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Business continuity and crisis management

business continuity and crisis management

Unexpected events, such as fire, flooding, or pandemics, can affect businesses negatively.  Such events can lead to business operation failures, or the worst-case scenario – losing potential customers and even bankruptcy.  Planning for business continuity and implementing robust crisis management can help businesses overcome any unforeseen catastrophic incidents.

Here you will learn how business continuity forms the foundation crisis management. You will further understand how planning and preparing for any crisis allows businesses to implement strategies to reduce and minimize impact to their organizations.

On this page:

What is a crisis?

Crisis management, what is business continuity, business impact analysis, minimizing the potential impact of crises.

Any disruptive event which affects a business’s facilities, IT systems, data, personnel etc. which leads to a stoppage in production, can be defined as a crisis. A crisis of a catastrophic nature can impact business production, resulting in an impact on business reputation,  customer goodwill, profitability, production schedules, revenues, etc.

Crises could be major or minor in nature, and either internal or external. The severity of the crisis may result in your business exposed to adverse publicity. For any small or medium business which relies on customer goodwill and maintains good customer relationships, any adverse publicity could lead to a loss in sales and revenue.

Examples of potential business disasters which can be classified or lead to a crisis are:

  • Natural/environmental disasters – Unpreventable and entirely out of human control. for example, flooding or heavy rains and storms.
  • Technological disasters – IT system failures, corrupt software, faulty hardware, or malicious cyber-attacks are some of the examples.
  • Accidental disasters – Such as fire, gas leaks, or power cuts, etc.
  • Theft or vandalism – Computer equipment theft or vandalism can cause institutional damage possibly ruining any businesses’ finances.
  • Power cut – Power cuts will, in most cases, stop all operations of any business. Power cuts can impact IT, telecom systems, crucial machinery, or equipment.
  • Fuel shortages – lack of fuel will be troublesome for the staff. Their work may be delayed and leave adverse effects on processing orders.
  • Restricted access to premises -An incident such as a gas leak could restrict access, bringing business operations to a halt.
  • Loss or illness of key staff – Lack of a critical member of staff can harm the business operations immensely. Leave, sickness, or any other absence, could have a severe impact on business operations. Small and medium businesses tend to suffer from impact from this more severely.
  • An outbreak of disease or infection – Epidemics and pandemics are unpredictable. Global, regional or even local outbreaks could severely hamper business operations.
  • Terrorist attack – Either local or abroad. Acts of terror could impact your employees directly or impact your supply chain.
  • Crises affecting suppliers – you never know what is in store for you during crises. have a backup plan in case the crises affects the suppliers
  • Crises affecting customers – what would you do if the crises affect your customers and they’re unable to buy your products?
  • Crises affecting your business’ reputation – how’d you solve any misunderstanding, rumours, or allegations about your products during the crises

You can read more about the different types of crisis here .

Business continuity and crisis management

Even if you don’t face all of the scenarios mentioned above, you should still have backup plans ready according to situations.

Crises often come without warning, rarely giving enough time to businesses to react or take decisions accordingly.  Therefore, businesses must implement business continuity and crisis management systems, processes and procedures to ensure any crisis can be handled professionally and competently.

Crisis management is the process of managing and dealing with crises. The process deals with all sorts of threats before, during, or after the crisis. It focuses on reducing the damage and prompt recovery.

Read more about how to reduce the potential impact of crises .

For any organization, business continuity and crisis management go hand-in-hand.  Your crisis management plan should be a component of your broader business continuity plan (BCP). Key elements to include in your Crisis Management Plan are:

  • Risk analysis
  • Activation protocol – how is the crisis management plan activated
  • Organizational structure/chain of command – does your organizational structure change in the event of a crisis?
  • Command centre plan
  • Crisis response action plans
  • External communications plan
  • Resourcing and responsibilities
  • Review schedule

Business continuity and crisis management - crisis management plan

Crisis Management Planning

Business continuity and crisis management are closely related, with crisis management planning forming a part of the broader business continuity plan.

The Crisis Management Plan will typically detail the communication and decision-making elements of your business continuity plan. Once well documented, the Crisis Management Plan detail, enable and facilitate communication between all stakeholders.

It will further detail steps which are required for impact assessment, as well as interaction with media regarding the crisis, and any action to be taken to contain the crisis.

Business continuity and crisis management

Factors to be considered for a Crisis Management Plan

Every crisis management plan needs to be tailored to a business’ or organization’s specific needs.  Fortunately, there is some commonality, and presented here are some of the common guidelines for formulating a crisis management plan:

  • Command Center – A Crisis Management/Emergency Operations Command Center should be established to function as the focal point for crisis management.
  • Contact list – An updated contact list for internal and external stakeholders to ensure communications are distributed to the correct audience.
  • Crisis Management Team – Comprising of senior managers with the expertise and experience to manage a crisis. The team should include employees with any specialized knowledge or skills which will be useful in combating the crisis.
  • Evaluation and corrections – Once the crisis has concluded, identified members of the Crisis Management Team should evaluate the response, and where appropriate, take corrective action to overcome any deficiencies.
  • Organizational responsibilities of the team – Every member of the Crisis management team should be assigned a specific task by defining their functions, duties and responsibilities during the crisis.
  • Logistics – Detail any logistical support required for notification, mobilization and resourcing the crisis centers.
  • Public relations – A clear external communications strategy to minimize ‘bad press’. A specific team member or sub-team should be assigned for this.
  • Sub-teams – Functioning under the overall direction of the main team. The sub-team(s) will comprise of employees with specialist and varying expertise which may be required subject to the type and severity of the crisis.

Business continuity and crisis management - response

Business continuity focuses on ensuring an organization can continue to operate in the event of a disruption and set a path to return to normal business operations once the disruption or crisis has subsided.

Business continuity planning (BCP) typically consists of four stages, namely Risk Assessment and Business Impact Analysis (BIA), Developing of recovery strategies, Implementation of recovery strategies, and Testing, acceptance and ongoing maintenance of business continuity practices and procedures.

Business continuity and crisis management

The pandemic is a perfect example of a global event which required businesses to invoke their business continuity and crisis management protocols.

In many cases, businesses activated their business continuity plans.  As lockdowns became mandatory and prolonged, crisis management strategies were instigated to ensure organizations could continue to operate.

Any business continuity plan must implement clear risk management strategies, setting set clear metrics for measuring success.

A business continuity plan must have an alternative to maintain customer service in case of a disaster or catastrophic event. These alternatives can include data backup, emergency office locations, and emergency IT administrative rights.

Business continuity and crisis management - BCP overview

See also:  Business continuity vs disaster recovery: Understanding the difference

One of the first measures in growing a business continuity plan is the Business impact analysis – typically known as BIA. This process allows you to understand specific functions that are crucial to your successful business. Also, you become clear of what effects a disruption will have on them

What is Business Impact Analysis (BIA)?

Business impact analysis (BIA) gives you an idea of how your business will hold up during a crisis. You’ll be able to pre-calculate the recovery time objectives for the services you offer. Also, you’ll be able to figure out the number of resources you need to keep your business running unhampered.

Using this information, you’ll be able to build the base of your disaster recovery and create your business continuity plan .

Business continuity and crisis management

How to conduct a business impact analysis

Follow the steps below to perform a business impact analysis flawlessly :

  • detect all sorts of business procedures and functions
  • prioritize the crucial functions or procedures
  • consider and analyze the possible business losses
  • choose recovery solutions accordingly
  • consider all the existing independencies such as with IT systems
  • measure the potential impacts of all the operational chaos on people, procedures, and technologies
  • measure all the legal and financial consequences
  • create a list of the requirements for the recovery time

The output you’ll get from doing these is the business impact analysis report. You’ll find this report :

  • assuming the worst possible scenarios
  • considering the potential loss of your business during a crisis
  • identifying the volume of the financial and operational consequences from the crisis

Business continuity and crisis management

Here are some of the impacts that a potential business crisis or loss functions can have :

  • the sales or income you lost
  • overtime, outsourcing, or any other higher costs or expenses
  • regulatory fines or contractual penalties
  • losing customers and major customer disappointment
  • dropping business reputation

Business continuity and crisis management

What is the difference between business impact analysis and risk assessment?

BIA and risk assessment both are business continuity tools. However, there is a difference between them.

You won’t find BIA directly focusing on the odds of an event. Instead, it paints all the possible worst-case scenarios. Risk assessment analysis helps you with measuring the overall potential risks and threats to your business and the effects they might have.

BIA helps the risk assessment to quantify and prioritize all the risks found.

Read on to understand how you can evaluate business risks .

Business continuity and crisis management

All businesses come with some risk and uncertainty. But that doesn’t mean each one of them will be devastating. By taking proper measures, damages and losses can be reduced.

Follow the crisis-mitigating strategies below to prepare yourself and prevent small risks that can take a snowball effect later on and pose a danger.

  • Business premises – Having an adequate backup plan for the crises will help in the long run.  For example, planning for a flood can lower the risk and save your premises from potential damages.

Again, having proper electrical and gas safety measures can provide enough protection to your premises from an unexpected fire. Also, fire and burglar alarm installation will be helpful.

Have a contingency plan in case you’re unable to use your premises will help you determine the feasibility of using alternative premises at short notice.

  • IT and communications – To protect your IT systems, make sure you install anti-virus, keep data back up, and ensure the right maintenance agreements. Paying an IT company to back up your data offsite on a secure server is also a smart option.

You can print the information of your customers and keep the hard copy in case the IT system fails. Check out these proven methods for IT risk management .

  • Employees – Consider training more staff with similar skills to use in emergencies. This way you won’t have to depend on a particular set of people for getting something done.

You should also check if there are temporary cover available from recruitment agencies in case there’s some medical emergencies or sickness. Take proper health and safety measures to keep the staff off risk.

  • Transport – Keep a record of your staff’s transportation. If possible, establish a car-sharing scheme or facilitate the staff with the company’s transportation to work and home.

You can also encourage them to use public transport. Provide sufficient facilities for the IT support systems and allow them to work from home.

  • Equipment, machinery, materials, etc – While using key equipment pieces, make sure you have them covered with maintenance plans that guarantee a swift emergency response.

You may find it challenging to gather particular materials during a crisis. So, reserving some mission-critical supplies and materials would be a great choice.

Also, have a list ready for the alternative supplies if your provider can’t manage the goods or materials you’d need.

  • Insurance – Insurance is a significant part of the effective risk-management strategy. Check how you can insure your business and assets . Also, you will understand how to insure your business – people, life, and health.
  • Understanding business continuity and crisis management
  • Creating a business continuity plan
  • Technology Risk Assessments
  • Using cloud computing to achieve business continuity
  • How to perform a cybersecurity risk assessment

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Lucy has more than 23 years of experience in the technology industry. Specialising in the cloud and telecommunications sectors, Lucy has previously worked in senior management roles within HR & Operations for major national and international organisations such as BT, O2 and more recently, Vodafone. Lucy is currently the Deputy Online Editor at BusinessTechWeekly.com

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Crisis management and business continuity planning

Unplanned events can have a devastating effect on small businesses. Crises such as fire, damage to stock, illness of key staff or IT system failure could all make it difficult or even impossible to carry out your normal day-to-day activities.

At worst, this could see you losing important customers - and even going out of business altogether.

But with good planning you can take steps to minimise the potential impact of a disaster - and ideally prevent it happening in the first place.

This guide will help you to identify potential risks, make preparations for emergencies and test how your business is likely to cope in a disaster.

Why you need to plan for possible crises

Crises that could affect your business, assess the possible impact of risks on your business, minimise the potential impact of crises, plan how you'll deal with an emergency, test your business continuity plan.

It's essential to plan thoroughly to protect yourself from the impact of potential crises - from fire, flood or theft to IT system failure, restricted access to premises or illness of key staff.

This planning is very important for small businesses since they often lack the resources to cope easily in a crisis.

Failure to plan could be disastrous. At best you risk losing customers while you're getting your business back on its feet. At worst your business may never recover and may ultimately cease trading .

As part of the planning process you should:

  • identify potential crises that might affect you
  • determine how you intend to minimise the risks of these disasters occurring
  • set out how you'll react if a disaster occurs in a business continuity plan
  • test the plan regularly

For example, if you're reliant on computer information, you should put a back-up system in place so you have a copy of key data in the event of a system failure.

Benefits of a business continuity plan

A carefully thought-out business continuity plan will make coping in a crisis easier and enable you to minimise disruption to the business and its customers.

It will also prove to customers, insurers and investors that your business is robust enough to cope with anything that might be thrown at you - possibly giving you the edge over your competitors.

Depending on your business' specific circumstances, there are many possible events that might constitute a crisis:

  • Natural disasters - for example, flooding caused by burst water pipes or heavy rain, or wind damage following storms.
  • Theft or vandalism - theft of computer equipment, for instance, could prove devastating. Similarly, vandalism of machinery or vehicles could not only be costly but also pose health and safety risks.
  • Fire - few other situations have such potential to physically destroy a business.
  • Power cut - loss of power could have serious consequences. What would you do if you couldn't use IT or telecoms systems or operate other key machinery or equipment?
  • IT system failure - computer viruses, attacks by hackers or system failures could affect employees' ability to work effectively.
  • Restricted access to premises - how would your business function if you couldn't access your workplace - for example, due to a gas leak?
  • Loss or illness of key staff - if any of your staff is central to the running of your business, consider how you would cope if they were to leave or be incapacitated by illness.
  • Outbreak of disease or infection - depending on your type of business an outbreak of an infectious disease among your staff, in your premises or among livestock could present serious health and safety risks.
  • Terrorist attack - consider the risks to your employees and your business operations if there is a terrorist strike, either where your business is based or in locations to which you and your employees travel. Also consider whether an attack may have a longer-term effect on your particular market or sector.
  • Crises affecting suppliers - how would you source alternative supplies?
  • Crises affecting customers - will insurance or customer guarantees offset a client's inability to take your goods or services?
  • Crises affecting your business' reputation - how would you cope, for example, in the event of a product recall?

