Company Crisis Management Planning: Some questions and strategies
 

The events of the past week in the adult industry provided a fast moving example of a company in crisis and how things can go from bad to worse. Rather than playing "Monday morning quarterback" using that particular adult company as in example of "they should have done this or that instead", let's talk about having a strategy in place for what you can do to mitigate damage if something happens in your company that quickly turns in to a public relations and brand damaging event.

In this time of fast moving social media, it's extremely important to have a "team" in place, be it large (if you are in large company and have legal, HR and PR in-house staff), or small (if you a small business and only have the counsel of a lawyer and possibly a steady public facing communication person) in place.

Here is a good existing guide that might be helpful:

What is a crisis management plan?
A crisis management plan outlines how your business will react if a crisis occurs. The plan should identify who will take action and what their roles will be. The goal of a crisis management plan is to minimize damage and restore business operations as quickly as possible.

Your crisis management plan is a living document your team can refer to and update frequently. There are various ways to outline your plan, but a typical crisis plan looks like a checklist. When mishaps occur, your team can check off what items need to be done to respond to the crisis.

There’s no way to know what type of crisis may occur and when, but performing a risk analysis can give you a generalized idea of the potential threats your company may face.

For example, a social media marketing company may be more at-risk for an organizational mishap that requires a public apology, while a tech company may be more at risk for a cyberattack. The industry you’re in can also help you determine potential crises and figure out how to combat them.

1. Identify your crisis leadership team
Before you can take the first step in crisis management planning, choose a team of leaders to collaborate with during the crisis planning process. Your team should include the people who will take action during a crisis. Put this team together at the very beginning of crisis management planning so everyone knows the ins and outs of your crisis strategy.

2. Assess risk
To begin the planning process, have a brainstorming session to assess various risks your company may face. As mentioned above, you can kick off your brainstorming session by looking at risks associated with your job field. Use a risk register to identify and analyze the probability of risks occurring. A risk register can eliminate progress delays and prepare for potential setbacks. It can also help you visualize which risks are most likely to occur so you can plan a response for these risks.

3. Determine the business impact
Once you’ve identified the high-probability risks that could affect your company, determine the business impact of these risks with the help of your crisis leadership team. Each risk can cause different outcomes, so it’s important to analyze them separately. Potential business impacts may include customer attrition, damaged reputation, delayed sales, lost income, or regulatory fines.

4. Plan the response
Next, take each risk you’ve identified and determine what actions your team would need to take to respond to the threat if it does happen. For example, if you work in software and your company experiences a cyberattack, you may need someone to secure the network, someone to release the news to your customers, and another person to handle damage assessment.

5. Solidify the plan
Once you’ve verbally made sense of the threats your company may face, the business impact, and how to respond, solidify your plan. A crisis management plan is more than a written or verbal strategy. It should include key items such as an activation protocol and emergency contacts. You’ll also need to collaborate with key stakeholders so that everyone understands what to do and when.

6. Review and update
Once your crisis plan is complete, review the final product to ensure there are no gaps. Revisit your crisis management plan and update it at least once a year because potential risks can change with time.

What to include in a crisis management plan:

Risk analysis
A risk analysis will physically outline the potential risks your company may face and put them in order of probability. Including risk management in your emergency response plan is helpful because new leaders can refer to it if management shifts.

Activation protocol
The activation protocol determines when action should be taken if a crisis occurs. For example, you may decide that your team members should hold off on taking action until a crisis reaches a certain level of business impact. Once that business impact occurs, it triggers the crisis management team to respond.

Emergency contacts
Include the main emergency contact information to speed up the response process for crises that require external help. Your emergency contact list may include your attorney, publicist and other professionals with experience in handling public relations emergencies.

Response procedures
While an activation protocol defines exactly when your crisis response team should respond to a crisis, the response procedures outline the action plans for each person when triggered. Use a roles and responsibilities matrix, also known as a RACI chart, to clarify the decision-making positions in your crisis response plan. For example, a RACI chart can help the response team determine who’s accountable for communicating with the public and who’s responsible for talking to employees.

External crisis communication strategy
When a crisis occurs, your internal operations may not be the only things impacted. Once a crisis is widespread enough, you’ll need to explain the situation to key external stakeholders and the public. Your external crisis communication strategy should include details about who will deliver the information as well as who’s in charge of handling feedback.

