Commentary From Crisis Management Expert Edward Segal, Author of the Award- Winning Book Crisis Ahead: 101 Ways to Prepare for and Bounce Back from Disasters, Scandals, and Other Emergencies (Nicholas Brealey)

In a crisis, timing is everything. As the unfolding situation at interactive gaming company Activision Blizzard shows, any delays in reporting or responding to situations can appear to make things worse, extend the crisis or further damage a company or organization.

In November, I wrote about a Wall Street Journal story about how Chief Executive Officer Bobby Kotick handled allegations of sexual misconduct at Activision Blizzard. In response to the newspaper's story, that afternoon 100 employees staged a walk-out and called for Kotick's resignation.

The Washington Post reported at the time that, "In an internal video message ahead of the walkout Tuesday morning, Kotick responded to the news. "There's an article today that paints an inaccurate and misleading view of our company, of me personally, and my leadership," Kotick said in the video.

He added that, "Anyone who doubts my conviction to be the most welcoming, inclusive workplace doesn't really appreciate how important this is to me."

A transcript of Kotick's remarks was posted on the newsroom page of the Activision website in which he said, "As I have made clear, we are moving forward with a new zero tolerance policy for inappropriate behavior — and zero means zero. Any reprehensible conduct is simply unacceptable."

On January 18, it was announced that Microsoft will purchase Activision Blizzard for $67.8 billion. Forbes noted that, "Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, maker of Call Of Duty, World of Warcraft and Candy Crush, may help the video-game giant refocus on growing those popular titles while working to move beyond sexual misconduct allegations that have dogged the company, analysts said."

Quiet Until Now

Although the company responded quickly to the situation in November, they have not discussed any actions they took to address the crisis.

Until now.

Fast forward to today, when the Wall Street Journal reported that," Activision Blizzard Inc. has fired or pushed out more than three dozen employees and disciplined about 40 others since July as part of efforts to address allegations of sexual harassment and other misconduct at the videogame giant according to people familiar with the situation."

But Kotick was not eager to discuss the company's actions.

According to the newspaper, "A summary of those personnel actions was scheduled to be released by Activision before the winter holidays, but Chief Executive Bobby Kotick held it back, telling some people it could make the company's workplace problems seem bigger than is already known, the people familiar with the situation said."

Forced To Report

The company finally relented, but only after it was forced to do so.

"Activision's moves follow sustained pressure from shareholders, staff and business partners for more accountability over its handling of misconduct issues," the Wall Street Journal said.

Activision Blizzard did not immediately respond to a request to comment for this story.

'Against All Logic And PR Best Practices'

John Forberger of Forberger Communications observed that, "Activision's lack of response is not only an error in judgment, but it goes against all logic and PR best practices. Their public relations crisis is well-deserved because they did not sincerely and quickly address the allegations of widespread sexual harassment. The video game publisher allowed anyone and everyone to write the narrative."

Advice For Business Leaders

Don't Wait

• Don't wait to report or respond to a crisis. Being forced by others to divulge information or actions about the situations could imply that you are trying to hide or delay details about the matter.
• The longer you wait to disclose information about the crisis, the worse it will look.
• Don't wait to tell people what you have done about the crisis, when you did it and why you did it.

Have A Plan

Forberger said that, "What other businesses can learn [from Activision] is to have a crisis communications plan in hand before a negative story appears."

'Get Ahead Of Any Negative Story'

He noted that, "you're never too big to fail. Activision Blizzard destroyed their reputation by not announcing the steps it'd take to look into the very serious allegations.

'Companies must get ahead of any negative story, and crisis communications plans help everyone in an organization know what comes next including which executives get involved and who issues a holding statement to the media," Forberger counseled.

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