Strategy is a crucial driving force in any business or organization. It’s the intellectual force that helps organize, prioritize, and energize what organizations do.

The notion that a PR person could effectively and credibly be an organization’s conscience has been troubling. The vast majority of us have little, if any, impact or contact with top management, where unfortunate, unnecessary, and unethical behaviors are initiated, allowed, ignored, encouraged, or forgiven.

The issue of if and when to send the boss during a crisis is one of the most strategic decisions made during the response process. The first responsibility of bosses is to oversee the management of victims.

It would seem logical if you are addressing or advising senior leaders and CEOs to be somewhat familiar with what they do, what they know, what they think, and where they come from.

Victims rarely sue because they are angry… Generally, victims sue because their situation is not acknowledged and their feelings are ignored, belittled, discredited, or trivialized.

What is it about the American news media and their love for criminals, unethical people, bad news, and murderers? In February, PBS launched a boat-load of special programs on mass murder including a profile, complete with childhood photos and video, of the origins of the murderer of the 26 killed in Newtown. They had lots of media company that week promoting the same kinds of coverage. One has to ask, “Why?” – Aside from ratings, of course.

Leave it to the Wall Street Journal (Business Education, 2-6-13) to come up with the headline “Does an “A” in Ethics Have Any Value?”

If I could speak to the chief executive of your company or organization about the importance of communications in your preparation for crisis or emergency, we would discuss just a few career preserving subjects, and the conversation would take only a few minutes.

There’s a wonderful old Swedish wife’s tale saying that fish and relatives begin to smell after being around for five days.  We can now say that the same is true of the news media in Newtown, now well beyond five days.

The most volatile component of all crisis response is victim management. Failure to promptly, humanely, and empathetically see that victims’ needs are met will eclipse an organization’s response, and even a flawless response will be remembered for its angry survivors, relatives, public officials, sometimes competitors, but almost always the critics.