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Worsening Tokyo Olympics Crisis Provides Fresh Lessons For Business Leaders

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Japan’s declaration today of a national state of emergency because of the Covid pandemic created a new crisis for the Tokyo Olympics and turned the Games into a textbook example of how a bad situation can get worse before it gets better.

According to the Washington Post, “Japan will bar spectators from all Olympic events held in and around Tokyo, organizers announced on Thursday, as the government imposed a fresh state of emergency to cover the capital during the Games.”

Reuters reported earlier that a decision to ban spectators would dash hopes for generating any revenue for the financially troubled event that was already billions of dollars in the hole

As I wrote in May, “In any crisis, it is a fundamental best practice to avoid doing anything that could extend the crisis or make things worse. In the case of international crisis situations such as the continuing Covid pandemic, it also helps to remember two key principles: Murphy’s Law, which states that “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.” And American baseball great Yogi Berra, who observed that, “"It ain't over ‘til it's over.”

The Tokyo Olympics crisis is not over, and there will be plenty of opportunities for it to worsen. Indeed, the Games are not even scheduled to begin until July 23.

Earlier this week the Associated Press reported that, “With tens of thousands of visitors coming to a country that is only 13.8% fully vaccinated, gaps in border controls have emerged, highlighted by the discovery of infections among the newly arrived team from Uganda, with positive tests for the highly contagious delta variant. As cases grow in Tokyo, so have fears that the games will spread the virus.”

Going Against Public Opinion

USA Today previously reported that “a recent survey has indicated that around 60 percent of Japanese people do not want the Games to go ahead. Although it marks a drop in an earlier survey in which around 80 percent of people believed the Olympics and Paralympics should be cancelled or rescheduled.”

Big egos and emotion have long dominated the IOC and national organizing committees,” Dr. Rob Britton, told me in May. Britton teaches crisis management at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business and was part of the leadership team at American Airlines that rebuilt the brand after 9/11.

In the case of Tokyo, “it looks like they should have parked both ego and emotion next to their Lexuses or Acuras. Effective corporate crisis managers, like those at airlines, know to leave emotion and personal stakes out of decision-making, and act on facts and data,” he said.

Advice For Business Leaders

Based on this developing story, the Tokyo Olympics continue to provide important crisis management lessons for corporate executives. They include:

Act Quickly

  • Don’t wait to do the right thing.

Changing Strategies And Tactics

  • Don’t hesitate to change crisis management strategies and tactics in order to deal with new developments or realities about the crisis.

Be Careful

  • Don’t do anything that can make a crisis worst.

Make The Right Decisions For the Right Reasons

  • Base your decisions for managing a crisis on facts, not emotions or balance sheets.
  • Admit when you’ve made a mistake or the wrong decision about a crisis.

Communication

  • Keep people posted about the crisis and what you are doing about it.

Have Contingency Plans

Barbara Laidlaw is a partner and managing director of Allison+Partners, a global reputation risk and public affairs firm. She noted that, “Global events like major conferences and trade expos will likely remain subject to significant unpredictability due to disease variants and differing degrees of vaccination among populations.

“This means leaders should remain vigilant and be prepared with contingencies for unforeseen regulatory or safety challenges. In doing so, businesses can continue to return towards pre-Covid operations without jeopardizing the health of their employees, customers, or reputation,” she said.


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