Crisis, what crisis?

Perhaps not surprisingly I have recently had discussions with a number of CEOs concerning what politely we call Contingency Planning, or more brutally, Crisis Management. These discussions have ranged from a charity wanting advice in order to be prepared for difficult questions concerning donations, to companies investigating business-threatening product and organisational scenarios. Luckily, none of these discussions has yet turned into a real-life crisis, and taking our discussions further we hope to prevent or reduce any negative outcomes at such time when that happens. What it reiterated to me was that, even in sophisticated organisations crisis management is often swept under the carpet, until it is too late.

It is often said that Crisis Management is not about ‘if’, but it concerns being prepared for ‘when’. There are numerous accounts of companies, governments, individuals and other organisations being seriously damaged, both in terms of brand value and financially because they were caught unprepared by something that was unforeseen, which tends to reflect the very nature of the topic. My recent meetings have encompassed the full range of experience, from CEOs who have been around long enough to have worked through various crisis events, to newer senior management who have climbed the ladder during the boom period and are facing new situations in today’s economic environment.

There are a number of key considerations, but as with any communications strategy the devil is in the detail. You know your company is different, you have probably spent a great deal of money promoting your differentiating factors to your audience and so you need to consider these carefully, however there are a set of broad headings that are a useful start point.

Your company or organisation
What is it you do? Who are you accountable to? Are you publicly or privately owned? What size of organisation are you and how does this affect the locality that you operate from? What are your wider influencers?

Your services and or products
Think about any possible way that these may create an adverse reaction in the market place. Product recalls, tampering, product failure and service failure. This can happen so understanding that it can allow us to plan for it.
How are you regulated and are you compliant with all current regulation?

Your people
Consider how staff and associates work internally and externally, how they communicate with each other and with the outside world. Remember there are numerous non-approved staff sites on the internet that have caused customer backlash on organisations. So it is not just what they do while within your jurisdiction that affects your brand.

Outside influencers
There are always external risks but how can you plan for these and in so doing minimise the likelihood of adverse external actions, such as damages claims. Are you involved in any activity that could attract protest, hackers, criminal investigation, or exposé from the media? What about changes in regulation and in some situations governments.

The environment – Acts of God
What happens if there is a fire, flood or other event that closes your business for an extended period? Have you considered computer facilities back-up and the consequences of not having this provision?

Bizarre events
Take some time and think about events that are really ‘shouldn’t happen’, a plane landing on your site, staff being kidnapped, or an extreme cult renting property from you. Long shot events that you are on the periphery of may be hard to imagine, but they could still attach themselves negatively to your brand, and therefore need to be considered.

A comprehensive Crisis Communications approach document and or process is an essential element in the modern high bandwidth communication savvy world, where a short video on YouTube can change your company’s relationship with thousands of customers. What often becomes evident during contingency planning is that there is investment required and these discussions often take place at the point in the economic cycle when investment is at its most restricted, but consider the effect of not implementing the process?

If we accept, and we must, that crisis will happen. It is not a question of how much will it cost to implement the process, but how quickly can we implement it.