BCM Basics: 

The Strategic
Side of Crisis
Management  
RICHARD LONG
POSTED ON:FEBRUARY 16, 2023
UPDATED ON:FEBRUARY 17, 2023

This post is part of BCM Basics, a series of occasional, entry-level blogs on

some of the key concepts in business continuity management. 
Most companies have a pretty good handle on the tactical side of crisis
management. Few have given much thought to the strategic side, an oversight
which can lead to costly delays and bad decisions during an emergency. 

Related on MHA Consulting: Critical Assistance: How a Consultant Can

Strengthen Your Crisis Management Program 

According to Strong Language: The MHA Glossary of Essential Business

Continuity Terminology, crisis management is “the process of trying to resolve a
serious adverse event with minimal impact on an organization and its
stakeholders.”  

Crisis management is one of the four main business continuity areas (the others
are program administration, business recovery, and IT disaster recovery) and it
has four priorities: protecting life safety, stabilizing the incident, preserving
property, and restoring the business. 

In our experience at MHA, most organizations do pretty well with the tactical
side of CM—writing plans to accomplish the CM priorities and executing on
them when an event occurs. However, relatively few are mindful of the strategic
side of crisis management.  

For many organizations, the fact that there is a strategic side to CM might come
as news. Many orgs set up their corporate CM team then figure they are done.
Wise organizations go a step further, investing effort in the strategic aspects of
their programs. 

The strategic side of CM refers to preparations and mitigations the organization

should put in place ahead of time to strengthen its crisis response capability. 

Why Strategic CM Is Important 

There are two main reasons why organizations should make the effort to get
their strategic CM ducks in a row before they have to contend with an
emergency. One is, getting key resources and approvals lined up in advance,
saving people from having to scramble to obtain these during a crisis. This can
cause delays that can make the difference between a company’s getting
through a crisis relatively unscathed and suffering extensive and costly damage. 
The second reason is, making momentous decisions under pressure in a few
minutes’ time doesn’t give anyone adequate time to consider the ramifications.
This can result in poor decisions being made—decisions whose negative
consequences might still be making themselves felt long after the crisis is past.
(An example would be a company that makes a snap decision to lift its financial
approval limits to help it get through a crisis and later finds that employees
spent huge sums on unneeded items.) 

Key Areas of Strategic CM 

Strategic crisis management centers on a few key areas. They are: 

Crisis team distribution and integration. A key strategic concern for

organizations with more than one location is whether to have only one CM
team (at headquarters) or additional, subordinate CM teams at some or all of
the other locations. Other subordinate CM teams might be set up based on
function or business unit (such as the supply chain or IT). Companies with
more than one CM team need to work out ahead of time how the various
teams will be integrated. 

Financial. Many companies have found their ability to respond to a crisis

hampered by financial approval limits that were too low to allow staff to
quickly procure goods or services needed to manage the emergency. Limits
that are adequate in ordinary times can be crippling in a crisis, when time is of
the essence and the people needed to give their approval for exceptions (or
make changes to the relevant computer systems) might be busy on the CM
team. Companies should consider enacting a policy that says that when a
crisis is officially declared, financial approval limits automatically go up. The
decision of how much they should go up is worthy of careful thought ahead of
time. Raising limits too little might hamper the CM effort. Raising them too high
can result in unnecessary spending.   

Travel. In a crisis, staff might need to travel to different company locations to

help with the CM effort. If this need bumps up against hard travel restrictions—
whether from a computerized booking system or a travel agent requiring an
approval code—the trip will be delayed and the CM effort hampered. As part
of their CM strategy, companies should consider changing their travel policies
so that when a crisis is declared, limits are loosened.  

Labor and human resources. Many aspects of labor relations and human
resources that are functional in ordinary times can, during a crisis, negatively
 impact a company’s response or even threaten its survival. Organizations
should consider these matters ahead of time, identifying areas that might
warrant adjustment during a declared crisis. The next step is seeing whether
any of these changes can be implemented. Examples of areas where changes
might be beneficial include: rules on bringing in temporary or non-union help,
rules on jurisdictional work, and policies pertaining to overtime, weekend work,
night shifts, vacations, and pay.   

Communication. Companies should develop pre-determined communication

templates by audience (internal and external) and come up with a general
schedule for communication to each audience. They should also determine in
advance who will be responsible for the communication. Proactive and regular
communication to staff on communication policies and expectations during
crisis events is important. Don’t assume staff will remember not to comment
or share information about the crisis on social media.  

Integration with other tactical plans. Cyber response is not just a technical
plan but the business and reputational items that should be addressed and
integrated. Ensure your crisis plan has a section specific to cyber response
including your policy for paying ransoms, when to engage third parties (e.g. law
enforcement), and your insurance and regulatory communication and
notification requirements. Understand when escalation from normal incident
management must or may be escalated to a crisis team.  

Training and awareness. Crisis teams are often made up of those in

leadership positions. Leaders commonly do not have time to participate in
training and awareness activities or believe they are unnecessary (because
“we solve problems every day”). However, crisis management and leadership is
different from day-to-day problem and issue management. The stresses are
different and how people react to those stresses can be unexpected. We have
all seen public figures react in ways unexpected when they are not in control
of the situation. Crises by definition are not something you can control.  

Strengthening the Organization’s Crisis Response Capability 

While most organizations do a good job with the tactical aspects of crisis
management, many overlook the strategic side of CM. This part of CM involves
doing things ahead of time that will strengthen the organization’s crisis response
capability, preparations that can save time and reduce the likelihood of bad
decisions being made during a crisis.  
The key areas to consider in strategic CM include crisis team distribution and
integration, financial considerations, travel restrictions, and labor and human
resources and others. Sorting out issues in these areas ahead of time can help
organizations respond more effectively to crises and minimize their impact on
the business and its stakeholders. 

Further Reading 
For more information on crisis management, and other hot topics in BC and
IT/disaster recovery, check out these recent posts from MHA Consulting and
BCMMETRICS: 

Don’t Give Up the Ship: Demonstrating the Benefits of Rigorous Crisis

Management Training 

Critical Assistance: How a Consultant Can Strengthen Your Crisis Management

Program 

What to Include in Your Crisis Management Plan 

5 Myths of Contemporary Crisis Management 

Hitting the Ceiling: In A Crisis, You’re Only as Good as Your Crisis Management
Training 
 Richard Long
Richard Long is one of MHA’s practice team leaders for Technology and
Disaster Recovery related engagements. He has been responsible for the
successful execution of MHA business continuity and disaster recovery
engagements in industries such as Energy & Utilities, Government Services,
Healthcare, Insurance, Risk Management, Travel & Entertainment, Consumer
Products, and Education. Prior to joining MHA, Richard held Senior IT Director
positions at PetSmart (NASDAQ: PETM) and Avnet, Inc. (NYSE: AVT) and has
been a senior leader across all disciplines of IT. He has successfully led
international and domestic disaster recovery, technology assessment, crisis
management and risk mitigation engagements.
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