In
this borderless world, crisis events escalate within minutes and threaten the
most complex companies and organisations. Whether it be an exploding phone, fraud
at one of the world’s largest banks, a disaster in an amusement park or an act
of international terrorism - high level management preparation, through a
Crisis Management Plan, is vital, particularly for CEOs, corporate boards or
government administrations.
If
crisis management is to be taken seriously and installed efficiently, it must
come from and be part of the people who run the business. After all, in the end, it is those people who
will have to manage the crisis when it reaches its most ferocious point.
The
corporate crisis plan has to be part of company good governance and policy and
those who are involved in its creation, instalment, and ongoing delivery, need
to have their accountability listed in their job description.
A
crisis plan must be simple and easy-to-use.
People have less time and less attention span to be confused by
long-winded, long-worded, jargon written instructions. The plan needs common language that simply
and easily identifies the goals and objectives, the methods of delivery and
implementation, and the ongoing evaluation and continuity.
Accountability
is essential. Senior management
personnel must be given the time and the authority to be accountable for the ownership
of this plan. Once a senior manager is
given the responsibility of validating a crisis management plan, he or she
should be supported and assisted in the review by a dedicated, professional
outside crisis management consultancy. This should not be a PR or emergency
management consultancy but more a provider focused on delivering a strategic
process.
A
crisis management budget needs to be set and approved. Some organisations may prefer to link the
crisis management budget with the legal or risk management function. Others may associate it with good corporate
governance and build it into the corporate affairs and public policy area. Some may prefer it to be associated with company
secretary or corporate finance. Manufacturing companies may link their crisis
management plan with their marketing and product recall function.
The
crisis management plan must be capable of application at every office, branch, site,
and location. Just as Head Office has a
role to play in managing corporate and business crises, so do divisional
offices, branches, plants, and major sites in managing the same responsibility
on the spot. When a crisis happens, it
must be handled quickly where it
happens. If the location or site is not
given the authority to act, valuable time will be lost and ultimately the
control and the agenda may move to another negative party.
Every
crisis plan needs to have a maintenance process. It must be acceptable to internal auditors,
outside auditors, senior management and endorsed by the Board of Directors.
Education
of team members and support groups needs to be an ongoing process. Once the Team Leader and core team members
have been familiarised with their roles and responsibilities, it is necessary
to test and review these functions regularly.
Most teams are tested at least one or two times a year with either a desk-top
exercise or full-scale simulation.
Every
crisis team at every location will rely enormously on resources. Control room facilities such as whiteboards, IT
connections and telephones, are all part of the resource kit.
