He'll manage crises but prefers to avert them

If you don't know James Lukaszewski, that's probably just as well for you and your company.

If you do, then you understand why he's regarded as one of the "experts to call when all hell breaks loose." And why he's held in Yoda-like esteem for his wise, concise, positive approach to guiding clients through their worst internal and external problems.

The Minnesota-raised Lukaszewski (loo-ka-SHEV-skee) returned to the Twin Cities this year after 25 years in New York, where he's been busy building a reputation in both business and academic circles as one of the leading crisis communications and management consultants in the country.

Over the years, he's advised large corporations and organizations in dozens of states and a number of countries as they have faced everything from bankruptcies to product recalls, medical malpractice, scientific misconduct, civil litigation and criminal charges.

In January, he launched the Lukaszewski Group, a new division of Risdall McKinney Public Relations, itself a division of Risdall Marketing Group in New Brighton. A prolific writer and speaker, Lukaszewski has produced 12 books, hundreds of articles and more than 200 webinars on his crisis communications website, www.e911.com.

As president of the group at Risdall, Lukaszewski continues his focus on crisis communications, leadership coaching and consulting on management issues such as succession and crisis response, recovery and prevention strategy.

"My definition of a crisis is pretty simple," said Lukaszewski, 68. "It's an unexpected event that creates victims. There are three kinds of victims: People, animals and living systems."

"I'm there to tell you essentially to do what your mother taught you to do," Lukaszewski said. "If you'd just do that, I'd be unemployed."

His strategy? Stop the production of victims, communicate with "internal publics," notify those indirectly affected such as neighbors, and manage "the self-appointed, self-anointed," which is his catchall term for the news media, critics, bloggers and those who chime in through social media. "If you add all this up, this is the first 37 minutes," of what he calls the "golden hour," when the steps taken or not taken can defuse a crisis or send it spinning out of control.

In recent years, Lukaszewski said, he has emphasized crisis planning and readiness as a management strategy. "Readiness involves eliminating risks as well as planning for risks," Lukaszewski said. "Otherwise, you're shifting your damages into the future, maybe in the hopes that you won't be managing the place when it blows up [or] breaks down."

Longtime client Sandy Dean, who heads a medium-sized natural resources business in California, said Lukaszewski has been a trusted adviser and confidante since the late 1990s, when Lukaszewski provided advice on how to operate the business and communicate what it does in response to negative comments from critics.

"Jim for us has been a Yoda-like figure in his wisdom and his foresight, in his conciseness and his ability to always drive toward the positive," Dean said.

"Jim's become somewhat of an icon in the field of crisis management," Bernstein said.

Back with Risdall

Lukaszewski's return reunites him with John Risdall, founder of the Risdall Marketing Group and a Twin Cities advertising fixture since the "Mad Men" days of the 1960s.

Their acquaintance dates to 1980 and a strip mall in Fridley. That's where Risdall's agency produced collateral material for Lukaszewski's nearby firm, the fledgling Media Information Systems Corp. (MISC), which he and wife Barbara founded in 1978.

MISC specialized in crisis management and media training. Lukaszewski, who has a bachelor's in public relations from Metropolitan State University, gained extensive experience in both areas as assistant press secretary to former Minnesota Gov. Wendell Anderson and later as deputy commissioner of the state Department of Economic Development.

The expert says: Jack Militello, a management professor at the University of St. Thomas' Opus College of Business, said Lukaszewski's focus on readiness -- preparing for or working to prevent future crises -- is on the right track.

"Readiness can eliminate problems and make people alert to their own responsibilities," Militello said. "All firms should be ready. You don't know what the unknown is. But you know what readiness means, you know how problems occur, and readiness is sound management."