With high profile corporate crises such as Enron, WorldCom, Ford and Firestone still lingering, many businesses are looking for employees with the skills and expertise required to deal with the problems. SMU is well prepared for this trend.

For the past four years the Corporate Communications and Public Affairs division has offered a course in crisis management taught by Senior Lecturer Chris Anderson.

“The course content is topical and relevant to not only communication students, but business students, as well,” said Anderson. Anderson has held several senior-level corporate communications and public affairs positions including serving as the managing director for Sunwest Communications, a leading full-service public relations counseling firm in Texas.

Students in the course examine actual corporate crises to discover how to prevent a crisis, how to assess the likelihood and impact of potential crises, how to prepare for the inevitable crisis, what warning signs to watch for and how to develop a crisis management team with crisis guidelines. Students also study the role of the news media in a crisis.

Class periods provide a forum for discussion of corporate crises on the front pages of the Wall Street Journal or The New York Times each day. Students also monitor regional newspapers from across the country and analyze crises reported weekly. In these analyses students give recommendations as to how to effectively manage each crisis based on material learned in the course.

“We also use ‘real-life’ videotapes from the news to review and critique how organizations respond in a crisis situation,” added Anderson. Guest lecturers including top corporate communications and crisis management professionals supplement class lectures by discussing their experiences.

“The one course I regret not taking during my undergraduate career is crisis management,” recent SMU graduate Michelle Wolf said. “Crisis management skills have become an essential aspect of my current career.”