Though some of these scenarios may seem unlikely, it's prudent to give them consideration.

You need to analyse the probability and consequences of crises that could affect your business. This involves:

  • assessing the likelihood of a particular crisis occurring - and its possible frequency
  • determining its possible impact on your operations

This kind of analysis should help you to identify which business functions are essential to day-to-day business operations. You're likely to conclude that certain roles within the business - while necessary in normal circumstances - aren't absolutely critical in a disaster scenario.

Likelihood of risks occurring

It can help to grade the probability of a particular crisis occurring, perhaps on a numerical scale or as high, medium or low.

This will help you to decide your business' attitude towards each risk. You may decide to do nothing about a low-probability crisis - although remember that it could still be highly damaging to your business if it occurred, e.g. a terrorist attack.

Potential impact of a crisis

To determine the possible impact of a crisis on your business, it can be helpful to think of some of the worst possible scenarios and how they might prove debilitating for the business.

For instance, how could you access data on your customers and suppliers if computer equipment was stolen or damaged by a flood? Where would the business operate from if your premises were destroyed by fire?

It's essential to look at risks from the perspective of your customers . Consider how they'd be affected by each potential crisis. Would they be likely to look for alternative suppliers?

Consider whether you would be able to keep to service-level agreements (SLAs) if a particular crisis occurred - and what the consequences might be if you couldn't.

Once you've identified the key risks your business faces, you need to take steps to protect your business functions against them.

Good electrical and gas safety could help protect premises against fire. Installing fire and burglar alarms also makes sense.

Think what you would do in an emergency if your premises couldn't be used. For example, you might suggest an arrangement with another local business to share premises temporarily if a crisis affected either of you.

Equipment/machinery

If you use vital pieces of equipment, you may want to cover them with maintenance plans guaranteeing a fast emergency call-out.

IT and communications

Installing anti-virus software, backing up data and ensuring the right maintenance agreements are in place can all help protect your IT systems. You might also consider paying an IT company to regularly back up your data offsite on a secure server.

Printing out copies of your customer database can be a good way of ensuring you can still contact customers if your IT system fails.

Try to ensure you're not dependent on a few staff for key skills by getting them to train other people.

Consider whether you could get temporary cover from a recruitment agency if illness left you without several key members of staff. And take health and safety seriously to reduce the risk of staff injuries.

Insurance forms a central part of an effective risk-management strategy.

You should draw up a business continuity plan setting out in writing how you will cope if a crisis does occur.

It should detail:

  • the key business functions you need to get operating as quickly as possible and the resources you'll need to do so
  • the roles of individuals in the emergency

Making the most of the first hour after an emergency occurs is essential in minimising the impact. As a result, your plan needs to explain the immediate actions to be taken.

Consider whether you'll need to give staff specific training to enable them to fulfil their responsibilities in an emergency situation. Ensure all employees are aware of what they have to do.

Arranging the plan in the form of checklists can be a good way to make sure that key steps are followed.

Include contact details for those you're likely to have to notify in an emergency such as the emergency services, insurers, municipal services, customers, suppliers, utility companies and neighbouring businesses.

It's also worth including details of service-providers such as glaziers, locksmiths, plumbers, electricians, and IT specialists. Include maps of your premises' layout to help emergency services, showing fire escapes, sprinklers and other safety equipment.

Set out how you'll deal with possible media interest in an incident. Appoint a single company spokesperson to handle questions and try to be positive in any statements you issue. Ensure staff, customers and suppliers are informed before they find out in the media.

Finally, make sure hard copies of your business continuity plan are lodged at your home and at with your bank and at the homes of other key members of staff.

Once your plan is in place, you'll need to test how well it's likely to perform in the event of an emergency.

Although by their nature crises are hard to simulate in a rehearsal, you can assess your plan against a number of possible scenarios in a paper-based exercise.

Think about the things that would cause most disruption and that are most likely to happen to your business. Then make sure that your plan covers each of the risks. Ask yourself the following key questions:

  • Does it set out each employee's role in the event of each emergency?
  • Have you set out the right steps to take?
  • Is the order of the plan correct so that priority actions to minimise damage will take place immediately after the incident?

Make some telephone calls to check that the key contacts and phone numbers that you have given are correct. Having to find the right number after a crisis could use up valuable time.

Keep your plan updated

Remember to update your plan regularly to take into account your business' changing circumstances.

If you move into new premises, for example, you could face an entirely new set of risks. You'd need to draw up new maps for the emergency services and amend any contact numbers necessary.

You should test your plan regularly, even if your business hasn't undergone significant changes.

You can also consult the following guide:

  • 8 steps for planning your emergency and disaster plan

Original document, Crisis management and business continuity planning , © Crown copyright 2009 Source: Business Link UK (now GOV.UK/Business ) Adapted for Québec by Info entrepreneurs

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business continuity management for crisis

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business continuity management for crisis

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business continuity management for crisis

  • Crisis Response

Our teams move fast to help clients stabilize crises and deliver an integrated response while maintaining performance.

We have worked on 150 of the world's largest crises over the past 15 years—including natural disasters, disease outbreaks, cyberattacks, conduct issues, market disruptions, and operational incidents. We help business and government leaders take immediate control of the crisis situation, stabilize their organizations, and accelerate the recovery.

Key to the value we bring is our deep understanding of how crises unfold. We know what the breakpoints are and act preemptively to protect them—containing problems before they blow up and proactively managing critical stakeholders. We then look to the future, helping clients find and fix the root cause of the crisis or mitigate against future events, and ensure they recover stronger than before.

Five things distinguish our work:

  • End-to-end business stabilization. We have experience and knowledge to identify short and long-term threats to our client's business during a crisis. We develop immediate no-regret moves as well as long-term contingency plans that increase our clients’ ability to successfully manage the ever-evolving stakeholder expectations.
  • Pathway across crisis phases. We help senior leaders focus on the broad set of required actions for a successful crisis response by leveraging our proprietary frameworks and tools to help guide how they allocate their time during the different phases of a crisis. We help our clients avoid missing key strategic decisions, which can happen when the whole organizations is focused on a few urgent, immediate actions.
  • Better, faster decision making. Our teams have helped business and government leaders manage many serious crises. Across every major industry and region, we understand how crises unfold. We are uniquely placed to help clients foresee the impact of their crisis-response decisions, which allows us to help senior leaders make better, faster decisions.
  • Integrated, top-leadership perspective. We provide the strategic judgment, global experience, and integrated point of view required to be true counselors to business heads and government leaders. We help our clients' senior leaders and boards come together around one central crisis response plan, along the entire crisis life cycle.
  • Focus on the future. Drawing on our expertise in every major industry, we help our clients find and address the root cause of the crisis—not just the immediate problem. We design transformation programs that build resilience and aim to minimize future risks so clients recover stronger than before. Our support includes rapid design and implementation of new business capabilities and processes—ranging from claims processing to complex capital repair to climate resilience strategies—to rebuild performance and stakeholder trust.

Examples of our work

Recent examples of our work include:

  • Helping a leading global resources company recover from a major operational failure that had severely harmed its reputation and put it at risk of competitive takeover. We helped bring the crisis under control, revised operational risk standards across its worldwide operations, and secured the company's survival.
  • Defining the crisis-response organization for a leading bank facing regulatory intervention, collective employee action, and possible shutdown. We helped set up a crisis war room and then quickly migrated critical risk functions from a disparate structure to a top-down structure. Within weeks, relations with customers, employees, and regulators were stabilized.
  • Helping a fast-growth start-up recover from a crisis related to allegations of widespread toxic culture across the company, including a degrading environment, overly competitive culture, and fragmented communication across sites and functions. The crisis had led to turnover in the top team, potential loss in investor confidence, and company-wide uncertainty. We worked with the CEO and board to stabilize the company, restore investor confidence, and engage leaders in a culture reboot.
  • Supporting a global natural resource producer after an operational disaster to install a post-disaster recovery center as well as operations-continuity office.
  • Helping an international manufacturer create an integrated solution to address all the stakeholders' concerns related to a global scandal and recall. We helped identify and model options, design the integrated solution, as well as set up the organization structure to deliver on the solution.

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The Essential Guide to Crisis Management

By Andy Marker | August 31, 2020 (updated September 16, 2021)

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No business is immune to crisis, so every company needs to understand the basics of crisis management. This essential guide provides an overview of the topic and insights from leading experts.

In this article, learn the different types of crises to prepare for, the stages of crisis management , and the “golden rules” of crisis management , according to experts.

What Is Crisis Management? 

Crisis management is the process of preparing for, managing, and limiting damage from unexpected negative events at an organization. This practice includes anticipating threats, developing strategies to minimize harm, and implementing these strategies when a crisis occurs.     

Crises share certain attributes regardless of the size or type of organization: A crisis poses a threat to the company, includes some element of surprise, requires action to change the course of events, and demands fast decision-making. 

Emergencies can occur suddenly when an event happens that’s beyond the organization’s control, such as an earthquake. Or a crisis can develop over time as a small problem worsens because the organization does not see or fails to act on warning signs. This category of smoldering or creeping crisis includes problems like safety issues.

What Is Business Crisis Management?

Business crisis management is the series of actions that companies take to identify threats, plan potential responses, and minimize disruption or losses to the business and its stakeholders in the event of an actual crisis. 

A crisis can stem from internal or external causes and harm a business in multiple ways. The fallout of a crisis often affects more than one dimension. Sometimes, the damage is so great that the company cannot survive. Losses can include the following:

  • Customer flight
  • Damage to or destruction of assets such as buildings
  • Disruption to operations
  • Exit of key employees
  • Higher expenses
  • Legal claims for damages
  • Loss of intellectual property and proprietary information
  • Loss of key products
  • Negative environmental impact
  • Physical injury to workers or other stakeholders
  • Reduced access to credit or worsening loan terms
  • Reduction in sales and profits
  • Regulatory scrutiny and enforcement
  • Reputation harm 
  • Weakened competitive position and erosion of market share
  • Weakened morale among employees

Crisis Management vs. Risk Management

In business, crisis management overlaps with risk management in that organizations use both to consider what could go wrong and how to address it. But risk management focuses on how to prevent crises while crisis management emphasizes how to react.

Crisis managers put the bulk of their effort into developing action plans for responding to emergencies and executing these plans. Risk managers concentrate on ongoing ways of preventing threats from arising. Risk management also has a broader remit, dealing with any kind of challenge that could impair a company’s ability to meet its strategic objectives.

To learn more about risk management, read “ Enterprise Risk Management 101: Programs, Frameworks, and Advice from Experts .”

Four Ps of Crisis Management

The four Ps is a mnemonic that captures the essential elements of crisis management  — prevent, plan, practice , and perform . These terms remind companies to minimize threats, develop crisis plans, rehearse these plans, and execute them effectively when needed.  

Several variations on this list of Ps incorporate words like prepare, people , and post-event review . A six-word version summarizes crisis management: Proper prior planning prevents poor performance.  

Jack Stack, CEO of Illinois equipment company SRC Holdings Corp., writes in his blog that business developed another four Ps to survive the 2009 economic crisis and put these Ps to work again in the 2020 global pandemic. 

Those Ps include people (keep every employee informed and lines of communication open), positive cash flow (a critical focus to manage debt), practices (managing with transparency and operating strategically), and positioning (find opportunities to position yourself for growth).

Crisis Management Is No Longer Optional

Many companies historically neglected crisis management, but experts say this became increasingly risky as the landscape changed. Crises today can escalate more quickly, and the survival of the business can be in the balance. 

Among the forces at work are the following: 

  • Globalization: Businesses are more dependent on suppliers and customers far from their home bases and are more likely to have operations and employees at multiple locations and across borders. This type of expansion exposes companies to more complex risks and threats, and a crisis can have a magnified, domino effect.  
  • Technology: Information spreads almost instantaneously in a wired world, especially as social media becomes a primary source for many people. Negative news and rumors disseminate quickly, giving companies very little time to perform damage control before customers flee, reputations suffer, and sales plummet.  
  • Rise of Novel Crises: The accelerated rate of change and growing complexity of global systems have given rise to never-before-seen or once-in-a-generation crises. (Think of terrorist attacks, a  global pandemic, and wildfires linked to climate change.) These events demand that crisis managers respond agilely with innovative solutions. To prepare for a novel crisis, companies need to develop plans and build relationships, both of which take time.  
  • A crisis won’t happen. 
  • A well-managed business doesn’t need a crisis plan.
  • Insurance will protect the company against a crisis. 
  • The company doesn’t have the resources to do crisis planning. 
  • Business challenges deserve all of the company’s attention.  In the last several years, virtually every company found itself affected by a crisis that insurance didn’t cover. Businesses that had not dedicated resources and energy to prepare sometimes found their survival in jeopardy. 

Regina Phelps

Regina Phelps, Founder of crisis management consulting firm Emergency Management & Safety Solutions, recalls that before the 2020 global pandemic, “Executives were comfortable taking on more and more risk without mitigating crisis measures, processes, teams or plans…. Or programs would be established but funding would decrease over time because nothing happened .” In the aftermath of this major disruption, she says support from senior executives for building crisis management capacity is vital and urges leaders to stay the course.

Types of Crisis

Crisis managers must anticipate events, and understanding the major types of crises is a good precursor to developing a threat list. For organizations, categories of crises may relate to the area of operation or the nature of the crisis. 

