Communications Success at Chilean Copper Mine
An effective crises management plan should be part of every corporation’s strategic business plan. The failure of not developing a crises management plan could cause a corporation to face additional financial loss or reputation loss (Gupta, 2011). Research of Corporate Communication Institute found that during crises the ability of have an effective communication team and the ability to master the media is an important tool for the each of the three stages of the crises management plan. The most effective communication strategy is audience segmentation (Gupta, 2011). Audience segmentation will allow the spokesperson to speak to key market segments, which have different concerns than other segments. In the example of the Chile mine collapse the main segments are; Chile mine owners, trapped miners, family members, media, Chile government, and the corporation’s employees.
In the case of the Chile mine collapse the owners did not have a crises management plan in place to handle the crises. They failed to handle the crises communication, contingency planning, containment, and had no plan for a resolution. The troubled mine owners even attempted to hide the fact of the collapse but were unsuccessful thanks to the miner’s families. The families of the trapped miners who built a camp near the accident site played a vital role to draw their government attention to the problem. The president of Chile instructed the state secretaries to take direct charge of the rescue mission (Meza, Vidal, 2011). The Chile Government proved to be very effective in the ability to handle the crises. They successfully segmented the stakeholders and maintain control of the messages for each segment.
Once the location of the miners was found and the Chile government knew all 33 of the miners were alive they established communication methods to send and receive messages. One effective way that Chilean officials successfully used to keep the trapped miners spirits up was by allowing friends and families to write encouraging notes. Letters were allowed to pass through to the miners after they were read by officials to ensure none of the notes contained any information about the rescue mission (MSNBC, 2010). Some family members did not agree with officials reading private messages, but officials had to ensure certain information about the rescue mission was not shared. Officials were concern that certain information, such as how long it would be for the second borehole to be complete since it would discourage the trapped miners. The decision to allow family to communicate with letters proved to be a vital way to keep the miner’s spirits up. Throughout the rescue mission the Chilean officials successfully maintained a tight control over the messages that trapped miners received.
Friends and families of the trapped miners were concerned about the health of their loved ones. Chilean officials had to be careful what information was shared with families, but at the same time had to be truthful about how long the rescue mission could take. Chilean official’s shared key information with family members, such as the note that was found on the drill head told the rescuers that the all 33 of the miners were alive and well (Reuters, 2010). This was an important message to share with all of the segments. It proved to friends and family members of the trapped miners that they were still alive. It also was an encouraging message to the other segments because it showed that the rescue mission was making progress. Later during the rescue mission a video cameras in addition to fiber optic line was dropped down the first borehole to allow family members to video conference with their loved ones (Reuters, 2010).
The media segment messages were also well controlled. The Chilean officials were careful to provide factual information while updating the media on the status of the operation. They even allowed news organizations to broadcast approved messages from the miners. By controlling the message to the media the Chilean officials was successful in creating high-impact information, which the news organizations reported in news updates.
The mines corporation other employees is segment that was not discussed much during this crises. The owner of the mine filed for bankruptcy and faced several lawsuits for the failure to ensure the mine was safe. The other 240 employees of collapse mine lost their jobs when the mine was closed down (Vergara, 2011). A benefit of the collapse mine is the safety standards were tightened up across the country. Chilean officials want to ensure that all mines in their country remains safe for all mine employees. Just two years after the incident accidents across Chile’s 8500 mines fell by 40%, the lowest level in 21 year’s thanks to the increased scrutiny by inspectors (Henao, 2012).
In closing, the Chilean officials ran a successful rescue operation, which exceeded the expectations of many. The operation appeared to be flawless thanks to a Chilean Government who maintained control of every aspect of the operation throughout the mission. This mine collapse is a picture perfect example of how an effective crises management plan should be run.