Crisis Management

Prepared By Dr. Nabil Mohammed Alolofi

Dean of Faculty of Business
Amran University
Crisis Management

B us
i ne s
s Cr
isis
 Business Crisis
What is a crisis?
• A crisis is an unforeseen event that causes
restlessness among the people of an organization.
• Different types of crises can happen to an
organization, all of which require adept
management to keep the company working toward
its goals.
• Understanding crises and how to resolve them can
help your organization prepare for any type of
situation.
Prepared by: Ms Kimpal Patel
 Business Crisis

• What is a business crisis?

• A business crisis is an event that has
the potential to threaten the
success and health of a company by
tarnishing its reputation, damaging
its business operations, negatively
impacting its finances, or harming
its employees.
Prepared by: Ms Kimpal Patel
 Business Crisis

• What is a business crisis?

• A business crisis can be caused by
something internally or externally.
• Due to the severity of a business crisis,
it’s important to be prepared to manage
one of these events with a plan you
(and your team) create prior to one
actually occurring.
Prepared by: Ms Kimpal Patel
 Business Crisis

• What is a business crisis?

• A business crisis is an event, or a series
of events, that causes major
disturbance for a business.
• A crisis typically occurs suddenly and
poses intense difficulty or danger for
the business, usually in a situation
where time is short and decisions have
to be taken quickly.
Prepared by: Ms Kimpal Patel
 crisis management
What is crisis management?

Crisis management is the process of

preparing for and managing any
disruptive or unexpected emergency
situations that affect your business,
stakeholders, employees, customers, and
revenue.
 Crisis Management Process
1. Pre-Crisis
• The first part of crisis management is preventing any
potential crises. This involves:
- creating a crisis management plan.
- hiring and training your crisis management team.
- and conduct practice exercises for implementing your plan.
• Another part of this step is drafting any crisis
communication messages you may have to relay in times
of crisis — pre-writing these messages saves time when
an emergency situation actually happens.
 Crisis Management Process

2. Crisis Management and Response

• what you consider when you think of crisis management
— the process of dealing with and responding to the
different stages of crisis.
• This stage is when your crisis management plan is put
into action. Initial crisis management messages are
released, employees and stakeholders and contacted,
and public and company safety is prioritized (more than
normal).
 Crisis Management Process
3. Post-Crisis
• When a crisis passes or subsides, your crisis management work is
hardly finished. It's imperative that you remain in contact with your
employees, customers, and stakeholders and remain available to
answer questions. It's also best practice to send proactive updates to
these parties.
• Finally, work with your crisis management team to review and analyze
your crisis management plan how it played out during a real
emergency situation. How did your crisis communications perform?
Did your audiences have any lingering questions or concerns that you
neglected to answer? Integrate any lessons you learn into your crisis
management process for future planning.
• Now, let's dive into the crisis management plan and how to create
one for your business.
crisis management
plan
 crisis management plan

What is a crisis management plan?