Boston University scholar Otto Lerbinger in his 1997 book, The Crisis Manager: Facing Risk and Responsibility , divided crises into eight categories: natural disasters, technological, confrontation, malevolence, organizational misdeeds, workplace violence, rumors, and terrorist attacks/man-made disasters. Summaries of these and other types of business crises follow.  

  • Natural Disaster: These crises often stem from weather and environmental conditions, including storms, droughts, floods, and wildfires. Hurricane Katrina in 2005 is a memorable natural disaster
  • Technological Crisis: These crises stem from technology issues such as hardware outages, software malfunctions, network problems, data loss and breaches, and computer sabotage. The movement to cloud-based storage and software as a service (SaaS) makes companies vulnerable to technology malfunctions that occur at their vendors. Big outages (such as a satellite or undersea data cable failure) can disrupt many businesses simultaneously. The Experian data breach in 2017, in which hackers stole personal information of about 148 million consumers, is an example of a technology crisis.
  • Confrontation: This type of crisis results from conflict between activists with a cause-related agenda and companies or governments. These incidents include boycotts, protests, sit-ins, and other types of civil disobedience. An example is environmental protesters who occupy trees to prevent commercial logging.
  • Malevolence: This type of crisis originates with hostile or criminal actions against a company and sometimes has the goal of destroying it. These actions include cybercrime, product tampering, industrial espionage, and executive kidnapping. For example, in attacks known as Night Dragon, hackers broke into the computer networks of five major oil and gas companies to steal proprietary information.
  • Organizational Misdeeds: Management causes these crises when it knowingly takes actions that harm stakeholders or important third parties. These actions include deception, misconduct, and moves driven by unethical or short-sighted values. An example of this type of crisis occurs when an executive accepts a bribe to steer a contract to an unqualified bidder.
  • Workplace Violence: These crises are attacks by an employee or former employee on other staff members at a company location due to anger related to the attacker’s employment. (Other kinds of violence at company sites against staff members, such as patients attacking healthcare workers, do not fall in this category because the perpetrator is not an employee or former employee.)
  • Financial Crisis: A financial crisis can be specific to a company, in which a business has an issue like negative cash flow that impairs its ability to operate. It can also be national, regional, or global, such as an economic recession that depresses sales and causes stock markets to fall. Companies respond to financial crises with short-term measures such as emergency credit lines and longer-term steps like business restructuring, layoffs, and other cost-cutting. The 2008 bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers due to losses incurred in the subprime mortgage market represents a financial crisis.
  • Personnel Crisis: These crises are typically triggered by the loss of key staff members, such as a star sales representative or a genius drug scientist. These key people can be poached by rivals, courted by headhunters, and tempted by creative opportunities or promotions. Of course, death and retirement are factors too. Broader personnel crises occur when staff morale suffers, companies go through periods of financial stress, and layoffs leave departments short-staffed. An example of a potential personnel crisis occurred when Apple’s Head of Design Jony Ive left the company in 2019.
  • Victim Crisis: This category includes crises that view the company as being a victim of events outside its control. One well-known example is when seven people in the Chicago area died after consuming Tylenol that an unknown criminal tainted with poison. Other examples are natural disasters, workplace violence, and unfounded rumors.
  • Accidental Crisis: In an accidental crisis, the company is responsible but did not knowingly or intentionally cause the problem. Outbreaks of E. coli after people consumed meat contaminated with the bacteria at fast food restaurants are good examples of an accidental crisis. Many product issues fit into this type.  
  • Intentional Crisis: These crises generate the most ill will toward organizations because they result from intentional actions. Events involving malfeasance and negligence usually fall in this category, such as the Volkswagen emissions scandal. Sometimes these crises are labeled preventable because they stem from errors and mistakes.

For more examples and how companies dealt with them, read “The Most Useful Crisis Management Examples: The Good, Bad, and Ugly.”

How Crisis Management Works

Crises never unfold exactly as anticipated, but the planning process develops crisis management skills and a preparedness mindset. That way, you can deal with whatever happens more effectively.

“ How to Craft a Strong Crisis Management Strategy ” explains the strategic responsibilities of senior leaders in crisis management. 

A crisis management team needs to understand all the calamities that could befall their organization, and that requires consulting operational staff, not just top managers. Once the team drafts a crisis management plan , make sure to allocate adequate resources to train responders, acquire staff or material that may be needed, and update the plan regularly. 

A major goal of preparation is to keep operations running or resume them as quickly as possible in the event of a crisis. A business continuity plan focuses on this aspect of crisis management. See “ Business Continuity Planning: How to Do It Well ” to learn more. “ Free Disaster Recovery Plan Templates ” offers templates for disaster recovery plans at different kinds of organizations and for business needs such as payroll and data.

Importance of Crisis Management

Crisis management is crucial because the practice helps companies prevent or avert catastrophes, minimize damage from those that are unavoidable, and get operations back to normal as quickly as possible. 

Events such as the 2020 global pandemic, California’s wildfires, and other disasters have driven home the importance of vigilance and preparation. Being proactive is a basic survival skill. 

Deb Hileman

“Even now only about half of all organizations have any kind of crisis management plan. This dearth of preparedness is simply no longer acceptable in a world where global crises are a painful reality,” notes Deborah Hileman, President and CEO of the Institute for Crisis Management .

Good crisis management is a competitive advantage. The Incident Command System, which originated as a structure to streamline coordination of different agencies fighting California wildfires, is becoming more widely adopted because it enables faster, more efficient responses. 

The private sector has enhanced the efficiency of Incident Command System with technology by embedding features such as real-time incident status reports, dynamic organization charts, audit trails of responses, and form generation.

Stages of Crisis Management

A crisis management effort begins with designating a team and a leader. They will work through the phases of identifying risks, developing and documenting response plans, practicing those plans, implementing them when needed, and reviewing the results. 

Within these stages fall key tasks such as detecting warning signs, damage control, learning from experience, and updating crisis plans as a result. 

Creating a crisis management plan is the most challenging part of your preparation. See “ Free Crisis Management Templates ” to download templates for management plans, helpful checklists, and tabletop exercises.

For instructions on building a crisis management team, see “ How to Build an Effective Crisis Management Team ,” and delve more deeply into drafting a plan in “ Step-by-Step Guide to Writing a Crisis Management Plan .”

Communication is a vital part of crisis management. Learn how to develop a crisis communications strategy and find the resources you need by reading “ Ultimate Tool Kit: Free Communication Strategy Templates, Examples, and Expert Tips .” Use one of our f ree crisis communications templates to draft communications plans for schools, businesses, social media, and more.

Example of Crisis Management Playbook

In business, a crisis management playbook is a document that enables you to gather details of your response actions, processes, and roles. In some ways, this guide is similar to your crisis management plan, but the playbook is usually more succinct and oriented to the immediate response.

Example Crisis Management Playbook

Seeing an example of such a playbook can be helpful. The example of a crisis management playbook below summarizes how a fictional school district intends to respond to its most likely crises. The example goes into more detail on the response to a positive case of an infectious disease among students including how to verify there is a crisis, key messaging points, and post-crisis analysis.

Download Example Crisis Management Playbook

Word  | PDF

Management by Crisis Process

Although they sound similar, management by crisis is the antithesis of good crisis management. Management by crisis means that your business is in a constant state of crisis response,  leaping from one emergency to the next. 

When managers are putting out fires all the time, they have no opportunity to plan or take initiative; they are stuck in a stressed-out, reactive mode. Management by crisis can be a hard habit to break because practitioners feel their efforts save the company from disaster. Despite this illusion of productivity, they and the company are not able to operate strategically and perpetuate the conditions that give rise to problems. 

Leaders who manage by crisis may also manufacture an atmosphere of crisis with the well-intended goal of getting their teams to exert superhuman efforts. However, the result is ultimately employee burnout, low morale, and turnover. Common moves that contribute to a crisis atmosphere include setting artificial deadlines or shuffling staff.

Golden Rules for Crisis Management

Some pieces of crisis management wisdom are almost universally endorsed by experts and  have become unofficial rules. Learning them puts you well on your way to mastering crisis management best practices.

Louis Carter

Louis Carter, CEO of the Best Practice Institute , advises, “Accept responsibility. Admit if your company made mistakes… (Then) once the storm has passed, gather the team to discuss lessons learned.” 

11 Essential Rules for Crisis Management

  • Prepare and make crisis readiness an ongoing process.
  • Stay calm and convey confidence to others.
  • Gather clear and accurate facts about the crisis as soon as possible.
  • Prioritize people over property.
  • Don’t make things worse. 
  • Communicate clearly and quickly, but avoid a knee-jerk reaction.
  • Appoint one credible spokesperson and have consistent messaging.
  • Never, ever lie.
  • Make sure the crisis team has the support and resources it needs.
  • Don’t lose touch with your humanity. Recognize people are under stress and may be grieving.
  • Learn from the crisis and fix any underlying problems it revealed.

Michael Fagel

Michael Fagel, founder of emergency response consulting firm Aurora Safety , emphasizes the importance of committing to crisis readiness for the long term. “Emergency planning is not a light switch, and it’s not a magic wand. It’s a process,” he notes.

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Creating a Successful Crisis Management Plan

A crisis may come in many forms, such as a natural disaster, a global pandemic, loss of power and water supply, a cyberattack, an operational accident, violent threats or supply chain issues. In a manufacturing environment, a crisis is defined as an unexpected event or situation that can threaten an organization’s business, cause harm to the health and safety of employees and consumers, disrupt operations or damage a company’s brand or reputation. An organization’s reaction to and the consequences of a crisis can vary significantly for each company, depending on factors such as crisis preparedness, maturity, size and scale of operations and financial viability. The COVID-19 pandemic has made most organizations aware of vulnerabilities in anticipating, preparing for, responding to and managing crises. There has been a renewed awareness of the importance of a robust crisis management plan (CMP) and a focus on business continuity.

What to Do and Where to Start

Planning can help an organization contain and mitigate the negative effects of a crisis. The reaction of an organization to a crisis speaks to its culture and reflects its leadership. The way that business leaders prepare for and respond to disruptive events can determine how they recover and become resilient.

In a 2018 Deloitte survey of organizations from around the globe, 47% of those without a crisis management plan reported that their finances were negatively impacted by a recent crisis, compared to 31% of those that did have a plan. 1

Similarly, a 2019 PwC global crisis survey of various organizations from different industries across the globe found that organizations that emerged stronger from a crisis had implemented preparatory measures (such as having a CMP in place) in anticipation of a crisis. 2

NSF recognizes the importance of crisis management and how having a process affects business continuity. NSF’s GMP registration and certification programs include requirements for organizations to implement a CMP to address situations or emergencies arising from a crisis that may impact their ability to deliver a safe product. The purpose of a CMP is to prepare an organization to respond quickly to a crisis, minimize the harm and restore operations in an effective and efficient manner.

Business continuity and the implementation of a CMP is the responsibility of each employee, department, the crisis management plan team, executive management and the board of directors.

Steps in Developing and Maintaining a CMP

Steps in Developing and Maintaining a CMP

1. Assess Company Threats

A starting point is to identify the industry threats and those unique to your organization, location or region, market, products and processes. After identification, assess threats for likelihood and the expected severity of the impact. Next, identify warning signs for each crisis. These assessments will assist with prioritizing actions and allocating resources.

This NSF risk analysis matrix can help in your assessment.

NSF risk analysis matrix can help in your assessment

Examples of questions to ask during the assessment process:

  • What are the potential threats to your organization that could result in a crisis, thus impacting your ability to deliver a safe product?
  • How vulnerable is your organization to these threats?
  • What are the potential impacts of the crisis?
  • How will the crisis impact the operations at the site?
  • What mechanisms does your organization currently have to track and respond to these potential threats?

2. Develop a Crisis Management Plan

According to the 2019 PwC global study, three characteristics comprise successful crisis management: preparedness, a fact-based approach and effectiveness of stakeholder communications. The study also found that while it is a positive sign that most senior executives want to own and be involved in preparing for and responding to a crisis, an overlap of roles and responsibilities may occur. This can affect effective and efficient coordination, communication and decision-making during a crisis. 3

A CMP serves as a guidebook for an organization to navigate the different situations that can arise from a crisis and who is responsible for each item. An effective CMP has the following elements:

  • Define and assign responsibilities for gathering information and for initiating, coordinating and overseeing crises responses
  • Establish sources of credible and factual information
  • Find resources for expert and legal advice
  • Define lines of authority and accountability (hierarchy)
  • Establish escalation process for decisions
  • Define tools, routes and responsibilities for communications
  • Set a process for disseminating and sharing information between crisis management team and employees
  • Draft key messaging and talking points
  • Set a process for communication with authorities, regulatory agencies, stakeholders, media and the public
  • Define controls to ensure a response does not compromise product safety
  • Set measures to identify and isolate product affected by the crisis
  • Identify availability of resources and provisions for back-up sources for critical systems
  • Define and track key performance indicators (KPIs)
  • Set measures to evaluate and determine disposition of affected product

3. Test the Crisis Management Plan

To quickly execute a CMP during a crisis, it is important to perform a periodic exercise or simulation to test the plan. Practices or drills of different crisis situations can reveal an organization’s strengths as well as gaps in the level of preparedness. After the challenge, the team should analyze what went well and what did not, and update the CMP accordingly. In testing the crisis management plan, the organization must include the impact to product safety as well as the safety of its employees.

Providing crisis management training and including all personnel in the test scenarios will make them aware of the CMP. This will empower personnel to be proactive when a crisis does arise, including knowing whom to inform.

