Crisis Management

Following up on our Crisis Management lecture, I’ve picked up a book by Michael Regester and Judy Larkin. It bears a title “A Casebook of Best Practice”, and truly the recommendations and advice are very clear and down-to the point – like in your average cookbook.

The book is divided into 2 parts, Risk Issues Management and Crisis Management. The first 6 chapters are all about precaution – how to identify the potential risk areas, how to deal with popular public perceptions, what to do with activists and “advocacy groups”.

Also, special attention is paid to CSR , as the authors explain all benefits of successful CSR strategy and introduce (at least to me) such term as Socially Responsible Investment (SRI).

The authors also look at the Issue Management (defined as “proactive, anticipatory and planned process designed to influence the development of an issue before it evolves to a stage which requires crisis management.”)

What I really loved about the book is its highly practical approach. Abundance of examples and case studies is fascinating, even though most of them date back to 1990s or even 80s.

The importance of planning to manage the crisis seems to be the key recommendation Michael and Judy aim to deliver to the readers by all means. Specifically, the process involves audience definition, procedure development, training, testing, and risk audit.

According to the authors, three fire brigades are required for identification and prevention of a potential crisis: the Core Committee (directors with individual responsibilities such as “people”, “incident status”, “product supply”), the Crisis Control Team (located at the site of the crisis), and the Crisis Prevention Team (to ensure the crisis doesn’t happen in the first place).

Also, there is a need for a fully equipped “war room”. The members are recommended to have rehearsed their responsibilities and have a role-substitute in case someone is away. Moreover, there are even recommendations for choosing the right members for each team based on their personalities (“the doom merchant”, “the book-keeper”, “the humanist”).

After all, modern life calls for “planning for the unexpected”. Environmentalists, human rights activists, trade unions (often advised by our key competitors) need to be dealt with on a regular basis. Thus, appointing in-house key players to manage the risk issues sounds like a very sensible idea – it will help to avoid the stress and turmoil when the crisis hits.

Having a prompt and well-prepared response in a crisis situation will aid the company’s reputation tremendously.

References:

Regester, M and Larkin, J (2005) Risk Issues and Crisis Management, Third Edition, CIPR, Kogan Page, London and Sterling, VA