Post-crisis assessment
A post-crisis assessment reminds your team to follow up and assess what went well and what didn’t. You can then update your crisis plan with lessons learned to improve your response procedures and reduce business impact.



Crisis management plan examples
Although there’s no way to predict every crisis, you can generalize types of crises into categories and make plans based on what may happen. Some crisis management examples include:

Organizational mishap: There’s always the chance that your company will be accused of misconduct or wrongdoing, and in this crisis situation, you’ll need a plan for how to respond. This crisis plan may involve issuing a public apology and figuring out how to recover.

Financial loss: When your company suffers from a financial loss, you may have to announce bankruptcy or lay off employees. You can plan for this scenario without knowing the initial cause of the financial crisis.

Technological failure: A technology mishap could leave your customers without access for an extended period of time. This type of crisis affects your reputation and your bottom line, so it’s important to prepare for this situation.

Operational changes: While it may not seem like a traditional crisis, you should have a plan in place to prepare for an unexpected major shift in leadership. Additionally, your operations process may be affected if you have to lay off a lot of employees, and the public may need to know.

Below is a link to a longer article on this which includes a free crisis management template that you can use based on the size of your company, risks you may face, and how to structure a plan should something bad happen:


More, plus a crisis management template builder:
https://asana.com/resources/crisis-management-plan

Thanks for this resource. I'll look into it later. For a large project we were working on, we did initiate the development of a crisis management plan to cover pretty much every major scenario possible. We did so, paying close attention to other companies going through their problems, and noting how they commented publicly, and what exactly they stated. As part of that broader plan, and included in employee handbook, all questions regardless if it was from the media or a government authority, was referred to one specific person.

Also a little common sense advice during crisis which pertains to both Twitter and forums.

If another company is in crisis do not make a public show of support before the full facts are known. If you do so this could send you off on your own "apology tour" if things aren't as they seem.

Register 2 separate companies. The first one is the company that's publicly known and the 2nd one is offshore and where all the money and assets go. In a worst case scenario, when the publicly known company has a serious problem, you just shut it down.

I recommend the creation of a Panamanian corporation and bearer shares.

Every plan stands with how smart the guy is that is making the plan.

I had crisis management as part of my management study.
In this case you don't need a plan, but common sense.

What would you have done different?

seems like you meant to post this on xBitch? :1orglaugh

seriously tho what happened? nothing crisisical hit my news feed.

#

I guess you did not got the memo :1orglaugh

If you are in the US (or any other country for that matter) it doesn't really protect you.

Years ago I sued an offshore company. The owner spent a lot of money setting it up.

With 3 phone calls I found his home address in California and had him personally served.

When he walked into his deposition, all he could do was ask was how did I find him. He was really pissed. This is a small industry and if anyone knows you, especially your competitors, they will usually rat you out if paid enough money for information.

Yep, similar method was used to expose piracy site owners address - while you can hide your host/domain register/etc, money trail always stay.

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

great job! :thumbsup

#

I honestly had thought that all references to it, were being removed from GFY instantly. :2 cents:

Topic is in Politics & More
https://gfy.com/politics-and-more/13...-canceled.html

Ahh, fair play - I never go over there, so I wouldn't have seen it - I supposed it makes sense to have it in a more 'protected' forum though :thumbsup

Ass location and citizenship matter, not place of incorporation or web hosting. I was just explaining this to someone who didn’t want to hear this truth.

Brad

Ass location... lol I have to remember that one.

The other issue people forget is that if you have a .com the US has jurisdiction over your domain name.

In case of a judgment if you dont show up to court, the domain can be foreclosed upon and sold at auction to satisfy the judgment.

yea me neither. too many keyboard warriors and i really give zero fucks about politics (in any country). the corrupt will keep being corrupt. the rest of us need to keep lube handy.




#

Good luck with that. I've been at this game probably longer than you've been alive.

I turned 54 yesterday... in your lingo - Im no "whippersnapper"

:1orglaugh

Good luck

Thanks for this, a lot of useful info. The part I was hoping you'd expound on though is, did you feel Ynot was adequately prepared to respond appropriately to the latest scandal or did you have to learn much of this on the fly?

did you really need to quote the whole fucking OP? :1orglaugh

#

yes......

Every corp needs an osint team and a cointel team.
Timing is everything. It’s a dance.
There is your public response and a more intimate response.
Find out who is exactly feeding the flames.
Strike smart. Strike hard. No mercy.

Great job sometimes these guys get away with too much