4. Monitor Threats and Review the CMP

Disruption to an organization’s business can occur when it is least expected, so it is important that an organization looks ahead and assesses potential threats, whether internal or external. As the business environment changes, the CMP may need to be updated as well. The CMP must be reviewed on a periodic basis to ensure it will still be effective in the event of an actual crisis.

Business Continuity

In addition to having a CMP to respond quickly to a crisis, an organization must also have a plan in place to continue operations during an incident and recover from the crisis. Business continuity planning is an ongoing process to ensure that the necessary steps are taken to identify the impact of potential losses and maintain viable recovery strategies, recovery plans and continuity of services. 4 A business continuity plan (BCP) is the document that contains these strategies.

Interrelation of CMP with BCP

Interrelation of CMP with BCP

The process of developing a BCP is similar to developing a CMP. The BCP incorporates all hazards (human-caused events, technological issues and natural hazards) and a risk assessment to understand the business impact to people, infrastructure, operations, the environment, economic conditions, regulatory and contractual obligations, and reputation. The analysis identifies what is an unacceptable impact for loss of information, critical processes, function and applications, among other factors.

Senior management then establishes a prevention strategy based on the results of hazard identification and risk assessment, impact analysis, program constraints, operational experience and cost-benefit analysis. Prevention includes training, monitoring of the quality management system, testing the BCP at a determined frequency and performing exercises to ensure the program is working. Last but not least, mitigation strategies must be applied to ensure measures are taken to limit or control the consequences, extent or severity of an incident that cannot be prevented.

In structuring the BCP, consider factors such as the regulatory landscape, contractual obligations, financial resources and infrastructure. The commitment of senior management in applying resources to ensure recovery and continuity of operations will ensure a strong business continuity program.

Preparing a CMP and BCP takes resources, time and effort, but it is imperative that an organization is vigilant to possible new threats while continuing to monitor existing ones. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that a crisis can occur unexpectedly and from unanticipated sources. An organization can emerge better, stronger and more resilient from a crisis if it is able to anticipate and assess potential threats and has a plan in place to quickly respond and recover.

1 Deloitte. Stronger, fitter, better: Crisis Management for the resilient enterprise. June 2018. (https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/topics/risk-management/crisis-management-plan-resilient-enterprise.html)

2 PwC 2019 Global Crisis Survey (https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/services/forensics/global-crisis-survey.html)

3 PwC 2019 Global Crisis Survey

3 NFPA1600 Standard on Disaster/Emergency Management and Business Continuity Programs 2010 Edition

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MIT

Crisis Management & Business Resiliency

This course is also offered in a live virtual  format in October 2024. 

Steve Goldman

Dick Larson

Lou DiBerardinis

Sandra Galletti

Download the Course Schedule

Preparing for a crisis is not a luxury; it is a necessity. The COVID-19 pandemic has proven this. You know the odds are high that your company will suffer, or has experienced, a disaster or crisis. You cannot say you weren't ready; today's extreme public and government scrutiny demand that you should have been prepared. MIT's Crisis Management & Business Resiliency course will help prepare you for the inevitable.

This comprehensive course provides up-to-date assessments and knowledge on issues that affect you and your organization — the COVID-19 Pandemic, cyber security, supply chain, leadership, data breach, communications, news media, social media, government response — from the experts involved with these efforts. We also examine strategies for job and career improvement. You will have the opportunity to interact with our lecturers and with your peers from industry, academia, and government.

By the end of the course, you will have the tools, knowledge, and understanding to benchmark, assess, and improve your business resiliency, disaster recovery, and crisis management program. This includes the course manual (PDFs), templates, and current articles. You will gain valuable contacts, have plenty of networking opportunities during and after class, and acquire insights for immediate implementation.

Certificate of Completion from MIT Professional Education

Crisis Management cert image

This dynamic course offers an effective combination of lecture, case studies, and class participation activities conducted by knowledgeable and experienced instructors who are leaders in their fields. Case studies of actual crisis situations are used to emphasize and enhance the concepts. Several interactive class activities provide additional hands-on experience. Participants can also practice what is learned: the course concludes with a highly interactive crisis simulation in which participants take active roles in a multiple event crisis, including a realistic news media briefing.

  • Course days generally run from 8:00 AM to 5:30 PM EDT, with generous breaks, lunch breaks, and much networking time included.
  • Topics, speakers, and schedule are subject to change.

DAY ONE – Monday, July 15

  • Steve Goldman, Dick Larson, Lou DiBerardinis, Bhaskar Pant, Suzanne Blake (All MIT)
  • Dr. Steve Goldman, MIT
  • Don Byrne, President, Metrix411

- - - - Lunch - - - -

  • Penny Neferis, Director Emergency Response & Care, JetBlue
  • Mark Carroll, Boston University
  • Steve Goldman, MIT

Class and Faculty Reception, MIT Samberg Center

DAY TWO – Tuesday, July 16

  • Dr. Yossi Sheffi, Director, MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics                           
  • Abel Sanchez, Executive Director, Laboratory for Manufacturing and Productivity, MIT
  • M. Barcomb, C. Wilkes, SANS Institute
  • Eric McNulty, National Preparedness Leadership Initiative, Harvard University

Duck Boat Tour and New England Lobster (or other) Dinner

DAY THREE – Wednesday, July 17

At the FEMA Federal Regional Response Coordination Center (RRCC)

  • Bill VanSchalkwyk, Groton MA FD (ret) and Harvard EHS 
  • Allen Phillips, MA Emergency Management Agency
  • John McGough, US Dept. of Homeland Security

- - - - Lunch and Facility Tour - - - -

  • Special Agents Brian LeBlanc and Doug Domin, FBI  
  • Angelica Enriquez, Government of Mexico

DAY FOUR – Thursday, July 18

The News Media, Social Media, and Your Crisis: What We Are Going to Do to You!

  • Katie Nelson, Police Dept., Mountain View, CA 
  • Joe Sciacca, Editor-in-Chief (retired), The Boston Herald; Enterprise Editor, WHDH-TV 7NEWS
  • Howard B. Price, Network TV News Editor and Producer (retired)
  • Jason Hoss, Open Technology Solutions, LLC
  • Dick Larson, MIT 

DAY FIVE – Friday, July 19

  • Cheyene Marling, Witt-O'Brien's

Crisis Response Simulation

  • Steve Goldman, Lou DiBerardinis, Howard Price, Joe Sciacca, Suzanne Blake, Mark Carroll, others

- - - - Lunch during Simulation - - - -

  • Steve Goldman, Dick Larson, Lou DiBerardinis

Also included with your Registration:

  • MIT Professional Education Crisis Course ID on MIT lanyard
  • MIT Professional Education Tote Bag, Notepaper, and Pen
  • Course Attendee Roster
  • 15% Discount to the MIT/Harvard Coop Campus Store ( https://store.thecoop.com/ )
  • Campus and local area information, guides, and maps
  • Mid-Morning Break (e.g., bagels and fruit, coffee/tea/juices)
  • Box Lunch (multiple selections with drink)
  • Mid-Afternoon Break (e.g., Cookies! Fruit!)
  • Thursday afternoon break – make your own Ice Cream Sundae!
  • Monday Evening Reception
  • Tuesday Evening Lobster (or other selection) Dinner*
  • Optional Tuesday evening DuckBoat Tour ( https://bostonducktours.com/  )*
  • Optional Tour of MIT Sunday July 14, or Friday July 19*
  • Book by Lecturer Eric McNulty “YOU'RE IT: Crisis, Change, and How to Lead When it Matters Most”
  • Book by Lecturer Dr Yossi Sheffi “THE NEW (AB)NORMAL: Reshaping Business and Supply Chain Strategy Beyond Covid-19”
  • Book by Lecturer Dr Richard Larson “Model Thinking for Everyday Life”
  • Seminar and lessons on how to speak, eat, and drive like a Bostonian!
  • Many networking opportunities
  • Access to speakers during and after the Course
  • Class picture
  • The unique and highly coveted MIT Crisis Course Coffee Mug!

Also – bring your family! While you are at MIT, they can explore a world-class city and local area with many important historical sites, great shopping, excellent dining, available transportation networks, PLUS visit the many colleges and universities that New England has to offer.

*Bring your family (space available)!

  • Presentations by and discussions with industry and government leaders/subject matter experts
  • Status of issues that affect you, your response, and your organization
  • Interactions with peers from academia, industry, and government
  • Lessons learned from multiple case studies
  • Course manual e-files
  • Various templates for your immediate use
  • Current articles by industry authors
  • Official MIT Professional Education Certificate of Completion
  • Upon completion, course graduates will be eligible to enroll in the MIT Crisis Course Alumni LinkedIn private group
  • Course graduates will also be eligible to enroll in the MIT Professional Education Advanced Business Resiliency course

Steve Goldman

Links and Resources:

Commentary: The Digital Stairway to Heaven, Black Churches and the Pandemic, Black Enterprise, February 14, 2022

This course is designed for professionals who work in Business Resiliency, Disaster Recovery, Cyber Security, Emergency Management, Crisis Management, or Crisis Communications .

Participants who will also benefit from the curriculum also include:

  • Corporate executives/directors  who want to enhance the efficacy of their organization's business continuity, disaster recovery, cyber security, crisis management, and crisis communications programs
  • Federal, state, and local government officials  who need to assess and improve their department's crisis management planning to better protect and serve their constituents
  • Human Resources and Legal professionals  who are looking to understand the potential impact and response of certain threats on their organization's workforce
  • Anyone interested in acquiring knowledge and understanding to create, assess, or improve a business resiliency, disaster recovery, cyber security, crisis management, or crisis communications program. 

Office hour sessions  will be held several weeks after the program, providing the opportunity to ask in-depth questions after you have had a chance to reflect on the course material.

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How does Crisis Management differ from Business Continuity Planning?

difference crisis management bcp

Crisis management and business continuity planning are two essential aspects of any organization's risk management strategy. While they share a common goal of minimizing potential disruptions to business operations, they approach this objective from different angles. In this blog post, we will explore the key differences between crisis management and business continuity planning, and why both are crucial for the long-term success and resilience of a business.

Understanding Crisis Management

Crisis management is the process of handling and mitigating unforeseen events or situations that pose a significant threat to an organization's reputation, operations, or stakeholders. Crises can arise due to a wide range of factors, such as natural disasters, accidents, employee misconduct, cyber-attacks, or product recalls. The primary objective of crisis management is to respond effectively to an ongoing crisis, minimize its negative impact, and restore normalcy as quickly as possible.

The Role of Crisis Management

Crisis management involves a proactive approach to address and manage potential crises. It typically includes the following key steps:

  • Risk Assessment: Identifying potential risks and vulnerabilities that could lead to a crisis.
  • Crisis Planning: Developing a detailed plan outlining the roles, responsibilities, and actions to be taken during a crisis.
  • Communication: Establishing effective communication strategies to inform stakeholders, employees, customers, and the public about the crisis and the actions being taken to resolve it.
  • Response and Recovery: Coordinating the necessary response efforts, such as activating an emergency response team, implementing contingency plans, and collaborating with external stakeholders to mitigate the crisis's impact.

Business Continuity Planning Defined

While crisis management focuses on responding to and recovering from a crisis, business continuity planning is centered around ensuring the continued operation of critical business functions during and after a crisis. Business continuity planning takes a proactive approach to identify potential threats and develop strategies to minimize the impact of those threats on business operations.

The Role of Business Continuity Planning

Business continuity planning involves developing a roadmap for maintaining essential operations, services, and functions regardless of the disruptions caused by a crisis. The key steps in business continuity planning include:

  • Business Impact Analysis: Assessing the potential impact of various threats on critical business functions and prioritizing them accordingly.
  • Continuity Strategy Development: Defining and implementing strategies and measures to ensure the availability and rapid recovery of critical business functions.
  • Plan Development: Creating a detailed, customized plan that outlines the steps, procedures, and resources required to maintain business operations during and after a crisis.
  • Testing and Training: Regularly testing the plan's effectiveness and conducting training sessions to ensure employees are aware of their roles and responsibilities during a crisis.

Key Differences Between Crisis Management and Business Continuity Planning

While both crisis management and business continuity planning are integral to effective risk management, they differ in their focus and timing:

  • Timing: Crisis management is primarily concerned with responding to and recovering from a crisis as it unfolds, while business continuity planning focuses on preparing for and mitigating the impact of potential crises before they occur.
  • Scope: Crisis management typically deals with the immediate and short-term response to a crisis, while business continuity planning takes a more holistic view of an organization's long-term resilience and its ability to maintain essential operations under various disruptions.
  • Objectives: Crisis management aims to minimize the damage caused by a crisis while mitigating its impacts on reputation, stakeholders, and business operations. Business continuity planning, on the other hand, focuses on ensuring the uninterrupted continuation of critical business functions, meeting customer expectations, and safeguarding the overall sustainability of the organization.

Crisis management and business continuity planning are two distinct but interconnected disciplines that lay the foundation for effective risk management. While crisis management deals with responding to and recovering from crises, business continuity planning focuses on maintaining critical operations and building resilience. Both approaches are crucial for businesses of all sizes, as they help minimize disruptions, protect reputations, and ensure long-term success in an unpredictable world.

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Prepare, respond, emerge stronger

A crisis can trigger an array of negative business impacts, including operational disruption, reputational damage and destruction of shareholder value. But if a crisis is by definition unexpected, what’s the most strategic way to prepare in a world marked by fast and disruptive change?

In a world characterized by geopolitical volatility, technological disruption, global pandemics and social tension, organizations need to be prepared for all eventualities. As the COVID-19 pandemic has shown us first-hand, it’s crucial for organizations to be ready with a strategic, adaptive and timely response to major threats—and then to take action on lessons learned after the crisis has passed.

