Came away very impressed with Sandy Olsen, the Director of Corporate Communications at Carnival Australia who spoke at a recent IABC lunch in Sydney.

Sandy took up this newly created position at the world’s number one cruise operator in March 2007 with three weeks of the Dianne Brimble inquest to run.

She also had to contend with the unfortunate death of a 31 year-old Sydneysider who died during a cruise he had won as part of a Radio 2GB competition. Then came some of NZ’s worst storms that led to 1,200 cruise passengers on the Pacific Star being off-loaded in Vanuatu and flown home.

Hardly what you would call ‘smooth sailing’ for the start of a new job, hey?

Yet surprisingly, Sandy claims she “has the best job, in the best company.”

As she said, adversity creates opportunities for change and Carnival had little alternative but to learn its lessons if it was to re-build its business.

Such was the damage to the reputation of P&O as a result of the tragic death of Mrs Brimble, it had no choice but to look at every aspect of its business.  It was, according to Sandy, a very painful, uncomfortable and challenging process but led to many fundamental positive changes.

The real problem was the business had failed to keep pace with acceptable community standards.

Since changes have been made, Carnival has doubled the passenger capacity of its fleet, achieved double-digit growth, maintained its 50 per cent repeat passenger record and provided cruises to more than half a million passengers.

Interestingly, 70 per cent of those passengers are now couples or families, with the average passenger aged in their mid-40s.

And the lessons have been learned – Carnival no longer conducts ‘schoolies cruises’, any passenger under the age of 21 must be accompanied by an adult and the number of under 18 year olds are limited.

There is greater emphasis on child minding facilities as more and more multi-generational family groups now sail together.  And while the barman remains, there is also a barista on board, and with its new comprehensive wine list (39), passengers are encouraged to drink according to quality, not quantity.

P&O now leads the world in passenger safety and security.  It has introduced 500 CCTVs on board the Pacific Dawn, with each passenger now receiving a video along with their ticket to remind them of their responsibilities as a passenger at sea.

It is amazing what a committed board, CEO and corporate communications team can do to transform a business that must have come close to sinking after a proud history of 75 years.

It is just another example how when a crisis strikes, it’s about how a company responds which determines if that business will die, survive or, in some cases, thrive.

- Gordon Coulter