Q & A with Al Tortorella - Crisis Management

Al Tortorella, Managing Director
Crisis Management
E-mail | 310-248-6136



Back to Crisis Management

Ogilvy PR Interviews

1. How long have you been with Ogilvy? What made you want to join the company?

I have been with Ogilvy for over five years. I joined the company because Ogilvy has great vision, values and spirit. In addition, the leadership of Ogilvy under Marcia Silverman is profoundly superior to other agencies that I know well and remains so to this day.

2. What is it that differentiates how Ogilvy approaches crisis management? What do we know how to do that others do not?

My personal background includes the beginning of what the public relations business believes was the seminal event that launched the industry's "crisis management" portfolio - the Tylenol poisonings in 1982. I was privileged to lead the team that thought of the idea of how to reintroduce the product after it had been recalled from every shelf in America and overseas.

As a result of this success, crisis management became a course of study that every corporation felt a need to embrace so they would be prepared if catastrophe befell them.

My 25 years of working on crisis management assignments for clients, together with Ogilvy's expertise -- particularly in the Washington, D. C. and New York City offices -- has created a network of executives in every time zone around the world that looks first to Ogilvy PR for answers to problems that their companies face. Our clients know that Ogilvy PR is the only agency that has the ability to respond to issues that require a leadership that is tested, knowledgeable and mature.

3. What are some of the challenges clients face, and how does Ogilvy address them?

Every crisis situation is unique and must be managed accordingly. However, there are certain core principles underpinning successful crisis management, and we use them every day to contain the difficulties our clients face when they are under attack.

Our experience has led us to identify some key areas that companies under stress should be cognizant of. They are:

  • an understanding of the media interest in the story,
  • a precise definition of the real problem and determining strategy accordingly,
  • a managing of the flow of information,
  • an assumption that the situation will escalate and get worse,
  • a managing of all the affected constituencies, and,
  • a measuring of results in real time.

Much of what we do involves anticipating the types of crises that a company is likely to encounter so we can help develop useful frameworks. Further, the skills needed to implement a crisis response can be amplified and honed through simulations that put management through the paces of a realistic crisis situation.

Ogilvy PR believes that crisis management cannot be a formulaic process. Any set of rules or tools tailored too narrowly to the needs of a hypothetical crisis scenario would be too confining to be of practical value when a genuine crisis develops. Our strength stems from our experience of being able to apply a tested methodology while being flexible enough to respond to new situations as they arise.