But even though business leaders are increasingly recognizing the importance of resilience, our recent PwC Global Crisis Survey found a striking 95% of leaders report their crisis management capabilities need improving.

At PwC Canada, we have a dedicated team of professionals who help organizations build their resilience to successfully navigate a crisis. We bring a breadth of expertise in all areas of crisis management and will work closely with you to develop the capabilities of your teams and build stakeholder trust in your ability to plan for, respond to and emerge stronger from a crisis.

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The scope of today’s threats and risks make it critical for organizations to sharpen their plans for a crisis. But how do you know whether you’ve done enough?

Our professionals can help you assess and develop your capabilities to respond to any crisis. Our services include:

  • Crisis preparedness maturity assessments
  • Crisis program build and enhancements
  • Stakeholder mapping and engagement
  • Exercises and simulations
  • Crisis training
  • Business continuity planning

When a crisis hits your organization, you’re likely to see an impact on stakeholder confidence and market value, especially if the situation plays out publicly. And the impacts can be serious and long lasting, making it critical for organizations to respond effectively.

We’ve assessed the impacts by comparing the market value of organizations perceived to have responded both well and poorly to a crisis. The research shows that companies that respond well are not only less impacted initially but also significantly outperform afterwards.

We can bring resources with deep technical expertise to help organizations ensure an effective response. Our services include:

  • Incident response 
  • Forensic investigations 
  • Strategy and governance
  • Integrated response, management and crisis coordination
  • Operational response and fact finding
  • Legal and regulatory support
  • Liquidity crisis response

No matter what situation you face, it’s important to uncover opportunities for your organization to emerge from the crisis in better shape by identifying lessons observed and making any changes required.

Our team of specialists brings together operations, restructuring and strategy expertise to help you act quickly and accelerate your recovery. We can help with:

  • Turnaround 
  • Post-incident review
  • Integrating lessons learned
“When it comes to crisis response, building capability through structure and training in advance is key. The goal is that when the time comes, you can leverage that muscle memory to respond and adapt to the specific situation.” Ed Matley National Crisis and Resilience Leader, Partner, PwC Canada

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What are the Three Stages of Crisis Management?

In today’s unpredictable business environment, effective crisis management is more important than ever. It is crucial for maintaining business continuity and building organisational resilience. This article will guide you through the steps of crisis management, providing you with tactical advice to protect your employees and manage a crisis effectively.

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In today’s unpredictable business environment, effective crisis management is more important than ever. It is crucial for maintaining business continuity and building organisational resilience. This article will guide you through the steps of crisis management, providing you with tactical advice to protect your employees and manage a crisis effectively.

Crises can be triggered by natural disasters , pandemics  cyberattacks, and more , but a crisis truly emerges from the impact these events have on an organisation. The impact of COVID-19 on crisis management was unprecedented, with project management and human resource  departments often taking on additional responsibility. The BCI Crisis Management survey findings  suggest that COVID-19 has propelled the principle of crisis management into a much more collaborative, inclusive, and dynamic discipline. 

Crises share common elements that require similar responses, regardless of their specifics. International SOS’ methodology has a universal approach to crisis management, grounded by the essential "one size fits all" principle.

The key benefits to this approach include:

  • Standardised Framework
  • Simplified Processes
  • Efficient Resources Allocation
  • Quicker Response
  • Strategic Decision-Making
  • Consistent Communication

The International SOS crisis management methodology presents a comprehensive approach that aligns seamlessly with the standards outlined in ISO 22361:2022 and ISO 31030. This methodology is designed to ensure organisations can effectively manage crises, ensuring resilience and continuity in the face of challenges. 

This methodology explicitly addresses each phase of a crisis - Pre-Crisis, Crisis Response, and Post-Crisis - to provide a comprehensive framework for managing crises effectively. 

THREE STAGES OF CRISIS MANAGEMENT

STAGE ONE: PRE-CRISIS

Arguably the most important stage of crisis management, effective pre-crisis planning is crucial to an effective crisis response and recovery. This stage is a highly collaborative one that brings together key stakeholders to identify and detect the “What?” and prepare for the “How?”

To begin, an assessment and identification of systemic risks to your organisation must be conducted to reveal the unique critical situations that could impact your organisation holistically. ‘ Systemic risk ’ is defined as the possibility of a collapse or major failure of an entire system or a significant part of it, rather than the isolated failure of individual elements.

This type of risk is characterised by complex interdependencies within systems, where failures in one part can propagate and cause cascading disruptions in other parts . It is important to fully understand the potential impact of these crises on your activities and then prioritise them. By understanding these systemic risks, you can take steps towards prevention and preparation for any major potential impact. 

Once you have an understanding of any systemic risks to your organisation, detection of weak signals can then be put in place. This includes strategic monitoring and trend analysis. Again, here the key is collaborative work and each domain concerned by the potential impact should run their own early detection process. Weak signals are subtle indications, often overlooked or undetected, that may suggest the emergence of an important trend or change. They are usually difficult to identify due to their low intensity or unusual nature but can be precursors to significant changes. 

For example, prior to the widespread protests and revolutions that swept through the Arab world in the Arab Spring 2010-2011, there were several subtle indicators hinting at the brewing unrest. These weak signals included: Rising Food Prices and Economic Hardship; Increased Use of social media for Dissent; Localised Protests and Dissent; Intellectuals and Activists’ Warnings.

In the organise phase, organisations further develop plans and processes to assign team members and key stakeholders into them. If you are building crisis management plans for a large global conglomerate it is especially important to consider cognitive bias and cultural sensitivities in your development, as the negative impacts of crises can be amplified when these considerations are ignored. 

Once you have identified and assessed these potential ”blind spots”, the path is paved to develop a comprehensive crisis response plan . This plan, that we recommend you keep simple and not too granular, should detail the procedures to follow in the event of a crisis, including impact assessment, team activation, roles and responsibilities, situation control, communication strategies, decision making process, and closing/recovery approach.

Lastly, in the pre-crisis stage,   training   must be conducted to ensure employees know how to respond effectively during a crisis and ensure the continuity of business operations. Regular workshops can help employees familiarise themselves with the crisis response plan and their role in it. Table top, crisis simulations and awareness sessions are also helpful. We recommend a “Bottom-Up Resiliency” approach as you want all your staff to become sensors and effectors in times of crisis.

It can also be helpful to leverage intelligence from your partners, for example the yearly  Risk Outlook Report  released by International SOS includes informed predictions of the top five risks for 2024.

Four Steps in the Pre-Crisis Phase:

  • Identify systemic risks.
  • Detect weak signals with strategic trend monitoring and analysis systems.
  • Organise your plans and processes and integrate in with key stakeholders.
  • Train employees with awareness sessions, table stop, crisis simulations.

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STAGE TWO: CRISIS RESPONSE

Clear and timely action and communication is vital during a crisis. It is not enough to know when a crisis is happening. To demonstrate your Duty of Care  responsibilities, organisations must also have the means to quickly and accurately respond and communicate with key stakeholders, including employees, customers, and the media. 

Establishing control is an essential first step of any crisis. To do this, quickly clarify the facts, impacts, immediate measures, the need for information and all possible situation developments (for better and for worse).

Orchestrating your stakeholders comes next, here also quickly map all entities involved with the five Ps (Personnel / Powers / Public / Press / Partners) and around this analysis build your Response Teams. 

Based on the crisis you are facing, start solving it. The solve phase involves a strategic approach to resolving the crisis not just as it is today but with a long-term lens. Crises may be perceived to be situational or temporary, but they always have long-term impacts. To proceed: identify your desired-end state, your workstreams to achieve it, attribute ownerships, solve each workstream in options, choose one, and then issue your intent and actions. Keep your options as a plan B or C.

In 2023, International SOS enacted multiple crisis response plans on behalf of clients impacted by the ongoing Israel-Gaza crisis . These took the form of Crisis Management Teams, who not only developed individual plans of action for each client but also coordinated risk assessments with accredited security partner resources on-the-ground, this effort was further supported by intelligence with a 24/7 outlook and regular threat mapping. 

In times of crisis, communication is about building trust through consistency. Your workforce must feel you are taking action. A well-executed communication strategy can help manage perceptions, maintain trust, and ensure a coordinated response. It is important to have a designated spokesperson and a plan for how information will be disseminated as well as a detailed timeline for employees to visualise the effects of a crisis. 

Time visualisation not only helps in planning a response but also in identify upcoming possible deltas (gaps) that will occur in the execution of your plan. It is also helpful in capturing various time zones, organisation, and stakeholders in one place which reveals the complexity of an ecosystem. Don’t underestimate the importance of this last methodical tool, it has proven its effectiveness many times and for all type of organisations.

Five Steps in the Crisis Response Phase: 

  • Control the situation by taking immediate action and protecting your workforce.
  • Orchestrate your stakeholders and your Crisis Management Teams.
  • Solve the long-term implications of the crisis by creating workstreams with multiple options and contingency plans.
  • Communicate with internal and external stakeholders to manage perceptions and build trust, consistency, and coherence.
  • Visualise Time to help you identify gaps in the execution of your plan and reveal the possible existence of deltas complexity of solutions.

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STAGE THREE: POST CRISIS

Crisis are incredibly stressful and draining, often taking a large emotional toll on those involved and those who had to manage it. Adequate support is required to a workforce post-crisis to alleviate mental health  impacts. Organisations must have systems and tools in place to encourage employee wellbeing such as counselling services, mental health days, and wellness programmes . 

Crisis management is not a one-time task. It is important to regularly review and update your crisis management plan to ensure it remains effective and relevant. Continuous improvement is fundamental to maintaining organisational resilience. After a crisis, conduct a post-crisis analysis (After Action Review) to identify what worked well and to envision what could be improved. 

The results of a post-crisis analysis will reveal which parts of a crisis management plan can be consolidated and which areas need expansion. After a crisis, it is important to understand what the post-crisis world looks like and how new threats can impact your organisation differently to the World before.  All procedures and plans must now be pressure-tested again within this new remit. Thus, the crisis management wheel continues to the pre-crisis phase again.

It can also be useful to involve a third-party consulting  service to test your crisis management plans and conduct a crisis management Maturity Assessment.

Four Steps in the Post-Crisis Phase: 

  • Support should be provided by organisations in the form of systems and tools to encourage employee wellbeing  such as counselling services, mental health days, and wellness programmes.
  • Review and update your crisis management plan by conducting a post-mortem analysis, especially after a crisis has occurred.
  • Envision the post-crisis world and how this new reality impacts your existing activities so you can adapt and make changes where necessary.
  • Test the new plans given the new post-crisis world.

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How International SOS Can Help?

  • BCI Survey Findings: https://www.internationalsos.com/publications/bci-crisis-management-report

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Crisis Management and Business Continuity Planning

February 6, 2024

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Crisis Management and Business Continuity Planning are two critical components of organizational resilience, but they serve different purposes and focus on distinct aspects of recovery and response.

Crisis Management primarily deals with responding to and managing the immediate aftermath of a crisis to limit its impact on the organization.

It focuses on decision-making, communication, and stakeholder management during a crisis. Crisis management plans often include steps for dealing with media, customers, and other external parties, and they are designed to protect an organization’s reputation and minimize damage ( Understanding the difference between business continuity and crisis management ).

On the other hand, business Continuity Planning (BCP) is concerned with maintaining business functions or quickly resuming them in the event of a major disruption.

It includes identifying critical business processes, determining which assets and resources are needed to support those processes, and devising strategies to recover the business operations post-disruption ( Crisis Management Plan vs Business Continuity Plan ).

Integrating both plans can be beneficial as they complement each other. Crisis management can be seen as a component of a broader business continuity strategy , ensuring that an organization can continue critical operations and effectively manage the crisis from a reputational standpoint.

A comprehensive approach to organizational resilience involves having a crisis management plan and a business continuity plan that work together to handle the full spectrum of potential disruptions ( Combine business continuity and crisis management practices ).

In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, the significance of robust Crisis Management and Business Continuity Planning cannot be overstated.

These strategic frameworks prepare organizations to respond swiftly and effectively to unforeseen events and ensure the preservation of critical operations, safeguarding both reputation and revenues.

To mitigate cyber-attacks, business leaders must comprehend potential risks and steer their organizations through turbulent times with a comprehensive Business Continuity Plan .

business continuity plan

As we explore the intricacies of developing a comprehensive Business Continuity Plan, one must consider the challenges and opportunities in enhancing organizational resilience.

Although complex, the journey towards achieving such resilience is necessary in today’s uncertain world, inviting further contemplation on the strategies that can be employed to fortify a business against the inevitable.

Key Takeaways

  • Crisis management and business continuity planning are strategic processes that prepare organizations for unexpected disruptions and ensure their survival and operational continuity during challenges.
  • These processes involve identifying potential threats, developing comprehensive crisis management plans, and implementing proactive strategies and business recovery plans .
  • Engaging emergency preparedness managers for risk identification , conducting comprehensive risk assessments , and recognizing and preparing for external threats and internal vulnerabilities is important.
  • Building a crisis management team, training relevant personnel, and ensuring clear and continuous communication are crucial for enhancing organizational resilience and mitigating potential downtime.

Definition of crisis management and business continuity planning

Crisis management and business continuity planning are strategic processes that prepare organizations for unexpected disruptions.

These frameworks involve identifying potential threats, enhancing communication, implementing action plans, and mitigating risk through a detailed planning process.

The aim is to streamline emergency and disaster recovery , ensuring organizations can respond effectively and maintain operations under adverse conditions.

