Crisis management: defusing and protecting
Capcon Argen’s judgement was firstly that the issue was not merely one of needing
better security, but of understanding local sensibilities and conditions, and
the character of both the local workforce and activists.
It found that:
- Interpreting the national and regional political situation and accepting its reality without overt involvement was crucial to the ongoing safety of the multinational’s employees.
- Both the activists and the multinational felt that they had the best interests of the local employees at heart and did not want to harm these peoples’ prospects.
- The plant’s security manager, a national, was a competent experienced ex-military man who, with increased support measures and enhanced training of his workforce, could deal efficiently and appropriately with the situation.
Capcon Argen gave its client three areas of recommendations aimed at ensuring
sustainability of the commercial operation without risk to its employees:
- Detailed communication and negotiation strategies for the plant’s management to employ with the activists, and a checklist to consult to determine levels of actual threat.
- Enhanced and detailed daily security measures that sent the correct signals both to the activists and to the workforce.
- Contingency planning with detailed individual guidelines in the case of necessary evacuation
The plant stayed open, the attacks ceased, the dialogue resumed, and
the area retained a major employer.
