats. His career as a government agent (I never asked which agency) took him to some of the most hostile regions of Africa and the Middle East where you can trust no one and even your friend would stab you in the back for something as minute as a file on a disk in your jacket pocket.

I asked him, "When you have an issue where crisis will jeopardize a major legislative benchmark, an ultra-connected senior official or a C level executive with more money than God, what do you do? I mean who do 'you' call?" He dodged the question and said, "Oh, we don't take on that kind of work." I looked around his office and his walls were plastered with images of him and every president since Nixon and every major European president and prime minster you could think of, "Come on" I cajoled, "I wasn't born yesterday". I could see he was considering spilling the goods so I figured I would give him a minute to go over the best explanation in his mind so he would feel comfortable giving me a real answer. Finally, he stood up, looked out his office window at the Washington DC landscape and said, "Well, there are literally, maybe 6 people on the planet that can actually step in and take care of something like this", he fell silent again. Now that I think back, I think it was fear and he looked at me and said, "Well, I used to call on a gentleman from Germany but one day he just stopped answering the phone" he shook his head, "What these guys are able to do is beyond incredible, it's almost superhuman. The focus, the mind power, the ability to literally go into a situation polluted with the most cancerous hate, chaos and a title wave of emotion and with their presence comes the most peaceful calm you've ever experienced and everyone in the room knows that this man who just walked into the room is going to change the rotation of the earth in the series of a few hours." I swear he was almost teary eyed. I just stood there, his office phone rang and then went to voice-mail, then his cell and he was just standing their silent, staring out of the window as if he was watching what he described play like a movie on his window.

I didn't' want to interrupt him but wanted to get a name. Just above a whisper I said, "Who's left? Who do you use now?" He turned and said there is a guy, "Yes..." I persisted. "He's a legend but, he's ... like a kid. He can't be any older than you." I was 32 at the time and found it hard to believe that someone my age could be trusted to solve global crisis issues for the level of elite that we were talking about. "Come on, you can't be serious" he turned and looked at me with a puzzled, paranoid shock on his face and said, "Believe it. When I was introduced to this guy, the agent that set up the meeting said that he was handed over to the Devil when he was a child and raised by demons." He chuckled as he reflected, "now we all know that this isn't true but how else do you explain the capabilities of a mere kid? The first time I met him he was in this suit that had to cost $5,000 or more, he was sitting in a restaurant in Paris surrounded by the most beautiful women I've ever seen." Another pause, then he continued with an eerie grin, "my contact handed a waiter a note who then took it to a guy who under his jacket was armed to the teeth, he then whispered to this guy and in a few minutes he came over to us at the bar" another long pause but I kept my mouth shut. I knew that now he had to tell me, he was dying to tell me. He continued, "I will never forget his face, no expression and the bluest eyes you've ever seen, shaved head and this small patch of hair right here" motioning to the tip of his chin, "he was just so young and as he made his way to the bar it was like the ocean of people in front of him could sense him and they just moved out of his way. He turned to the bartender in in a quiet voice said 'Belvedere and Tonic, extra lime'", starting to laugh, "He was like that 007 guy but only for real".

"His name, what was his name?" I persisted. As if he didn't even hear me he continued, "His drink was served so fast it was almost as if it was prepared beforehand and he turned to me and said, 'OK, what's the problem?' I explained the situation and he didn't flinch, didn't move, he didn't even write anything down and at the end he just said 'OK I'll take care of it'. And then he just walked away." Talk about anticlimactic! I stood there waiting for the punch line. "This crisis was shut down in a few days with the most devastating retaliation you've ever seen" he said. I responded, "Wait, retaliation? Violence? Then it's not crisis management, he's a thug, a criminal" I was disappointed as this wasn't what I was expecting at all. My goal was to become the go to person for crisis response that protected people and innocent reputation and before I could think into it any further he interrupted, "Violence? No, never that's not this guy's style. Heck, he wouldn't even come close to breaking a law of any kind." He turned and slowly walked in my direction and yes it was beginning to creep me out, "Within minutes he'll know what you eat for breakfast, your schedule, your passions, your fears, the nightmares you had as a child that made you wet the bed...all the skeletons in your closet and the closet of everyone around you in like a house made of card your word will cave in on top of your head." He continued, "I asked him about his methods once when I was trying to get a handle on what was actually taking place when he would be able to extinguish such massive problems so quickly and do you know what he said?" I just shrugged my shoulders, "He sat down, relaxed and calm as if he was talking about a day in the park and said, 'In Roman times, when they would crucify thieves and other criminals along the dirt highways it wasn't the crucifixion that killed them, it was the torture of the sun baking on their skin, crows pecking away at exposed flesh and then the lungs begin to cave in because of the individual's arm position and they begin to gasp for air and eventually suffocate. The Romans didn't kill the criminals, the elements and nature's predators did, the Roman soldiers just placed the criminal in a hostile position without defenses'". Sitting at his desk he finished, "The next thing he said still haunts me. I asked him what the goal was, how did he know when the strategy was a success and when to end and he got this look in his eyes and said, 'Every man has a spiritual side, a soul. This is the part of the man that fuels his passions, enables him to love, and pushes him to care. The soul is what gives a man a reason to exist. When I can see that the initiator of the defamation or whatever crisis has lost his will, when his shoulders are slumped, his skin is pail, his clothes have been worn for days without being washed and when all his friends and family have tuned him away, then I know I'm close. This happens very quickly by pressing all the right buttons and studying the psychological and emotional elements that make this individual whole, but I know it's done when I look into his eyes and they are cloudy like a reptile that's been rotting on the side of a desert road for four days. The goal is to snuff the soul of the target.' that was it" he said shrugging his shoulders "I've never seen him work in person but I've seen the effects of his work on a scale that words can't even define. I don't know what else to tell you." I put my hands on his desk and said, "A name! Give me the guy's name." I was about to lose my mind! He then mumbled, "James Scott, but that is all I know. I've been trying to get in touch with him for weeks but there hasn't been a response". We chatted some more, I thanked him and we set another time to meet but we both knew that neither would initiate the effort to go through with it.

About nine months had passed; I was in the supermarket and I got a call from a private number which I normally don't answer but this time I did. The voice on the other end stammered, "Princeton Solutions or Princeton Corporate Solutions or something like that". It was my security contact he continued "Yes, James Scott, Princeton Corporate Solutions, that's his name. He is a strategies consultant to politicians and corporations. He's out of crisis management and he's consulting". I left my cart, got in my car and floored it home to start the Google research. It didn't take long to find out that this guy is indeed for real. I've been following his work for a few years now and it's true what they say about him. He operates without fear and is as sadistic, narcissistic and cut throat as the Devil himself. His use of crisis response tactics in the corporate and political realm is pure genius and unrivaled. His ability to take a client that no one has ever heard of and place them at the top of the food chain so quickly has made him one of the most sought after power brokers in the underground (underground is where the brilliant go when they get more out of the mystery of their work than showing their face to the public).

One thing I've learned is this: To be the best in the upper echelon of strategies consulting (S.C. being the type of consulting where you are alone with only your knowledge and Rolodex with the weight of the world on your back) you must be willing to limit emotional involvement. You need to walk the line that divides heaven and hell and feel comfortable plunging into both. Fear must trigger calculated action and the mastery being able to look at a person and, due to instinct, trial and error knows how to build them up or crush them where they stand. Know how to do this and you're on your way.




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