• A crisis management plan is an established process a
business follows when dealing with a disruptive or
unexpected emergency situation.
• Your crisis management plan should be completed
prior to crises so your business is prepared to use it to
combat and rectify any unexpected events.
 crisis management plan
Why Create a Crisis Management Plan
Crisis management plans:
1. Help you maintain your great reputation with customers,
competitors, and industry leaders during and after a
crisis.
2. Improve the safety, health, and well-being of everyone
who works for and does business with your company.
3. Give you peace of mind as an employer and company —
you’ll be ready for any situation that comes your way.
4. Increase productivity during and after a crisis. Everyone
will know their role and function throughout a crisis so
there’s less downtime, more action, and quicker
resolution.
 crisis management plan
How to Create a Crisis Management Plan?
1. Identify all possible types of crises.
2. Determine the impact of each type of crisis on your
business.
3. Consider the actions you’d need to take to resolve
each type of crisis.
4. Decide who will be involved in the actions you need to
take in each scenario.
5. Develop resolution plans for each type of crisis.
6. Train everyone who needs to be familiar with your
plans.
7. Revisit and update your plans regularly and when
necessary.
 crisis management plan
1. Identify all possible types of crises:
consider the different categories of crises that
businesses are most susceptible to experiencing.
 Financial crisis: When a business experiences a drop
in demand for whatever it is they sell — whether it’s
a product or service. They lose value in those assets
and can’t afford to pay off their debt.
 Personnel crisis: When an employee or someone
else associated with a business is involved in activity
or conduct that’s considered unethical and/ or
illegal. This misconduct may occur in or out of the
workplace and can be related to the work-life or
personal life of the individual involved.
 crisis management plan
1. Identify all possible types of crises.
 Organizational crisis: When a business has wronged its customers
by taking actions that negatively impact its customers. Examples
may include keeping important information from customers who
deserve to know the details about a specific topic or exploiting
customers.
 Technological crisis: When servers go down, software crashes or
another technological system stops functioning properly. It might
cause a business to lose large amounts of revenue, make
customers question their reliability, or tarnish their reputation.
 Natural crisis: Hurricanes, tornados, floods, and winter storms
are all examples of natural crises that have the power to damage
or completely ruin a business’s office space (or any area owned or
used by a business). Depending on a company’s location, they
might be more prone to various natural disasters occurring
throughout the year.
 crisis management plan
1. Identify all possible types of crises.
Natural crisis: Hurricanes, tornados,
floods, and winter storms are all examples
of natural crises that have the power to
damage or completely ruin a business’s
office space (or any area owned or used
by a business). Depending on a company’s
location, they might be more prone to
various natural disasters occurring
throughout the year.
 crisis management plan
2. Determine the impact of each type of crisis on
your business.
determine the impact each of these events could
have on your company, employees, and customers.
Examples include:
– Loss in sales
– Customer dissatisfaction
– Tarnished reputation
– Increase in expenses (to fix the issue at hand)
– Decrease in customer loyalty to your brand.
 crisis management plan
3. Consider the actions you’d need to take to
resolve each type of crisis.
review the different crisis management methods you could
implement.
A few of the most common crisis management methods include
the following:
 Responsive crisis management: This is when a business has a
previously prepared response to a specific type of crisis
situation that they can roll out at any point in time.
 Proactive crisis management: This is when a business
anticipates a specific type of crisis occurring and proactively
prepares for it.
 Recovery crisis management: This is when a business
manages a crisis that blindsided them because it happened
out of the blue. An example of this is a technological crisis.
 crisis management plan
4. Decide who will be involved in the actions you need to
take in each scenario.
• Once you’ve considered the impact of each type of
crisis and the actions you’ll take to resolve them, it’s
time to think about who will carry out the necessary
resolution plans and actions.
• This might include specific employees with expertise in
different areas of your business, HR, public relations,
and anyone else you see fit based on your specific
situation. Depending on the type of crisis, you might
also determine you need the assistance of lawyers,
consultants, or first responders.
 crisis management plan
5. Develop resolution plans for each type of crisis.
• develop appropriate resolution plans for each type of
crisis.
• Each resolution plan will differ based on the specific
situation.
• here are some common questions to consider while
developing any type of crisis resolution plan:
 How long will it likely take to resolve the crisis?
 What tools and resources will you need?
 How many people, and which people, did you determine will
be involved?
 Will you need to address your customers directly?
 What is the cause of the crisis and how can you prevent it from
