Problem There was a problem that involved Paula Deen whereby she was committing racism. Customers' complained that she had used racial slurs in referring to customers and also abusing them She was also known to have mistreated her employees by harassing them The scandal led to a former employer suing her

Mistake She admitted to the media that had once used a racial word towards employees Her way of admitting prompted the media to create a sensational story which went out of proportion The media hype led to the loss of millions of dollars and also a ruined reputation of the firm The mistake was how she admitted to the mistake and this would have been avoided if communication had been done correctly

Continuation The miscommunication led to a fall of the business empire almost within a short time The problem would have been avoided by hiring a cooperate communication manager to handle the issue As a top person on the company hierarchy, she represented the face of the company and therefore what she said and how she said it had weight.

Lesson Managers should be careful when facing the court of public opinion because their intentions would not matter (Dowling 2007) Companies should understand how the media work and also how it interprets information When going for press briefing concerning a crisis,work on winning them over Top managers should work towards avoiding crisis rather then damage control

Company communication responses The company should organize an emergency crisis meaning to have a common ground before calling the media Train a team to handle a crisis The meeting should give the deliberation to communication managers to prepare the briefing The briefing should then be read by the top manager or CEO

Company statement review The manager should not have directly admitted to the mistake (Coombs 2009) The company should have been the first to reach out before the media came calling on them When a company faces such a crisis, managers should use positive words and also accept liability

Continuation For the Paula case, she should have let her PR department to handle the problem Top managers should have called another briefing to offer apologies and control the damage Paula made a mistake of blaming other forces instead of focusing on addressing the crisis

Conclusion Companies should have a crisis committee to handle a scandal or crisis when it arises There has to be a plan of response by management not just an individual The management should engage members of a PR team especially when the media is involved Managers should understand how the media works (Bernard 2009).

References Timothy, C.(2007). Crisis management and communication. London: Macmillan Dowling, S.(2007). Business leadership. London: Macmillan Bernard, I.(2009). The business round table. Oxford: Oxford University Press Hansen, G.(2001). How to survive a crisis. Nairobi: Longman 