A man drags a woman into a nearby hotel. There seems to be no problem, the woman is quietly following the man’s footsteps. However, as three other women pass by the woman urgently grabs one of their sleeves. In a barely audible whisper the woman asks for help. The three women immediately distractthe man and rescue the woman in question, ushering her urgently into the taxi. The man resists the women saying that she is a coworker of his. This is the crime scene of Hoshik’s Chickens CEO Choi Ho Shik attempting to rape his secretary.

Every once in a while, there is always a headline that makes a right-minded citizen rage while eating breakfast. It is often related with owner crisis, where the owners of corporations commit a serious wrongdoing regarding their customers, Customers boycotted these companies, saying that customers deserve far more respect. The owners of these companies never issued any proper apologies for the incident, which led to devastation in the stock markets.

Hoshik’s Chicken’s owner Choi Ho Shik was sued by his female secretary for attempted rape. While the issue itself hardly has any room for sympathy, the affiliated franchised stores are suffering more than the headquarters themselves. With a certified drop of 20 to 40 percent decrease in sales, the individual owners at franchise stores are having difficulty making ends meet. There has been discussion within the enterprise as to what their future direction should be. There are more such corporations such as Mr. Pizza and Jongguendang.

An owner crisis is when a orporation falls into a risk of losses or a crash in the stock market due to personal misconduct of the owner. It ranges from mishaps such as scandals, health issues, public disrespect to customers to the aforementioned mistreatment and insincere apologies. Most of owner crisis are unforeseen, making it one of the most feared Public Relations (PR) problems.

Then what should the owner do when the owner loses credibility in the eyes of the public? Should all such corporations just give up their businesses? If that is the case, the owner is neglecting his duties twice in a row. While it is true that the owner does not deserve to be sympathized, it is also true that he or she is responsible for securing the employment of those working for the corporation. The least the owner can do is make sure the stains of humility do not reach his employees.

What the owner should do is willingly stepping down from office with as sincere apology. In most owner crisis situations, it is usually towards the owners themselves that the public directs their hate. The very best the owner can do is to ensure that he takes responsibility for his own actions. A true owner should be willing to exclude himself from the business for the sake of others.

Technically speaking, it is difficult to keep the problematic owners from running their business after such crisis. It will be much more feasible to devise a system that can protect the franchise owners instead. The policies should be focused on preventing the owner crisis in the first place. Once this happens, even the regulations that can be made will have inevitable loopholes. One such instance would be when it might be possible to ban criminal owners from returning to management positions at corporations, while owners that have enough reason to be shamed but are not technically criminal are harder to ban. The key to solving this would be to strengthen institutions that provide surveillance on owners for irresponsible behavior such as the Fair Trade Commission. Handling crisis afterwards is a foolish choice when it can be prevented in the first place.