On January 24, financial markets around the world shook: a rogue trader of Société Générale had cost his employer 4.9 billion euros. The bank rushed to sell the trader’s assets before setting up a crisis communication team to manage the fallout. Their task: to deal with journalists’ requests and the anger of partners, shareholders and clients.

Under communication director Hughes Le Bret’s leadership, the bank called two companies specialising in crisis management: Image 7, led by the formidable Anne Méaux, and Harrison & Wolf, Société Générale’s corporate communications agency since 2002, with Jean-Claude Boulet and Jean-Christophe Alquier at its helm. The latter agency has an impressive track record, having already managed the Erika tanker shipwreck for French petroleum giant Total and the explosion of the AZF chemical factory in Toulouse in September, 2001.

In less than 24 hours, the team set up its base and prepared a communications strategy and Daniel Bouton, Société Générale’s chairman, prepared himself for a press conference.

Downplaying the scandal

“Increasingly, companies have had to call upon consulting firms specialising in communications in crisis situations,” explains Ludovic François, risk management professor associated with the Parisian business school HEC. “They can no longer use the press service departments with which they have good relations. Electronic media now means that anybody can give their opinion,” adding that “in a crisis, a PR agency’s role is to downplay an extraordinary event—quite the opposite of classic communications work, which is to play up a rather ordinary event.”

One of these experts, Christophe Reille, is now managing Kerviel’s communication strategy. “It’s a rare situation,” says François. “A crisis communications expert costs 1,000 to 2,000 euros per day on average.” Reille, who recently opened his own agency, told FRANCE 24 he was approached by the trader’s lawyers. “They wanted me to take care of media relations because they had neither the time nor the inclination to do so.”

Reille is a specialist of communications when under legal pressure. In other words, his role is to “intervene when companies struggle to communicate at a time when the law (…) does not let them express themselves as freely as when they are trying to sell a product or launch an advertisement campaign. Our role is to help them react to an atypical situation and help them adapt to a situation they can neither predict nor anticipate.”

Keeping a low profile

Reille chose a low-profile strategy for Jérôme Kerviel, “favouring communication with the judges – and explaining events to the media later.” He also organised a photo shoot with an AFP photographer. The snapshots show a gentleman, one who can be seen in the role of “scapegoat” for Société Générale and who is “not trying to flee,” but rather cooperating with justice.

François believes this is a good approach. “The photos personalised him. Kerviel looks like a nice guy. In a film, he’d be played by Tom Cruise. The fact that he is taking responsibility for his acts gives him credibility.”

Maurice Botbol, chief editor of the strategy and intelligence information publication Intelligence Online, agrees, saying that Société Générale’s communication strategy is “less effective,” even if the company’s first reaction, to “cry fraud and demonise Jérôme Kerviel during the outcry, was a shrewd one.” “They implied that he had lined his pockets in the process,” he says.

“Transparency, truth, and goodwill”

According to François, “this stance helped contain the first shockwave, but it’s difficult to maintain over the longterm.” Their choice contradicted the main principles of crisis communications: “transparency, truth and goodwill.”

Even Bouton’s proposal to forsake six months’ salary was “clumsy,” Botbol believes. “The amount is negligible compared to the sum lost, and what’s more, his salary is only a small part of his overall income.”

Now, it seems that Société Générale’s crisis team is avoiding questions from the press, with Harrison & Wolf’s Alquier—who frequently uses public opinion to influence the course of events—refusing to comment. “An investigation is under way. Let the law do its job,” he told FRANCE 24.

It’s a stance that surprises François, the analyst adding that it is “difficult to draw quick conclusions on crisis communication strategy. Influencing public opinion is a complex endeavour. The result does not really depend on the strategy. A bad crisis management tactic can still lead to good results.”