Crisis management: How businesses can respond to tomorrow’s crisis with today’s solutions

The origin of the word crisis is the Greek “Krisis (judgment)” or “Krinein (decision, make selection).” The word means a turning point for better or worse, a decisive moment, or crucial time.

Throughout history, there have been many examples of crisis management, whether it be during wars, industrial upheavals or the many environmental disasters.

In the modern era, we have faced what seems like an endless run of natural disasters in addition to the COVID-19 pandemic that caused so many deaths and economic upheaval worldwide.

New challenges preparing for next ‘big thing’

Despite the lessons to be learnt from history, today’s crises bring new challenges for both people and businesses. Crisis is all around us in our everyday lives, which underlines the importance of a crisis aware culture that needs to be embedded into an organisation’s thinking if it is to survive the next “big thing” or “things”.

The best way to manage a crisis is to avoid a crisis in the first place.

For any organisation, big or small, there is the challenge to get it right in prioritising certain risks. Cyber and pandemic threats are more likely to be global, while in Australia there is an almost annual regularity with which natural disasters like flooding and bushfires occur. It is important to start by creating a threat assessment for risk.

Conducting workshops will help establish your top threats. Using data will help you understand the landscape better and what threats have materialised in this area previously. This intelligence is fed into the crisis management plan for each location and country.

After taking all of this on board, it is time to determine your strategy and responses, which would include specific tools to capture threat assessment data that helps determine your business continuity tools.

Four principles business leaders should know about crisis management in 2022

1. Understand the risks — avoid the crisis

   Be equipped with systems and predicted models of varying crisis scenarios which allows mitigation and planning to be undertaken. Once this is done, and if the risk occurs, there are clear roles and responsibilities in place.

   Understand when and how to activate the crisis management plan. Embodied in this is the communications strategy which recognises how to react with stakeholders, emergency contacts and the use of technology systems to keep on the front foot.

   Importantly, we need to constantly get better in dealing with a crisis, hence the need to conduct regular post-crisis reviews. Politicians have been very vocal in saying the latest crisis is unique or a once in a 100-year event, but recent events tell us the impact of climate change means the next crisis could happen at any time.

2. What has changed since the pandemic?

   The COVID-19 pandemic has been the catalyst for a major shift in work/lifestyle. Accelerated digital transformation means people can work from anywhere. At the same time, customer expectations have changed.

   For example, Coles supermarkets during the pandemic changed to doing much more business online, from 1500 to 15,000 transactions.

3. How can SMEs help respond to a crisis using today’s solutions and data?

   The role and contribution of SMEs in the global landscape has long remained undervalued. The large players that we see today started small. Data suggests SMEs represent around 90% of all firms globally, make-up roughly 70% of employment and, by some estimates, contribute up to 90% of global GDP.

   These businesses do not just contribute, but represent the future of innovation and advancement.

   Most SMEs remain highly vulnerable to the disruptions in a complex and interdependent economies of scale, due to their limited capacity, financial resources and risk protection. But they do not have to bear the full cost and rely on a B-grade crisis management plan.

   A two-pronged approach is to make full use of cloud technologies and then look to providers that can facilitate an appropriate amount of support for the size of their business. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has also accelerated or brought about a paradigm shift to the importance of resilience and sailing through crises effectively. Resilience gives us the tools to not only manage disruption or a crisis but to seize opportunities and keep moving forward.

   Crises are stressful financially, personally and time-wise, resulting in mental health issues. In a crisis communications plan, it is imperative SME’s look at their policies to protect themselves and their employees. 

4. What are the different crisis management phases

   Prepare: defining the crisis management process with crisis management teams for each location.

   Respond: Develop an emergency management response and ensuring employee safety is a priority.

   Recover: Identify critical business objectives to ensure their continuity.

   Learn: Are there areas we can improve to prevent the crisis in the future? This will then feedback into the prepare phase.

   Coupled with these various steps, it is essential businesses not lose sight of the human factors involved and understand what people go through and use that as your ‘star ’in developing your crisis management plan. For example, if a natural disaster occurs, adopt a mindset of discovery; go out and speak to affected people to see what is happening on the ground. This research allows people to tell their own story, rather than reducing their voice to statistics and feedback metrics.

   By putting people at the centre and understanding the human experience allows us to find pre and post solutions. The people first mindset leverages the power of emotional intelligence and not only develops resilience but can unlock opportunities and value for both your customers and your employees. Set aside your own preconceived assumptions and ideas, adopt a learning mindset and put yourself in your customers’ or your employee’s shoes.

Remember

Crisis is a word that describes a turning point for better or worse, a decisive moment, or crucial time. How we prepare and respond determines the level of impact.