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Mitroff (2005)Management > Crisis Management > Lectures > Independent Research > Mitroff's book >The effects of abnormal crises > Defence mechanisms > Victim and villain > Complexity > 4 styles of thinking > Assumptions > Structured problems > 4 views of crises > Crisis tool kit > Controlled paranoia > General Motors > Needed action > A well designed organisation > Spirituality > Benetton-Turkey
Benetton-TurkeyFor many years the Turks and the Kurds have been at war in Turkey. A Kurdish rebel leader, Abdullah Ocalan, or Apo as he was known, had 30,000 Turks killed. In retalliation untold numbers of Kurds have been tortured and murdered. For years Apo lived as a hunted man and he fled Turkey, eventually arriving in Italy, where he was accepted and protected by the Communist government. The Turkish government wanted him back, but the Italian government refused, as in Turkey capital punishment was still enforced and was something which Italy was against. The reaction in Turkey was devastating, as Turkish people started smashing and destroying anything that was Italian, from restaurants to stores. The Turkish people felt they had been betrayed by the Italian government. Many companies reacted by appealing for Turks to be rational and to differentiate between the Italian parent firms and the Turkish subsidiaries, but to no avail. People are not rational when their sense of continuity becomes fragmented. Benetton-Turkey did something different. It send out a newspaper advertisement, which stated, "First and foremost, we are Turks too! Our allegiance and loyalty is to Turkey! We feel the same that you do about the Italians!". The company removed the colours from its logo in Turkey (as they represent unity between nations), and put black wreaths and mannequins dressed in black in the store fronts, as a sign of mourning, until the situation was resolved. The public response was overwhelmingly positive, with countless notes of gratitude posted on the store fronts. The people saw Benetton as a victim as well as them. This approach worked better than the other stores, as the others tried to position themselves as victims, not perceiving the Turkish people as victims, and so were deemed perpetrators as well as the Italian government.
Corporate emotional intelligence
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