During his thirty year career, Alan Hilburg has pioneered branding, employee engagement organisational behaviour and organisation transitions specifically around crises and litigation. He has also created software to measure distrust, employee disengagement and decision cultures. Recently he worked with Hong Kong PR Network to discuss the elevation of strategic communications into business relevance. This event was sponsored by VMA GROUP and Alan spoke with Fiona Housiaux, VMA GROUP’s global head of marketing, to discuss his career, the communications industry and some hard earned wisdom.

FH: Alan, thanks for taking the time to talk with me, for those that are interested in entering into a career in crisis communications, can you tell me how your own career evolved?
AH: Crisis communications is never about the crisis, it's always about the opportunity the crisis presents. Secondly, crisis management is different from crisis communications. Crisis management is more of a business function and is rooted in the question, "In a crisis, what's at risk?" The three part answer is: business continuity, protecting brand trust and protecting leadership, particularly their decision culture. That decision culture is embedded in each company's values.

From the perspective of what professional qualities are necessary, I would suggest these four:

• quiet authority

• seeing beyond the obvious

• confidence and patience

• ability to think and move decisively

FH: Your career has spanned four decades, what do you think have been the biggest changes/challenges for the communications industry?
AH: Moving from being a cost centre to being a profit centre. That journey is rooted in migrating communications from being about communications to the role communications plays in business decisions. Communications is an integrated business function, contributing to the overall success of a business by helping various organizational assets be even more effective in connecting and influencing 'their' stakeholders. Communication officers and teams are the stewards of brand trust. Elevating integrated communications into a core business competency is a challenging journey, however it is an essential ingredient in companies that aspire to be most admired, respected and trusted.

FH: The home page of Hilburg Associates reads ‘S*&t Happens’, as a pioneer in crisis resolution what do think companies today underestimate when it comes to communicating to their audience/s? And why?
AH: There are three primary reasons. First, it is very hard for senior leadership to acknowledge to their board of directors that "S*&t happens." No CEO, when being interviewed by a Board of Directors is asked, "tell about the last crisis you handled?" However, at the same time, no one likes surprises.

While crisis management and mitigation accepts that, the world's smartest leadership teams a