Crisis management and business continuity planning aim to secure the organization’s resilience against unforeseen challenges.

Management involves improving communication channels within the organization, especially during a crisis. Clear and timely communication is crucial for effective crisis management.

These processes involve thorough analysis and assessment of potential threats and the development of comprehensive action plans.

Effective crisis management also involves enhancing communication channels within the organization. Clear and timely communication is crucial during a crisis, allowing for effective coordination and decision-making.

For long-term resilience, it is necessary to have strategies for recovery and restoration after a crisis, along with ongoing measures to mitigate future risks.

In addition to preparing for and responding to crises, business continuity planning also focuses on long-term resilience.

This includes strategies for recovery and restoration after a crisis and ongoing measures to mitigate future risks.

Safeguarding businesses requires proactive crisis preparation and response for resilience and longevity.

Importance of Crisis Management and Business Continuity Planning

In today’s volatile business landscape, effective crisis management and business continuity planning is necessary to ensure the survival of businesses.

Developing a comprehensive crisis management plan is essential for ensuring the survival of organizations during unforeseen disruptions.

Furthermore, these strategies play a critical role in minimizing the impact of potential risks and threats, thereby protecting stakeholders’ interests and preserving the company’s reputation.

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Ensuring the survival of businesses during times of crisis

In today’s volatile business landscape, effective crisis management and business continuity planning are essential for ensuring the survival of organizations during unforeseen disruptions.

  • Developing a comprehensive crisis management plan that addresses potential risks and potential threats.
  • Crafting robust business continuity strategies and recovery strategies within the business continuity planning process .
  • Integrating emergency services and a clear communication strategy into the business continuity management framework .

Minimizing the impact of potential risks and threats

Understanding the critical role of crisis management and business continuity planning paves the way for minimizing the impact of potential risks and threats on organizational operations .

Understanding Potential Risks and Threats

Businesses must proactively identify and prepare for potential risks in their continuity planning efforts.

This encompasses not only natural disasters but also external threats and internal vulnerabilities that could jeopardize the stability and functionality of the business.

The disaster and crisis plan should be updated regularly to reflect current business threats.

Identifying natural disasters as potential risks

Natural disasters, such as earthquakes, floods, and hurricanes, represent significant potential risks that businesses must proactively identify and prepare for in their continuity planning efforts.

  • Comprehensive risk assessment to understand the impact of natural disasters .
  • Integration of emergency management strategies into business continuity planning.
  • Regular updates to the emergency management plan, reflecting the evolving nature of disaster and crisis scenarios.

Recognizing other external threats to business operations

Beyond natural disasters, businesses must also account for other external threats such as cyber-attacks, supply chain disruptions , and geopolitical tensions, which can significantly impact operations. Recognizing and preparing for these can mitigate the risk of business interruption .

These threats require strategic planning to prevent a disruptive event from becoming an unplanned, catastrophic incident.

Highlighting internal risks that may disrupt business activities

While external threats pose significant risks, internal vulnerabilities within an organization can equally disrupt business operations and undermine continuity plans.

Understanding these internal risks is crucial for effective crisis management and business continuity.

  • Inadequate emergency management structure, leading to confusion during a crisis.
  • Weaknesses in enterprise risk management , overlooking comprehensive risks.
  • Flaws in business continuity processes , increasing the business impact of a disruption event.

The Role of Business Leaders in Crisis Management

The role of business leaders is pivotal in navigating companies through crises with resilience and foresight.

Their ability to implement effective leadership and manage the execution of business continuity plans determines the organization’s capacity to withstand and recover from disruptions.

Key responsibilities include strategic decision-making, clear communication, and ensuring the alignment of recovery efforts with the company’s long-term objectives.

Effective leadership during times of crisis

In times of crisis, effective leadership from business leaders becomes crucial for navigating through challenges and ensuring organizational resilience.

  • Crisis Management Team : Business leaders must assemble and lead a crisis management team, focusing on swift decision-making and execution of response plans.
  • Communication : Clear and continuous communication is vital for effective crisis response and team coordination.
  • Business Resilience : Leadership strategies should enhance business resilience , preparing for future crises.

Key responsibilities of business leaders in implementing business continuity plans

Business leaders play a pivotal role in developing and executing business continuity plans to navigate through crises effectively. Their key responsibilities include:

  • Leading the implementation of the business continuity management program .
  • Ensuring the organization’s resilience to business disruptions.
  • Crafting effective business continuity plans .

Developing a comprehensive business continuity plan involves several critical steps. First, conducting a thorough risk assessment is important to identify potential threats and vulnerabilities to the organization.

Next, the plan should outline clear procedures for responding to emergencies, such as natural disasters, cyber-attacks, and other disruptions. Finally, the plan should be regularly tested and updated to ensure effectiveness.

Developing a Business Continuity Plan

Procedures for responding to emergencies such as natural disasters, cyber-attacks, and other disruptions should be regularly tested and updated.

First, the organization should develop several clear-cut procedures to respond to emergencies, such as natural disasters, cyber-attacks, and other disruptions. Finally, a plan should be conducted.

Understanding these steps is fundamental for businesses aiming to minimize downtime and maintain performance during unforeseen events.

Steps involved in creating a comprehensive plan

Developing a comprehensive business continuity plan involves several critical steps.

First, conducting a thorough risk assessment is important to identify potential threats to operations. This involves assessing both internal and external risks that could impact the organization.

Once the risks have been identified, the next step is to define business continuity plan objectives . This involves determining what the plan should achieve and specific desired outcomes.

Utilizing business continuity planning software can assist in organizing and documenting the plan and involving the continuity team.

Utilizing business continuity planning software can be helpful to facilitate the planning lifecycle. This software can assist in organizing and documenting the various elements of the plan. It also helps to involve the business continuity team in essential planning tasks.

After the plan has been drafted, it is important to conduct a gap analysis. This involves comparing the organization’s current preparedness to the plan’s desired state. Any gaps that are identified should be addressed and remediated.

Additionally, providing business continuity training to all relevant personnel is crucial. This ensures that everyone understands their roles and responsibilities during a disruption.

Finally, it is important to test the plan to ensure its effectiveness. This can involve running simulations or tabletop exercises to simulate different scenarios. The results of these tests should be analyzed to identify any areas for improvement.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can small businesses with limited resources effectively implement crisis management and business continuity strategies.

Despite resource constraints, small businesses can adeptly implement strategies by prioritizing essential functions, developing flexible response plans, engaging in regular training, and leveraging technology for efficient communication and operations continuity during unforeseen disruptions.

Are any psychological aspects or employee well-being considerations needed to be integrated into crisis management plans?

Yes, integrating psychological aspects and employee well-being considerations into planning is essential. Acknowledging and addressing the emotional and mental health impacts on staff can enhance resilience, foster a supportive culture, and improve crisis response effectiveness.

How Do Cultural Differences Impact the Approach and Implementation of Business Continuity Plans in Multinational Corporations?

Cultural differences significantly influence the execution of business continuity plans within multinational corporations , necessitating tailored approaches that respect and integrate diverse cultural norms, values, and communication styles to ensure effective and inclusive operational resilience.

Can You Provide Examples of Businesses That Failed in Crisis Management and What Lessons Can Be Learned From Their Mistakes?

Businesses that have faltered in crisis management include Blockbuster and Kodak, primarily due to their inability to adapt to digital transformation.

Lessons learned emphasize the importance of agility and foresight in navigating market evolutions.

What Are the Legal Implications and Responsibilities of Businesses in Ensuring the Safety and Continuity of Operations During a Crisis?

Businesses are legally obligated to protect employees and ensure operational continuity during crises. Failing to meet these responsibilities can result in legal repercussions, financial loss, and damaged reputation, underscoring the importance of preparedness and compliance.

compliance, risk culture

Crisis management and business continuity planning are essential to organizational resilience, ensuring preparedness for unforeseen disasters and disruptions.

Business leaders can develop comprehensive strategies that mitigate risks , facilitate a swift recovery, and minimize damage.

This proactive approach is vital for maintaining operations, protecting stakeholders, and securing the organization’s long-term viability.

Integrating these plans into corporate policy highlights the importance of being adaptable and resilient in today’s rapidly changing business environment .

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Chris Ekai is a Risk Management expert with over 10 years of experience in the field. He has a Master’s(MSc) degree in Risk Management from University of Portsmouth and is a CPA and Finance professional. He currently works as a Content Manager at Risk Publishing, writing about Enterprise Risk Management, Business Continuity Management and Project Management.

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2. An occurrence and/or perception that threatens the operations, staff, shareholder value, stakeholders, brand, reputation, trust and/or strategic/business goals of an organization .

ISO 22399:2022 Source

3. abnormal or extraordinary event or situation that threatens an organization or community and requires a strategic, adaptive and timely response to preserve its viability and integrity.

( Source: Business Continuity Institute - BCI)

4. Any incidents(s), human-caused or natural, require(s) urgent attention and action to protect life, property, or environment.

( Source : ISO 22399:2007 – Societal Security - Guideline for Incident Preparedness and Operational Continuity Management) - clause 3.3

5. A critical event , which, if not handled in an appropriate manner, may dramatically impact an organization's profitability, reputation, or ability to operate.

( Source: Disaster Recovery Institute International / Disaster Recovery Journal - DRII/DRJ)

6. Any global, regional, or local natural or human-caused event or business interruption that runs the risk of (1) escalating in intensity, (2) adversely impacting shareholder value or the organization’s financial position, (3) causing harm to people or damage to property or the environment, (4) falling under close media or government scrutiny, (5) interfering with normal operations and wasting significant management time and/or financial resources, (6) adversely affecting employee morale, or (7) jeopardizing the organization’s reputation, products, or officers, and therefore negatively impacting its future.

( Source: ASIS International - ASIS International)

7. An untoward event occurring that potentially or actually results in a disruption to the day-to-day operations of part or the whole of the organization .Management is required to divert a proportion of their attention, time, energy and resources away from normal operations to managing this untoward event . The crisis will and do occur on a regular basis and are usually characterized by being managed by existing internal resources.

( Source: Australia. A Practitioner's Guide to Business Continuity Management HB292 - 2006 )

8. Is a situation where organizations shift from routine to non-routine operation. Management is required to divert a proportion of their attention, time, energy and resources away from normal operations in managing this event.

( Source : AS/NZS 5050.2 Australian and New Zealand Standards for business continuity management.

Part 2: Business continuity management practice standard)

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Your Secrets Won't Stay Hidden For Long — Follow These 6 Ways to Help Protect Your Reputation On the web, internal crises can turn into a five-alarm fire in a hurry. Knowing how to respond can go a long way toward limiting the damage and protecting your brand from long-term harm.

By Adam Petrilli • Feb 26, 2024

Key Takeaways

  • A proactive and transparent approach can help prevent rumors and misinformation from spreading.
  • In the aftermath of a crisis, it's essential to focus on rebuilding and strengthening your brand's reputation.

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

In the hyperfast world of digital commerce, your company's reputation is as valuable as its balance sheet. And whether it's a new or established business, safeguarding this reputation and protecting that brand on the web is paramount.

So, when an internal crisis hits and gets traction online, it can travel and tarnish your brand's image faster than a viral video , especially when it's not managed correctly.

Fortunately, if you know and stick to the right strategy, navigating an image crisis and minimizing the damage is possible.

Here are six ways to steer your business through that next P.R. storm and keep your company's trustworthy reputation intact.

1. Embrace transparency: The first step to trust

Transparency isn't just a buzzword; it's the foundation of trust between your brand and your audience. So, when an internal crisis strikes, resisting the urge to cover it up is crucial.

With any internal or even external problem, it's vital to be open about the situation and show customers you're handling it responsibly. Of course, this doesn't mean airing all your dirty laundry, but instead focusing on what's relevant to your stakeholders and what steps you're taking to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.

Remember, in the age of social media, secrets don't stay hidden for long. But, a proactive and transparent approach can help prevent rumors and misinformation from spreading and doing further damage.

Related: Leading With Transparency in Times of Uncertainty

2. Act fast, but don't hurry

In any company crisis, time is critical. The longer you wait to respond, the more control you're likely to lose over the brand narrative . That said, acting fast doesn't mean rushing out a half-baked statement. Gathering all the facts, understanding the implications, and consulting with your team are key to crafting a thoughtful and effective response.

A quick but carefully considered approach not only demonstrates your commitment to resolving the issue but can help stop things from escalating on digital platforms, where news travels lightning fast.

3. Craft your message carefully

Once you're ready to speak out, nothing is quite as important as crafting the right message . Such a statement should be clear, concise, and consistent across all channels, including your website, social media, press releases, and anything else used to reinforce your brand.

What to know: Within any crisis response, be sure to acknowledge the issue, express empathy with the audience, and detail your action plan (doing so within reason, of course). Try to avoid jargon and corporate speak; a human touch can go a long way in connecting with your audience. Remember, the goal is to reassure stakeholders and the public that you're on top of the situation.

Related: Your Public Messaging Strategy Starts With Your Inner Circle

4. Social media is your ally in crisis management

In any crisis, social media can be a double-edged sword and must be leveraged carefully. While it can easily escalate a crisis, it can also be a powerful tool for managing one, making it essential to put your social outreach in the right hands.

When rolling out your response on social media, take care to use your platforms wisely, and to communicate directly with your audience. Provide updates and respond to concerns without divulging unnecessary items that can put your brand at further risk.

Social sites like Facebook, Instagram, and even LinkedIn can be invaluable for dispelling rumors and maintaining control over the narrative, but it's important to monitor these spaces closely.

