Managing Crisis In A Business

Every business, no matter how stable it remains, is bound to get hit by crisis at a point of time. It is almost inevitable. Before a crisis strikes, business owners should think about a how a disaster would impact employees, customers, suppliers, the public and their company’s value. Crisis can strike anytime, anywhere and to anyone in the business. Therefore, having a crisis management plan is an utmost necessity. Well defined and smart companies around the globe are now coming up with a crisis management team of their own.

The objectives during any crisis are to protect any individual (employee or public) who may be endangered by the crisis, ensuring the key audiences are kept informed, and making sure that the organization survives. There should be a written plan which should include specific actions that will be taken in the event of a crisis.

Every organization should ensure, via an appropriate policy and training, that only authorized spokespersons speak for them, and this is particularly important during a crisis. Each crisis communications team should have people who have been pre-screened and trained to be the lead and/or backup spokespersons for different channels of communications.

Today, we have to have — immediately at hand — the means to reach our internal and external stakeholders using multiple modalities. Many of us have several phone numbers, more than one email address, and can receive SMS (text) messages or faxes. We can even send audio and video messages via email. And then, of course, there is social media. This may be the best and fastest way to reach some of our stakeholders, but setting up social media accounts for this purpose and developing a number of followers/friends/contacts on the various social media platforms (e.g., Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+) is not something you can do after a crisis breaks, because nowhere does news of a crisis spread faster and more out of your control than on social media. Therefore, social media should be handled tactfully at such a time

Nothing generates more negative media coverage than a lack of honesty and transparency. Therefore, being as open and transparent as possible can help stop rumors and defuse a potential media frenzy. This transparency must be projected through all communications channels — news interviews, social media, internal announcements, etc.

A crisis that is not managed well can wipe out decades of hard work and company value in a matter of hours. A well-managed crisis confirms that your company has the processes and procedures in place to address almost any issue that may develop.

The most important aspect is that the crisis management plan should be created when everything is running smoothly and everyone involved can think clearly. By planning in advance, all parties will have time to seriously think about the ideal ways to manage different types of crisis.