Show me a crisis and I will show you a fixer, says Judy Smith

Judy Smith, the founder of Smith And Company, a strategy advisory outfit that safeguards the reputation of brands and personalities. PHOTO | MICHAEL VIC

What you need to know:

  • Judy Smith has handled some of the most infamous incidences in the world.
  • Her clients include; Monica Lewinsky, British Petroleum, Sony, actor Wesley Snipes, athletes Michael Vick and Kobe Bryant.
  • She has qualms with companies and how they handle crisis.
  • She is best remembered for her role in helping the Bush administration through the controversies surrounding the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court.

When Judy Smith’s phone rings, it’s a crisis that threatens to either tank a company’s stock price or send some celebrity to jail and ruin their lives and careers for life.

Her phone rings. A lot. This is a woman who has handled some of the most infamous incidences in the world. Her clients include; Monica Lewinsky, British Petroleum, Sony, actor Wesley Snipes, athletes Michael Vick and Kobe Bryant. When popular comedian Steve Harvey found himself in trouble with his fans after meeting with then President-Elect Donald Trump, he called on Smith to help save him.

All these high profile calls come pretty much out of the blue. She doesn’t give out business cards. “I think 85-90 per cent of the business is referral. No idea where people get my contacts but they are always looking for us,” she says.

Smith, who was in Kenya for scheduled talks on crisis at the invite of strategic communications firm, Oxygène Marketing Communication Limited, is a friendly and talkative woman but still manages to be as fiercely protective of her clients.

She will not talk about her clients no matter how many times you bring them up. I try my luck by bringing up the juiciest of them all, Monica Lewinsky and all I get is; “Her people reached out after crisis had started and we put together a strong legal team.”

RIGHT STRATEGY

What about Larry Craig, the former Republican United States Senator from Idaho arrested for lewd conduct in a men’s restroom at an airport? She says sarcastically, “Such things never happen, very rare...” and moves on the conversation.

When I press, she talks about crisis in general and how it is important to deal with it immediately with the right strategy.

“The beauty of crisis is… I love when people call me before something happens,” she says. “It gives you time to prepare the messaging, strategy and can anticipate potential problems.”

When her phone rings and someone is in trouble or a company is embroiled in a scandal, the first thing she says is: “First thing, tell me what’s wrong and what are the facts. I want everything I can get about the case at that point. I also need to know what is going on at that moment, is there a journalist calling or someone stalking your home or office? After that, we are off to the races.”

Here is where she puts together “a small, tight team” that now goes in and tries to identify particular areas where there might be a problem.

“I have offices in Washington DC, New York and Los Angeles. I hope to open offices in Chicago soon,” she says. “The reason you need a small tight team is because most of the cases are very sensitive and you need the information to stay guarded and not go out of that core group.

At the back of her mind when getting into a crisis management gig are different aspects; media, stakeholders, general public, partners, consumers because it helps her know the kind of messaging to work on and the different strategies to apply.

LEGAL TROUBLE

“Work from end backwards. Try and figure out what the objective is from the onset,” says Smith. “The objective could be to help someone not get into legal trouble, help a corporate come up with a media strategy or even help in transitioning from one CEO to the next.”

“Whether you are an individual or a corporate entity, the stakes are unusually high at this point and they are all depending on me to help dig them out of whatever hole they might be in,” she offers.

But how has social media made crisis management different? “It has been a total game changer,” she quips. “A company could be going on with its plans and within 12 minutes, it is in a crisis that thrusts it into the international limelight and so it is important to be ready for such.”

She has qualms with companies and how they handle crisis. “People have to learn to react not just faster but also know how to measure their reactions,” she says almost exasperated. “There was a study that showed that most corporations take 10-15 hours before getting a good solid response and that is a problem.”

Some of the problems she sees with this is allowing the media and the public to come up with their own interpretations of the crisis and this becomes an even bigger problem.

“The pre-crisis and risk identification helps get you prepared for when the onslaught comes. Best advise I can give, take time to identify risk areas, have a plan and strategy,” she counsels.

Take that advise to the bank because she surely knows what she is talking about. A statement on her website claims she also serves as a counsellor to Fortune 500 corporations providing strategic advice on issues such as mergers and acquisitions, product recalls, intellectual property litigation, corporate positioning, diversity and other challenges.

ASSOCIATE COUNSEL

Born October 27, 1958, Smith attended Boston University where she graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Public Relations and later enrolled at American University where she studied Law.

Before joining the White House, she worked as the Associate Counsel and Deputy Director of Public Information in the Office of the Independent Counsel, the Assistant United States Attorney and was Special Counsel to the U.S. Attorney of the District of Columbia.

At the White House, she was Special Assistant and Deputy Press Secretary to President George HW Bush. During her tenure she provided the President and his Cabinet with communications advice on a wide range of foreign and domestic issues.

She is best remembered for her role in helping the Bush administration through the controversies surrounding the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court.
After the White House, she joined American commercial broadcast television network NBC as Senior Vice-President of Corporate Communications. She also served as NBC’s chief spokesperson for domestic and international programming and business ventures.

After she was done with this gig, she founded Smith and Company and the rest is history.

Did she plan to do whatever she has been doing for the past 25 years? “I did not plan it at all,” she says. “Plans don’t work as planned, at least for me. I realised there is this thing called life that happens in the middle of all your plans, unexpected turns happen so I think there is a certain beauty in letting the universe take you where it is supposed to move you.”

LOVES WHAT SHE DOES
And after all those years Smith says she loves what she does. She does not work normal hours because crises can hit any time especially these days of social media where a blogger can turn someone or a corporate’s life upside down with one article or even just a tweet. “This is really a 24/7 kind of business.”
But even with her almost super human abilities to handle crisis, Smith says she does fire her clients and also turn down requests. “We try and weigh on whether we want to work with the client or whether or not we can help them… If we see we can’t make a dent, we walk,” she says, adding that one of the main thing she looks for is her clients’ discipline. “Problem is people are not disciplined and that usually makes the crisis even worse.”

Smith’s success in her field inspired renowned TV creator Shonda Rhimes, the force behind “Grey’s Anatomy”, who decided to do a show based on her life. She serves as co-executive producer and advisor for the show.

“Scandal” follows the ups and downs of Olivia Pope, a political fixer played by Kerry Washington who has the ability to handle any situation no matter how major without breaking a sweat.

While the show is based on her life, not everything that you see on the show is true. She has never had an affair with a president or any of her clients as is the case with Olivia Pope. “I do not move dead bodies from the scene, I really value my bar licence, we also do not beat up people for information and I also don’t look that good every day of my life,” she tells Nation.