The first time Bidyanondo caught my eyes was in early 2020 when the non-profit organization, which was working with a bunch of volunteers, decided to recycle the election posters and make writing pads for school children. I was simply amazed by such creative ideation and innovative thinking and the grand way in which the organization challenged the norm.
Since then I have been following them, not as a critic but more as a fan. Their work during the Covid 19 pandemic was out of the ordinary and I felt proud to be able to contribute through whatever means I could towards their efforts.
However, their recent “errors” -- I would term the incident as errors -- and mis-management of a certain situation made me wonder what went wrong with my favourite organization. Yes, it made me sad. Not only for Bidyanondo, but also after seeing how different quarters in the community were super excited and happy to see them fall from grace. It didn't surprise me though, as it has become a norm to cheer any “falls” in our society nowadays. People love to talk about the faults in others.
Still, out of curiosity I carefully observed how Bidyanondo struggled to address the situation. To me, it appears to be a massive PR disaster. I'll try to identify some of the classic “mistakes” Bidyanondo made specifically in the area of Public Relations and also highlight some of the efforts that can be made to “save” their reputation.
After assessing the recent situation, it felt like Bidyanondo lacked preparation and readiness when it came to the basics, in some way or another. In the field of public relations, the basic norms that should be addressed by all organizations to manage their reputation are as follows:
Business transparency
Non-profit organizations should be more transparent than ones making profit, because they're working with donations -- ie people's money, given in good faith. The donors are not getting anything in return other than the moral satisfaction of helping others.
Bidyanondo proudly claimed their organization to be transparent because their audit report is public. But, in our country we all know these audit reports aren't exactly reliable. Bidyanondo should have done more to ensure complete transparency.
One way to do so could be to mention the amounts received from different donors periodically (not in social media, but maybe on their websites). Even an annual report could be helpful to clearly declare the source of funds and expenditure areas.
Identifying and addressing key stakeholders
While Bidyanondo addresses certain stakeholder groups (donors, policy makers, celebrities, and mainstream journalists) quite efficiently, they lacked hugely in assessing and addressing the opinion leaders. And in the age of social media, anyone with a smartphone and a Facebook account is, in some way, an opinion leader.
They either ignored what these “mass opinion leaders” think of them or didn't have a clue on the mass's perception about the organization. I'm not debating the “quality” of the opinions because no matter what opinion the mass audience in our country may have, they should be addressed and considered as a critical stakeholder group for all organizations.
FREEPIK
Listening / monitoring to strategize communications accordingly
A proper listening tool should be used to assess public perception. It can be done via software (there are many) or a team that is actively able to flag any trending keywords or topics that hold a negative connotation against the organization.
The communications strategy should be a fluid one that is adaptable to the public's current perception -- as this perception is extremely amenable and changes continuously. This is absolutely critical and, in my opinion, Bidyanondo lacked tremendously in this area.
Clarity in communications, content strategy, and protocol
The mishaps in recent weeks mostly happened due to this and it seemed like there was no protocol for content publishing: No proper approval process, no correction control for content, and no structured content calendar.
In major reputed global organizations, the external communications team work directly under the CEO's office only because of the sensitive nature of the subject. A clear and precise protocol is often in place so that whatever goes live on the public domain is aligned with the overall messaging, mission, and vision of the organization.
Bidyanondo's content quality is good in terms of creative writing and photography, but there seems to be no clear strategy behind it and often feels all over the place. Issues like using old posts again and again with different captions, or using photographs downloaded from the internet, could be avoided if a structured, well thought out protocol was in place.
Preparation for crisis situations
One thing was crystal clear though, Bidyanondo was not ready for this crisis. However, we, the well-wishers of Bidyanondo, could see this coming from miles away. Unfortunately, they were either too involved in doing good deeds and misjudged the public opinion or they just didn't care. The bottom line was they didn't anticipate such a situation arising.
Again, a proper crisis management protocol should have been in place, where a set action point with a step-by-step “to-do list” could have made things a lot easier.
Prepare the spokesperson for addressing key stakeholders including media
The Bidyanondo spokesperson (the individual representing the organization across different TV interviews) is without a doubt, a passionate young individual. But he was not ready to face the media in any way.
Being prepared to be bombarded by questions and being able to calmly respond to scrutiny is essential to appeasing the public.
Now, what should Bidyanondo do? There is no easy way out of this situation.
A combination of some short term and long term activities could dampen some of the negativity, if done correctly.
Short term crisis management suggestions
A proper detailed explanation regarding all the current issues should be published. These have to be carefully curated and shared across all media. Some endorsement from well respected, accepted, and relevant influencers might help. Then again, when selecting the influencers they need to be careful.
For example, if I were the PR consultant of Bidyanondo, I would have suggested getting endorsements from a like-minded religious leader. The endorsement content should be supported by facts and evidence throughout.
A FAM trip for mainstream journalists to some of the facilities can add some transparency and provide extra impact towards the effort. Maybe an investigative report by major TV networks with public approval can help. But the most important thing to do would be to get the audit report verified by an independent think tank and make sure they publicly declare their findings via a press conference.
Unintuitively, they can also do nothing and let the buzz die down -- because Bangladeshi people always have something new to gossip about. But I think some of these steps need to be implemented to regain the mass level donor's trust again.
Long term crisis management suggestions
There needs to be some reforms implemented into their business practices. As I do not know several details about their business, I can only recommend some general communicative reforms that can be implemented for long term reputational protection:
Get a team of professionals. External communications should not be taken lightly. I understand the noble reason behind engaging volunteers for the task, but this is a serious matter with serious consequences. A professional team with set KPIs and accountability will add a lot of value.
Spokesperson should be trained properly by experts to address media and public queries with appropriate responses, supported by facts and statistics.
Protocols should be in place for communications during crises -- ensuring that, should a future issue or crisis suddenly happen, the team is well prepared to deal with the situation.
A proper long term and short term messaging strategy, that is aligned with the vision and mission of Bidyanondo, should be in place. This will ensure that there is no deviation from the organization's vision and that all communications mirror the overall goals and aspirations of the organization.
A quarterly e-booklet consisting of financials, achievements, and activities can be prepared to provide more clarity and transparency for all external stakeholders.
The organization can work with a research agency to calculate the actual impact of their efforts and share it with all stakeholders, including the masses, so that awareness can be raised around the positive footprint that Bidyanondo has created. This can be done annually, but the activity will need to be done by a globally reputed research firm.
The organization could try and team up with like-minded partner organizations to ensure stronger impact on community and widespread efforts across the country.
Please keep in mind that I have not lost my faith in Bidyanondo just yet. I would wholeheartedly love to see them rise through all the negativities and do what they are the best at -- helping humans.
Manjeno Raihan Khan is a Public Relations professional, with more than 15 year's of experience and the CEO of Concito.