THE ULTIMATE BETRAYAL: ARE YOU AT RISK OF A DNA CRISIS?

No, I’m not talking about the surprise discovery of a long-lost relative (although if you like that sort of thing, you might enjoy The Gift, a compelling BBC podcast).

‘DNA crisis’ is my shorthand for a specific type of predicament that organisations sometimes stumble into, only to face an unexpectedly severe reaction. It’s the kind of crisis that links the following unconnected issues:

 ·      A 2019 report into internal culture at Amnesty International

 ·      The recent fall in sales of Tesla cars

 ·      The cancellation of a talk by a Jewish speaker at a school in Wales earlier this month

What do these very different developments have in common - and more importantly, why should we care?

Amnesty International exists to fight human rights abuses, protect prisoners of conscience and promote global justice. In 2018, the charity commissioned a review into the deaths of two staff members who had tragically taken their own lives. The report unearthed a toxic culture rife with widespread bullying, discrimination, public humiliation, unfair treatment and other abuses of power. It concluded that “Amnesty cannot effectively strive to make the world a better place while perpetuating an organisational culture deeply marked by secrecy, mistrust, nepotism and other forms of power abuse.” In short, the charity was found guilty of the very injustices it was meant to be fighting.[1] If Amnesty had instead been an animal rescue charity, or a guardian of historic landmarks, it might have escaped with just passing interest. With humanitarian causes as its raison d’etre, the fundamental misalignment between Amnesty’s core identity - its DNA - and a perception of hypocrisy led to a barrage of critical coverage.

Fast-forward to the current crisis at Tesla. Industry experts are still divided on whether the dramatic fall in European sales (9,913 in January 2025 compared to 18,121 in January 2024) is due to increased competition from China, the imminent launch of an updated model or to the ‘Elon Effect’ - a phrase that encapsulates consumer sentiment about owner Elon Musk. However, it’s clear that Musk's role in President Trump's administration has caused catastrophic damage to the brand, given Trump's determination to reverse climate policy. If you’re someone who found Tesla’s founding principles of reducing carbon emissions and promoting sustainable energy solutions attractive, you’re now likely to think twice about supporting a company so closely tied to opposing policies. The brand will continue to be seriously compromised for as long as Musk remains both at Trump's side and at the helm of Tesla.

Our final example of a DNA crisis takes us to the south coast of Wales and a school that found itself at the centre of a controversy which - if it wasn’t for its own particular history - probably wouldn’t have made the headlines at all. UWC Atlantic, founded by German-Jewish refugee Kurt Hahn after he fled Nazi persecution in 1933, recently faced a backlash for rescinding an invitation to a Jewish speaker. The Times covered the school’s response to pupils’ complaints as “School founded by refugee from Nazi Germany drops Jewish speaker,” while the Daily Mail reported “Anger as school […] founded by Nazi refugee cancels talk by Jewish writer.” The decision may have been taken with the intention of avoiding tensions over the conflict in the Middle East but the only conflict that mattered here was that between the school’s history and this controversial decision: without its unique legacy, the story would have been unlikely to appear outside of the Jewish press.

So in each case, the crisis only emerged —or escalated dramatically—due to the distinct DNA of the charity, company, and school respectively. But why does this type of issue often end up being such a ‘marmalade-dropper’? (A term given to the kind of story that might cause a newspaper reader enjoying their breakfast to drop their toast in shock…)

To understand this, we need to think about the bedrock upon which all reputations are built... the single most important factor not only in crisis communications but in all communications.

Relationships.

DNA crises are especially damaging because they represent the deepest form of betrayal- one that shatters the very foundation of a relationship with an organisation, in the same way as it would in a personal relationship. When people donate to a charity, buy a car or choose a school based on a perception of shared values, you undermine those values at your peril. 

What's in your organisation's DNA and where do the risks lie?

[1] Since the 2019 report, Amnesty International has implemented significant changes and measures aimed at addressing the issues it highlighted.