This time, not only did Ji Xiaomeng’s face darken with gloom, the team leader’s expression also turned extremely ugly. He wished he could eliminate Park Soo-hyun on the spot to vent the rage boiling inside him.
As the leader of this small team, he usually kept a low profile. When organising protests, he rarely put himself at the front. Instead, he incited radical climbers like Ji Xiaomeng, who were eager to rise through the ranks, to charge ahead and even create sensational incidents with extreme behaviour. Meanwhile, he disguised himself as an unremarkable rookie in the group, quietly controlling the rhythm of the scene from behind the scenes.
Thanks to this strategy, few outsiders knew his true identity or real status within the organisation. Consequently, he could make money and buy expensive, large-displacement muscle cars without worrying about exposure.
Yet he never expected a traitor to emerge from his own ranks. Park Soo-hyun, like a mad dog, had actually bitten the hand that fed him and exposed him.
Worse still, Park Soo-hyun had revealed their organisation’s profit model. This was equivalent to ripping off everyone’s fig leaf. Once the news reached Sweden, the Swedish authorities would certainly investigate the entire affair from beginning to end. The fact that the organisation accepted benefits from various interested groups and had long been dumping second-hand clothing in Africa would become impossible to conceal.
In his panic, the leader’s first thought was to prevent the matter from gaining further traction. The more people watched, the more phones recorded, the worse the consequences would become if they delayed. The best solution was to immediately stop blocking the road and let these people leave at once.
These were all passengers rushing to catch flights. The only reason they had become onlookers was that his side had foolishly blocked them in the first place. Therefore, as soon as the blockade ended, they would surely hurry to their vehicles and depart.
He immediately shouted at the members still sitting on the ground in bewilderment, “Clear the road quickly, let them go now!”
A few quick-witted ones jumped up and ran to the roadside. Some naive ones remained cross-legged on the tarmac, looking around in confusion.
The leader grew frantic. He rushed forward, kicking and shoving while cursing, “I told you to clear the road! Are you deaf or what? Move it!”
Then he turned to the crowd of onlookers and declared, “Everyone, a deliberate saboteur has emerged within our team. On behalf of the team, I reserve the right to pursue legal action against him. However, I also urge you all to keep your eyes open and not to believe one-sided stories from such a person! If any of you maliciously spread unverified and irresponsible statements online, we also reserve the right to hold you legally accountable!”
Although the team leader lacked moral character, he understood the core principles of crisis management perfectly well.
Whether it is a government, a company, or an individual anywhere in the world, there are only two steps in crisis PR.
First step: determine whether you are in the right or in the wrong.
If you are in the right, do everything possible to prove it to the public, no matter how tortuous the process.
If you are in the wrong, never dig in your heels. Always remember the eight-character Eastern philosophical mantra: turn big issues into small ones, turn small issues into nothing.
Many Fortune 500 companies, and even some countries, fail to grasp this simple principle. Some, despite knowing they are wrong, stubbornly tough it out to the end. They even invest enormous manpower, material resources, and money to cover up and justify their mistakes, only to sink deeper into a quagmire of public relations. Costs spiral higher while results grow worse, and their reputation can collapse overnight.
Yet if they had reflected sincerely, apologised, and resolved the problem at the very first moment, the damage could have been contained and gradually reduced.
Turning big issues small and small issues into nothing is the true embodiment of ancient Eastern wisdom. You must always control the scale of an incident rather than let it balloon.
Any matter, if kept small, will eventually fade to zero or become negligible.
But if a matter is allowed to grow unchecked, the resulting harm has no upper limit and may even bring the entire house crashing down.
Take the famous case of a certain refrigerator brand that cut costs on door closers and faced consumer complaints.