Related: Squash the Online Hate — A Business Owner's Guide to Taming Trolls on Social Media

5. Monitor and adapt

With the crisis out in the open and your response plan in action, monitoring the situation closely across the web is crucial. Social listening tools can help track what's being said about your brand and the crisis, delivering real-time feedback and, by extension, critical insights into how your message is being received, as well as how your strategy is rolling out. The digital landscape is fluid, and flexibility can be your best asset in managing a crisis.

Related: Unleashing The Potential Of Social Listening (It's Not Just About Being Responsive!)

6. Treat every crisis as an opportunity

Once the storm has passed, try to avoid the tendency to simply "move on." Every crisis presents a valuable learning opportunity, and analyzing what happened and your response can provide critical insight into what went wrong, what worked across your messaging, and what could be improved. This time can also be used to strengthen any weaknesses you find in your operations or crisis management plan, helping you better prepare for future challenges.

Beyond the horizon

In the aftermath of a crisis, it's essential to focus on rebuilding and strengthening your brand's reputation. This might involve continued transparency about the steps you're taking post-crisis, highlighting positive actions or contributions to the community, or engaging in initiatives that reaffirm your company's values. Remember, the goal is not just to recover from the crisis but to emerge stronger and more resilient.

Navigating an internal crisis requires a strategic blend of transparency, speed, communication, social media savvy, teamwork, adaptability and a learning mindset. Following these principles can help protect your company's reputation on the internet and turn a challenging situation into a great opportunity for growth and improvement.

Entrepreneur Leadership Network® Contributor

CEO & Founder, NetReputation.com

Want to be an Entrepreneur Leadership Network contributor? Apply now to join.

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Business Continuity vs Crisis Management: A Deep Dive

Business Continuity vs Crisis Management A Deep Dive Featured Image

The main difference between business continuity and crisis management lies in their primary focus and objectives. Business continuity is a proactive planning process to ensure that an organization can maintain essential functions during and after a disruptive event, aiming at minimizing downtime and facilitating a return to normal operations as swiftly as possible. On the other hand, crisis management is a reactive process focused on dealing effectively with an immediate emergency or critical situation, often involving high levels of uncertainty and stress. It seeks to mitigate the impact on stakeholders, manage the crisis communications, and contain the damage to the organization’s reputation or financial health. While business continuity centers on resilience and recovery of business operations , crisis management emphasizes immediate response and handling of the crisis situation.

Table of Contents

Business Continuity and Crisis Management

Business continuity refers to the proactive plan of action that organizations put in place to ensure that they can maintain essential functions during and after a disruption, such as a natural disaster, technical failure, or cyber-attack. The main goal is to minimize downtime and prevent any long-term impact on business operations. By identifying critical aspects of the business that must keep running, companies implement continuity strategies that include having backup resources, data redundancy, and alternative business processes to reduce the risk of operational hiccups.

Crisis management , on the other hand, deals with the reactive aspect of handling unexpected significant events or emergencies that have the potential to harm an organization, its stakeholders, or the general public. It involves the preparedness to respond to incidents efficiently to mitigate damage. Crisis management focuses on decision-making processes and communication strategies during high-pressure situations. The emphasis is on stabilizing the situation, protecting assets and people, managing media relations, and maintaining the company’s reputation.

Distinctions Between Business Continuity and Crisis Management

  • Scope of Application : Business continuity plans tend to focus on ensuring the continuation of critical business functions , whereas crisis management plans are broader, aiming to address the overall response to adverse situations and reputational impacts.
  • Timing of Execution : Business continuity is about maintaining operations during a disruption; crisis management is more concerned with the immediate response to an emergency event.
  • Planning and Preparedness : The planning for business continuity is often more detailed with regards to operational aspects, while crisis management planning involves preparing for communications, public relations, and high-level decision-making.
  • Operational vs. Strategic Focus : Business continuity usually deals with operational resilience, whereas crisis management is more strategic, managing the overall direction during a crisis.
  • Duration of Action : Business continuity is designed to ensure that essential business functions keep running smoothly in the long term despite interruptions, while crisis management often involves taking swift actions to manage a crisis situation and may be more short-term in nature.
  • Post-event Recovery : After an event, business continuity plans include strategies for recovery and returning to normal business operations, whereas crisis management might focus on post-crisis analysis and implementing changes to prevent future crises.
  • Communications Role : In a crisis management situation, effective communication with stakeholders is vital and usually takes a front seat, unlike in business continuity where the communication may be more internally focused.
  • Preventive vs. Reactive Measures : Business continuity involves more preventive measures to avoid disruptions, while crisis management emphasizes reactive measures to tackle emergencies that occur.
  • Resource Allocation : Different resources might be allocated for business continuity (such as backup sites ) and crisis management (such as a crisis communications team).
  • Stakeholder Perceptions : Managing stakeholder perceptions is often more critical during crisis management than during business continuity situations.

Similarities Linking Business Continuity and Crisis Management

  • Objective of Resilience : Both business continuity and crisis management aim to bolster the organization’s resilience against disruption and emergencies.
  • Risk Assessment : Both processes involve identifying potential risks that could impact the organization and planning accordingly.
  • Planning and Documentation : Each requires detailed planning and written documentation that outlines procedures and responsibilities.
  • Training and Testing : Both require regular training for staff and testing of plans to ensure preparedness and to refine protocols.
  • Crisis Communication : Although with different focal points, both business continuity and crisis management include crisis communication elements to keep stakeholders informed.
  • Leadership Involvement : Senior management plays a critical role in both planning and executing business continuity and crisis management plans.
  • Integration into Organizational Culture : Both are integrated into the organization’s culture as part of good governance and responsible business practices .
  • Focus on Essential Services : Whether it’s maintaining or restoring operations, both prioritize keeping the organization’s essential services up and running.

Advantages of Prioritizing Business Continuity Over Crisis Management

  • Predictive Planning : Business continuity emphasizes proactive planning to deal with potential threats, as opposed to crisis management which often reacts to emergencies after they occur. Through preventive measures, businesses are better prepared to sustain operations during disruptions.
  • Minimized Downtime : With a well-crafted business continuity plan, companies can reduce the downtime when a disruption occurs, as they have well-established processes and backup systems in place, minimizing the impact on operations and revenue.
  • Stakeholder Assurance : Maintaining a focus on business continuity provides confidence to stakeholders, including employees, customers, and investors, that the company is prepared to handle unforeseen events and maintain service levels.
  • Competitive Edge : In the event of a crisis, businesses with a robust continuity plan can maintain their market presence and may even have the advantage over competitors that are slower to recover.
  • Resource Optimization : Business continuity planning often involves identifying critical functions and allocating resources efficiently to ensure they are protected, which can lead to overall improvements in resource management.
  • Brand Reputation : A company that effectively navigates disruptions with minimal impact on its customers is likely to strengthen its brand reputation, whereas a crisis could potentially bring negative publicity and loss of trust.

Disadvantages of Business Continuity When Compared to Crisis Management

  • Resource Intensity : Implementing a comprehensive business continuity plan requires significant resources, including time, money, and personnel, which might seem excessive compared to a more streamlined crisis response setup.
  • Complex Planning : Business continuity planning can be complex and require detailed risk assessments and strategies, which may be overwhelming for some organizations, especially small to medium-sized businesses.
  • Complacency Risk : There’s a potential for complacency among staff if business continuity plans are not regularly tested and updated, as having a plan in place might create a false sense of security.
  • Potential Over-preparation : Business continuity plans might lead to over-preparation for events that may never occur, tying up resources that could have been utilized for immediate business opportunities or improvements.
  • Inflexibility : Highly structured business continuity plans can sometimes lead to inflexibility, as they may not be able to accommodate unique or unprecedented crisis situations which require a rapid and adaptive response.
  • Regular Maintenance : To ensure effectiveness, business continuity plans require regular reviews and updates which might be seen as a continual drain on resources compared to crisis management that deals with issues as they arise.
  • Innovation Stifling : Focusing too heavily on maintaining operations can sometimes stifle innovation, as processes and systems are optimized for stability rather than adaptability or transformation.

Benefits of Crisis Management Over Business Continuity Planning

  • Enhanced Agility : Crisis management often requires rapid response and agile decision-making to address immediate threats. This can lead to the development of a more responsive and flexible organizational culture, which is crucial in today’s fast-paced and unpredictable business environment.
  • Focused Problem-Solving : Crisis management plans are typically more specific and directed towards solving acute issues, whereas business continuity plans might be broader. This direct approach can result in quicker resolutions during a crisis.
  • Improved Communication Protocols : During a crisis, effective communication is vital. Crisis management plans generally include detailed communication strategies that are more comprehensive than those in business continuity plans.
  • Stakeholder Confidence : An organization that handles crises well can bolster confidence among stakeholders, including employees, customers, and investors.
  • Strategic Resource Allocation : Crisis management can prioritize the allocation of resources where they are needed most during a critical event, potentially leading to more efficient resource usage.
  • Ready for the Unpredictable : Because crisis management focuses on responding to unexpected events, organizations may be better prepared to handle the unknown compared to a standard business continuity plan.

Downfalls of Crisis Management When Compared with Business Continuity

  • Lack of Preparedness : Crisis management is reactive and may not always prepare an organization for all types of disruptions or operational issues that a comprehensive business continuity plan covers.
  • Financial Constraints : Implementing immediate crisis responses can be costly, possibly leading to higher expenses than would be incurred with a proactive business continuity plan.
  • Operational Disruptions : While focusing on the crisis at hand, other areas of the business may suffer or be neglected, which can lead to further operational disruptions that a business continuity plan might otherwise mitigate.
  • Short-term Focus : Crisis management typically addresses short-term problems, potentially at the expense of long-term strategy and sustainability covered by business continuity planning.
  • Increased Stress : The high-pressure environment of a crisis situation can lead to greater stress and burnout among employees, which may be less of an issue with a well-implemented business continuity plan.
  • Potential Damage to Reputation : If a crisis is not managed effectively, it can cause significant damage to an organization’s reputation. Business continuity planning aims to maintain operations and reputation, even in adverse conditions.

Situations Favoring Business Continuity Over Crisis Management

  • Planned Disruptions : In instances where there is advanced notice of potential disruptions, such as forecasted severe weather or scheduled maintenance, business continuity planning can ensure operations continue with minimal impact.
  • Technological Failures : When a company experiences a technology system failure, well-devised business continuity measures, rather than reactive crisis management, are crucial for rapid recovery and maintaining customer trust.
  • Supply Chain Interruptions : A dependable business continuity strategy can mitigate risks associated with supply chain disruptions, ensuring alternative suppliers or processes are in place to maintain production and service delivery.
  • Regulatory Compliance : Companies in heavily regulated industries may find that continuous compliance requires thorough business continuity plans to avoid legal penalties and maintain operations during unforeseen events.
  • Competitive Advantage : Maintaining operations during a disruption can provide a significant advantage over competitors who may struggle with crisis management, leading to enhanced market positioning.
  • Consistent Service Delivery : For businesses where service consistency is critical to customer satisfaction, having an effective business continuity plan helps guarantee a seamless customer experience, irrespective of challenges faced.

Situations When Crisis Management Outshines Business Continuity

  • Unprecedented Events : In the face of novel or unforeseen crises that could not have been anticipated or planned for, such as a pandemic, crisis management may be more effective in responding to the situation in real-time.
  • Reputational Threats : When a company’s reputation is at immediate risk due to a scandal or negative publicity, a swift crisis management response is crucial to manage stakeholder perceptions and media messaging.
  • Natural Disasters : When natural disasters strike with little warning, crisis management protocols are necessary to address immediate safety concerns and public relations rather than relying solely on continuity plans.
  • Cyber Attacks : A sudden cyber attack requires a prompt crisis management response to mitigate damage, inform stakeholders, and restore security, as business continuity plans may not account for the dynamic nature of cyber threats.
  • Workplace Violence : Incidents of violence within the workplace demand a crisis management approach to address immediate safety, provide support to affected individuals, and navigate the legal implications.
  • Product Recalls : In the event of a product recall, crisis management is essential to quickly address customer safety concerns, manage the recall process, and restore public confidence.

FAQs: Understanding Business Continuity and Crisis Management

What is the primary purpose of business continuity planning.

The primary purpose of business continuity planning is to ensure the continuation of essential functions during and after a business disruption, minimizing downtime and preventing long-term impacts on operations.

Why is it important for a business to have a crisis management plan?

Having a crisis management plan is crucial because it prepares an organization to efficiently respond to significant emergency events, aiming to mitigate damage, protect assets and people, and maintain the company’s reputation during high-pressure situations.

Can a business continuity plan and a crisis management plan be integrated?

Yes, it is often advantageous for organizations to integrate business continuity and crisis management plans to create a comprehensive strategy that addresses both proactive resilience and reactive emergency responses effectively.

How does training factor into business continuity and crisis management?

Regular staff training is integral to both business continuity and crisis management to ensure that personnel are familiar with emergency procedures and can act confidently and correctly under pressure.

FAQs: Advantages of Business Continuity Over Crisis Management

Does business continuity provide a competitive edge during crises.

Yes, a robust business continuity plan can maintain market presence and provide a competitive edge during crises, as businesses with effective plans can recover faster than those without.

How does business continuity planning affect stakeholder perceptions?

Effective business continuity planning assures stakeholders that the company is well-prepared for disruptions, which can enhance their confidence in the business’s stability and responsiveness.

FAQs: Disadvantages of Business Continuity Compared to Crisis Management

Why might business continuity planning be considered resource-intensive.

Business continuity planning is considered resource-intensive because it requires significant investment in time, money, and personnel to develop comprehensive strategies and maintain operational readiness for potential disruptions.

Can a strong focus on business continuity lead to inflexibility?

