Readiness for global office crises

A crisis in another country often does not fit into any known framework.  The organisational response, therefore, has to deal with the problem of finding people to manage the problem at the same time as anticipating the escalation factor and providing support for the most exposed aspects of the business.

There is simply little time for planning, organising, equipping or training once the crisis is imminent. 

Importantly, the crisis management approach needs to ensure that the various operations and projects of an international operation are in a constant state of readiness and that crisis teams know what to do and how to do it.

Basically, the objectives of any plan should be to protect the company’s people and assets.

International operations crisis management objectives:

1.      Protect the life of employees and their families.

2.      Protect assets and earnings by restoring normal operations rapidly.

3.      Protect the local community and environment.

4.      Minimise damage to corporate reputation.

5.      Retain effective relationships with government of the country

Because international business management and employees could be cut off for long periods from the parent company by failure of communication lines, it is important that teams are trained in advance to follow prescribed guidelines in their crisis response. The way in which the crisis is tackled will depend on the quality of training and briefing for the crisis teams before the event. 

The plan needs to clearly establish authority and responsibilities at every level.  It is useful here to define mobilisation actions and list contact points with details about communication links and notification procedures.  

Interfacing with external agencies is an essential part of crisis planning in other countries because the crisis management response may well include support systems from embassies or law enforcement agencies. But this interface with expected support from your embassy or consulate may not be reliable and needs to be confirmed well in advance of an incident.  Setting these communication links up in advance is vital to the success of the plan.                 

The plan should contain details of the organisation's team roles and responsibilities, setting out the core action group at each location who are responsible for managing the problem.  It will be their responsibility to assess the situation and respond accordingly with the necessary resources required.  They will also need to contact and communicate other teams in the region and the necessary stakeholders affected, including Head Office in the home country.

In some cases, the crisis management team may only be one or two people. This is particularly the case for small offices, exploration, research or transport teams working in far distant locations.  It is still important that these teams have an understanding on how to pinpoint a crisis and what on-the-spot actions they have to achieve to protect life and ongoing operations.                   

2014 Crisis Management Imperatives

In 2014, crisis management has moved further forward to support risk and resilience management. The unexpected crisis, both for government and corporations, has become a high priority. While hospitals, fire fighters and law enforcement response organisations continue to upgrade their capability, many executives and senior managers are not prepared either intellectually or emotionally to face rapid, escalating tragic events such as major accidents, corporate collapses, infrastructure failures, massive product recalls or acts of terrorism.

Even though some organisations have been through a major crisis, management avoids talking about the subject, often because they equate crisis with bad management and events like that do not happen on their watch.

The most rapid advancement in crisis management preparedness is the speed of communication. CEOs and managers at every level need to know and share information rapidly. In today's world of instant media coverage and social media commentary, if an organisation doesn't get its message out clearly and distinctly at the beginning of a crisis, someone else will take the high ground. The moment of control will be lost.

Then why are some organisations better able to take control of a crisis rapidly? The key elements are:

* The CEO and CFO have a commitment to crisis management and contingency planning for response to
threats that can harm the organisation's personnel, property and reputation.
* Divisional, subsidiary and affiliate management develop similar contingency plans in their areas
of responsibility consistent with the organisation's policies and procedures established by senior
management.
* There is a clear identification and measurement of threats.
* Executive teams, divisional teams and site teams are trained and ready.
* The plan is tested, validated and current.

The crisis best practise organistions I work with understand that these are bottom line issues. They recognise that crisis management planning is a resilience strategy. They understand that uncontrolled crises can cause high employee turnover, interrupted workflow, massive asset damage, lawsuits, loss of market share and, in a corporate environment, a detrimental effect on share price.

Make 2014 the year to ensure that your people and your plans are functionally up-to-date. Take advantage of new technology to share information rapidly. Make sure your human resources, legal, risk, corporate governance and corporate affairs processes are linked with your executive rapid response. Err on the side of over-disclosure - credibility is the key to perception.

When is a crisis plan out-of-date?

Recent oil spills, product recalls and natural disasters have identified major critical gaps in crisis planning processes. Systems change, authorities shift, equipment ages, new equipment is installed and, importantly, key people move.

A rapid response will save lives and property and should ensure minimal operational interruption, but there are a number of reasons why this may not be possible:

* ownership of the crisis management program have changed
* organisational changes have occurred across the business
* management expectations of crisis preparedness have altered
* emergency and crisis interface have not been tested recently
* new threats/risks have not been incorporated into the plan
* key stakeholders need reconfirming
* internal communication systems have not been validated recently
* loss of contact with essential agencies - fire, police, medical
* new employees are not familiar with contingency plans
* impact of "social media" in crisis has not been considered
* reputational and brand issues have shifted

A regular, formal crisis audit needs to be applied to confirm that all subsidiaries and contractors maintain the currency of their crisis plans. People become lazy about preparedness for crisis and live training exercises are the only way to ensure that crisis plans are functionally up-to-date.

Unpredictable crises 2010

The Financial Times has suggested that disaster management is a growth market, particularly related to unexpected events such as the tragic deaths and subsequent oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, the sovereign debt crisis in Greece and the ongoing volcanic ash closing down air space in Europe.

Having the resilience to control an unpredictable event is the role of crisis management and when emergency response systems can't cope, strategic crisis management needs to kick in to respond swiftly to reputational brand and governance issues. The simple questions I would ask any organisation are:

* what are the worst case scenarios that could hit your business?
* what is the most inconvenient time for this to happen?
* do you have a strategic plan to deal with it?
* who will lead your response?
* can you contact/involve your key stakeholders rapidly?
* where will you manage the response from?
* can you continue to run the rest of the business?
* what are your short and long term recovery goals?

Now is the time to plan to limit the effects of an escalating unforeseen event. With a strategic crisis plan you can.