Crisis Leadership? Google It

With little fanfare, the world's leading information finder is doing what it does best:finding and sharing information. As an immediate response to Japan's earthquake, the search engine created the 2011 Japanese Earthquake Crisis Response page. It isn't filled with overhyped media stories or breathless reporters, but instead an elegant, if not utilitarian, listing of information that people need. A simple interface is available for people to find relatives or report their current location. A listing of blackout schedules, shelter locations and transit information is also in an easy-to-find format. The site is encouraging people to take pictures at shelters and share them with photo sharing sites in a coordinated effort to identify displaced loved ones.

Crisis response isn't new to Google, which has been creating similar sites since Hurricane Katrina in 2005. It's a great example of a company doing what they do best and applying it for the greater good. This is in contrast to Microsoft's social media misfire over the weekend, where people who retweeted Bing's post would generate a $1 donation to Japanese efforts. The program proved disastrous as a special hastag #[expletive]youbing spread just as fast as Bing's twitter campaign.

Google could have just thrown money at Japan (which is what Bing tried to do) and they probably will make a donation. But Google identified that it's more efficient to donate what they are best at: finding and sharing information with those who are searching for it. This is a great lesson and something I personally believe in. It is not efficient to simply throw money at a problem. Instead, it is  usually more beneficial to share your skills and talent when and where appropriate. For example, what if the military only sent money to Japan? You'd say it would be ridiculous, because the military can help with search and rescue, food airlifts, etc. The same can go for a company. Why just donate money when you can donate immediate help? Why would Coca-Cola donate cash when they could be providing bottled water to be airlifted into areas desperate for clean drinking water? (Note: A search did not provide Coca-Cola's response to the Japanese Earthquake. It may be too early to know what, if anything, Coke is doing to help).

This obviously isn't going to work with every industry and company. But before you have a kneejerk reaction to a problem consider your expertise and services as a contribution. That contribution may wind up being much more valuable.

Thanks to Blogs Forbes
http://blogs.forbes.com/jimnichols/2011/03/14/crisis-leadership-google-it/