Yes, highly structured business continuity plans can sometimes create inflexibility, as they may not accommodate unique or unprecedented crisis situations that require adaptive responses.

FAQs: Benefits of Crisis Management Over Business Continuity Planning

How does crisis management improve organizational agility.

Crisis management requires rapid response and decision-making, fostering a more responsive and flexible organizational culture that is crucial in today’s fast-paced business environment.

Does effective crisis management boost stakeholder confidence?

Yes, effectively handling crises can significantly increase stakeholder confidence in an organization’s leadership and its ability to manage challenges under pressure.

FAQs: Downfalls of Crisis Management When Compared with Business Continuity

What are the risks of a reactive crisis management approach.

A reactive crisis management approach can result in a lack of preparedness for various types of disruptions and might incur higher expenses due to the urgency of implementing immediate crisis responses.

Can a short-term focus in crisis management be problematic?

Focusing on short-term problem-solving in crisis management can overlook long-term strategic planning and sustainability, areas that are typically addressed by business continuity planning.

Understanding the difference between business continuity and crisis management is crucial for organizations seeking to mitigate risks and maintain operations despite unforeseen events. Business continuity involves strategic planning for continued function in the face of disruption, while crisis management is an immediate, reactive measure for dealing with unexpected crises. Recognizing the variations in strategies, timing, and focus of each approach can empower businesses to effectively navigate both operational disruptions and emergency events, safeguarding their interests and stakeholders. By weighing the benefits and challenges of business continuity vs crisis management, organizations can tailor their risk management practices to align with their specific needs and ensure resilience in a tumultuous business landscape.

Business Continuity vs Crisis Management Summary

When considering the difference between business continuity vs crisis management, it’s evident that each plays a vital role in organizational resilience. Business continuity planning primarily helps maintain essential operations and minimize disruption over the long term, while crisis management focuses on addressing and resolving immediate emergencies. Despite their differences, both entail proactive risk management and having sound strategies in place, which are integral to the stability and recovery potential of a company.

By understanding the distinctions and complementary nature of business continuity and crisis management, organizations can better prepare for and respond to challenges, ultimately securing their operational integrity and reputational standing. The key takeaway is that businesses benefit most from an integrated approach that acknowledges the strengths and limitations of both business continuity and crisis management, crafting comprehensive defenses against the spectrum of potential threats.

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business continuity management for crisis

Boeing: Aviation giant displays crisis management at Asia's top airshow

  • Published 4 days ago

Visitors at the Singapore Airshow look at model Boeing airliners.

As the aviation industry gathers this week for the Singapore Airshow there is no shortage of military hardware made by US aerospace giant Boeing.

Spectators have been treated to displays by the F-15 fighter and Apache attack helicopter. However, conspicuously absent from the event are Boeing's commercial jets.

Instead, attendees of Asia's biggest airshow have to make do with models of Boeing's passenger planes or can step inside an "immersive display" of the Boeing 777X cabin.

And as the event was in full-swing, Boeing announced that the leader of the troubled 737 Max programme Ed Clark would leave the company .

It's Boeing's first major aviation event since a cabin panel detached mid-flight from a brand new Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 in January.

In a preliminary investigation of the Alaska Airlines incident, US regulators found four critical bolts - meant to hold the so-called door plug in place - were missing. It led the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to order a temporary global grounding of the aircraft.

The planes are now flying again but the FAA said it will not yet allow Boeing to expand production of its best-selling narrow body family of jets, which includes the 737 Max 9.

In contrast, Boeing's arch-rival Airbus took to Singapore's skies with its A350-1000 passenger jet.

In its latest earnings report , the European aerospace giant said it would deliver 800 planes this year, including its A320neo which is a competitor to Boeing's 737 Max. Since the Alaska Airline incident, Boeing orders have shrunk significantly, delivering just 27 planes in January, compared to 67 in December.

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Watch: 'Trip from hell': On board flight during mid-air blowout

Safety first

After the National Transportation Safety Board's (NTSB) preliminary investigation into the the Alaska Airlines incident , Boeing's president Dave Calhoun said, "whatever final conclusions are reached, Boeing is accountable for what happened."

"There is no message or slogan to do that. It will take transparency and demonstrated action - that starts with each of us along with a commitment to listening to each other and speaking up," he added.

At the Singapore Airshow, Boeing marketing executive Dave Schulte said the plane was "by far the most scrutinised" and "safest" in the world, adding that he had flown on one with his family the previous week.

Some of Boeing's biggest customers have voiced their frustrations with the company, with the boss of Emirates airline warning that Boeing is in the "last chance saloon" after a "progressive decline" in its performance.

This is not the first time Boeing has faced a safety crisis. In 2018, the 737 Max 8 was grounded after two fatal crashes off the coast of Indonesia and over Ethiopia in 2018 and 2019. All together, 346 people were killed. Those crashes were attributed to flaws in its flight control software, forcing both airplanes to make catastrophic dives, despite the best efforts of the pilots.

Boeing's biggest challenge is regaining the trust of both the buyers of its planes and those who fly on them, with editor of Asian Aviation magazine Matt Driskill saying it would be "really hard" for Boeing to earn back trust.

However, a powerful voice in the industry says he is confident that Boeing will take the right measures and regain its status as a world-class supplier of aircraft.

"Boeing has responded in the right way. They have taken ownership of the problem. They put their hands up. They acknowledged that there is a problem that they need to address and I think they're going about that in the right way," Willie Walsh, the head of global airline industry body IATA told the BBC.

China rivalry?

The Singapore Airshow also saw the unveiling of another competitor for Boeing's airline customers - Chinese state-owned planemaker Comac.

At the event's press preview day, the Comac C919, a rival to Boeing's 737 Max and Airbus' A320neo single-aisle jet families, made its international debut.

The C919 started flying in China last year and the airline China Eastern placed an order for 100 of them, marking the largest order yet of the plane.

However, some aviation analysts say it will not be a serious international contender for quite some time due to slow production and the need to gain regulatory approval to fly outside China.

Another concern is parts. The C919 may be made in China, but it relies heavily on international supply chains.

China's Comac C919 made its international debut at the Singapore Airshow.

"The majority of the parts that go into the plane are from the West. The engines, the engine controls, the in-flight entertainment, just about every component is made in either Europe or America." Mr Driskill said.

Boeing is also keen to emphasise the 737 Max's prominent position in the airline industry, highlighting that somewhere in the world one of the planes takes off every 16 seconds.

Greg Waldron, Asia Managing Editor of online aviation website FlightGlobal, points out that despite the latest safety problems Boeing remains hugely important to the global commercial aviation and defence industries.

"Not to mention that there's a federal political importance with Boeing as well, because of the sheer numbers of people it employs, " he said.

"So is it too big to fail? It certainly is."

Related Topics

  • Aviation safety

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    A business continuity framework should outline the company's potential responses to a crisis. For example, if there's a fire, the response would include evacuation and contacting emergency services for help. The facilities team would look into the cause of the fire and report back to a crisis management team.

  5. Business continuity: PwC

    Business continuity means more than just making sure the lights stay on when a crisis hits. The benefits of establishing a business continuity strategy include: Resilience: With greater awareness of what really matters during a crisis, you can focus resources effectively.

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    BCM is defined as a holistic management process for identifying potential impacts from threats, and for developing response plans. The objective, ultimately, is to minimize the impact of disruptions by increasing the speed of recovery.

  7. Business Continuity and Crisis Management

    Internal Audit (IA)'s evolving role in business continuity and crisis management involves identifying risks, assessing controls, and guiding crisis responses. With their independent perspective, IA professionals provide assurance and oversight during crises, helping organisations navigate disruptions effectively. Acknowledging IA's importance has become a necessity for organisations striving ...

  8. Crisis Management Services

    Crisis management services. The worst that can happen sometimes does, whether it's a pandemic, natural or man-made disaster, or other unexpected and disruptive event. Business continuity policies, methods, and tools help leaders prepare, coordinate, and respond to major disruptions to maintain critical business operations.

  9. Crisis management and business continuity planning

    Crisis management and business continuity planning Unplanned events can have a devastating effect on small businesses. Crises such as fire, damage to stock, illness of key staff or IT system failure could all make it difficult or even impossible to carry out your normal day-to-day activities.

  10. Crisis Response

    Crisis Response. Our teams move fast to help clients stabilize crises and deliver an integrated response while maintaining performance. We have worked on 150 of the world's largest crises over the past 15 years—including natural disasters, disease outbreaks, cyberattacks, conduct issues, market disruptions, and operational incidents.

  11. Essential Guide to Crisis Management I Smartsheet

    A business continuity plan focuses on this aspect of crisis management. See " Business Continuity Planning: How to Do It Well " to learn more. " Free Disaster Recovery Plan Templates " offers templates for disaster recovery plans at different kinds of organizations and for business needs such as payroll and data.

  12. Creating a Successful Crisis Management Plan

    NSF recognizes the importance of crisis management and how having a process affects business continuity. NSF's GMP registration and certification programs include requirements for organizations to implement a CMP to address situations or emergencies arising from a crisis that may impact their ability to deliver a safe product.

  13. Crisis Management & Business Resiliency

    Crisis Management & Business Resiliency. This course is also offered in a live virtual format in October 2024. Preparing for a crisis is not a luxury; it is a necessity. The COVID-19 pandemic has proven this. You know the odds are high that your company will suffer, or has experienced, a disaster or crisis.

  14. Crisis vs. Business Continuity Planning

    3 mins read time How does Crisis Management differ from Business Continuity Planning? Discover the crucial differences between crisis management and business continuity planning in our latest blog. When unexpected events strike, organizations must be prepared to navigate through uncertainty and chaos.

  15. Crisis Management & Business Continuity Planning

    Edward Matley. National Crisis & Resilience Leader, Partner, PwC Canada. Tel: +1 604 806 7634. PwC Canada helps organizations in crisis management and business continuity planning by assessing and developing capabilities to respond to any crisis.

  16. Business continuity and resilience management: A conceptual framework

    The Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management is a valuable publication covering crisis response and management, contingency planning, and scenario analysis. Abstract The overall objective of business continuity management (BCM) systems is to provide guidance and analytical subcomponents on how to assess and manage risk and sustain ...

  17. What are the Three Stages of Crisis Management?

    In today's unpredictable business environment, effective crisis management is more important than ever. It is crucial for maintaining business continuity and building organisational resilience. This article will guide you through the steps of crisis management, providing you with tactical advice to protect your employees and manage a crisis effectively.

  18. Crisis Management And Business Continuity Planning

    February 6, 2024 Written By Chris Ekai Crisis Management and Business Continuity Planning are two critical components of organizational resilience, but they serve different purposes and focus on distinct aspects of recovery and response.

  19. Crisis

    The crisis will and do occur on a regular basis and are usually characterized by being managed by existing internal resources. (Source: Australia. A Practitioner's Guide to Business Continuity Management HB292 - 2006 ) 8. Is a situation where organizations shift from routine to non-routine operation.

  20. The Business Continuity Institute (BCI)

    The BCI is the global membership association of choice for business continuity and resilience professionals. With 9,000 members in more than 120 countries, we provide education, training & certification, membership, thought leadership, events, and more. Find out more about what the BCI can do for you by following the links below…

  21. PDF BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLANNING GUIDELINES

    A PRACTICAL APPROACH FOR RC/RC EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS, CRISIS MANAGEMENT, AND DISASTER RECOVERY 1.0 Introduction 2.0 Business Continuity Technical Group (BCTG) 3.0 Scope 4.0 Preparedness 5.0 Mitigation 6.0 Response ... and efficient organizational response to the challenges that surface during and after a crisis. Business Continuity Plan (BCP) ...

  22. Business Crisis and Continuity Management

    BUSINESS CRISIS AND CONTINUITY MANAGEMENT. Gregory L. Shaw, D.Sc., CBCP Senior Research Scientist The George Washington University Institute for Crisis, Disaster, and Risk Management. This chapter is focused on the private sector organizations (businesses) that support the economy at the individual, family, community, local, state and national ...

  23. Advanced Concepts in Business Continuity and Crisis Management

    At Novartis, Brendan leads the company's US crisis management and business continuity coordination activities. Since early 2020, Brendan has led the coordination of the company's response to COVID-19 in the US. Prior to joining the Novartis team in 2018, Brendan lead Security Resilience and Intelligence programs at two major critical ...

  24. Navigating turbulent waters: The impact of business continuity

    The Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management is a valuable publication covering crisis response and management, contingency planning, and scenario analysis. Abstract This study examines the influence of Business Continuity Management (BCM) practices on tour operator companies' financial and nonfinancial performance amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

  25. Risk Management: Understanding the Basics and Importance

    Importance of risk management. Risk management plays a vital role in various industries, as it helps organizations anticipate and address potential threats and uncertainties. By proactively managing risks, businesses can minimize financial losses, protect their reputation, and ensure the safety and well-being of their employees and stakeholders.

  26. 6 Ways to Navigate a Crisis and Protect Your Reputation

    4. Social media is your ally in crisis management. In any crisis, social media can be a double-edged sword and must be leveraged carefully. While it can easily escalate a crisis, it can also be a ...

  27. Business Continuity vs Crisis Management: A Deep Dive

    Duration of Action: Business continuity is designed to ensure that essential business functions keep running smoothly in the long term despite interruptions, while crisis management often involves taking swift actions to manage a crisis situation and may be more short-term in nature.

  28. Boeing: Aviation giant displays crisis management at Asia's top ...

    This is not the first time Boeing has faced a safety crisis. In 2018, the 737 Max 8 was grounded after two fatal crashes off the coast of Indonesia and over Ethiopia in 2018 and 2019. All together ...