happening again (or from worsening?)
 crisis management plan
6. Train everyone who needs to be familiar with your
plans.
• Everyone involved in your crisis management plans
should be trained on the role they’re expected to play.
• You might choose to do this through meetings and
presentations, or bring in experts to chat with your
employees about how to manage their job functions
during a crisis.
• All other employees who may not play a role in resolving
a given crisis situation — yet will still be impacted by its
occurrence — should be informed of the actions they’re
expected to take as well.
 crisis management plan
7. Revisit and update your plans regularly and when
necessary.
• As your company grows, you might increase your number
of employees, open offices in new cities (or countries), or
change the structure of your business operations.
• These are all examples of times in which you’ll want to
revisit and update your crisis management plans to ensure
they still apply and work for your company.
• If you do go through a crisis, be sure to analyze the results
of your management plans to determine whether or not
they were successful in pulling your company through —
you might decide they need to be updated or reworked
completely.
 Stages of Crisis
These stages occur during a crisis and can help you determine how you
should respond to the situation at different points in time.
1. Warning
• These warning signs can be related to a wide range of factors such as an
employee’s behavior, weather patterns, or company finances.
2. Risk Assessment
• It’s when the key players at your company begin assessing the impact the
situation might have on your business, employees, and customers. This way,
everyone involved is prepared for the worst possible scenario.
 Stages of Crisis
3. Response
• Then, everyone involved — including your employees, customers, and
emergency response teams (if necessary) — can be notified of the
situation. The response stage involves a lot of communication to both
inform everyone of the crisis and kickstart the various actions that will be
taken to manage and mitigate the incident.
4. Management
• This is when everyone involved in rectifying the crisis comes forward to
work on managing the chosen resolution plan, the immediate effects of the
event, and any new or worsening effects that arise. This stage involves the
same type of open communication that you used in the response phase to
ensure all employees, customers, and stakeholders are up to speed on the
state of the business.
 Stages of Crisis
5. Resolution
• everyone involved in the resolution of the crisis should have fulfilled (or
nearly fulfilled) their given duties. The crisis should be pretty much under
control at this point. It’s also when all of the necessary plans and actions
that will be used to return your business to normalcy are initiated.
6. Recovery
• your resolution plans are well underway and your business is getting back
on track. This stage includes getting all employees back into their day-to-
day operations and ensuring customers are set up for success with your
products once again.
• It’s very important to analyze the results of your crisis management plan
during the recovery phase as well.
 Crisis Management Teams
Crisis management teams are created to protect your business from the adverse
effects of any crisis situation or event. They also help keep your business and
employees prepared for any threats that could potentially come your way.
1. Some of the main job functions of a crisis management team include:
2. Detecting warning signs that signal a crisis is coming.
3. Working with employees to prepare for and handle the implementation of a
crisis management plan.
4. Ensuring the reputation of your company remains positive throughout (and
after) any crisis event.
5. Helping your business prepare for any future crisis situations.
6. There are three types of crisis management teams your company might hire to
help you manage a situation. These teams include regional emergency
management teams, site emergency response teams, and business support
teams.
 Crisis Management Teams
Regional Emergency Management Teams
1. Regional emergency management teams support
local needs throughout a crisis situation.
2. Depending on the size of your business and your
various office locations (if you have them), this team
will manage the region-specific effects of a crisis.
3. This type of team is typically made up of people who
live and work in the area already.
 Crisis Management Teams
Site Emergency Response Teams
1. Site emergency response teams go directly to
the scene of a crisis when called upon (if
they’re not already there when the situation
unfolds).
2. The people on this type of team include on-site
employees, first responders, and local officials.
 Crisis Management Teams
Business Support Teams
1. Business support teams manage the impact a crisis has on a
business as a whole.
2. It’s a team often comprised of employees who ensure all
management plans are fulfilled to resolve the crisis.
3. Business support teams might include employees from a
number of different locations and/ or offices.
4. Now that we’ve reviewed the crisis management teams you
may be creating or working with, let’s do the same for some
of the common job positions and titles within the field.
 Crisis Management Jobs
When looking to hire a crisis management team or search for experts to
consult regarding your crisis management plan, there are a number of
positions and job titles you’ll come across along the way. We’ve compiled a
list of these roles to give you a better understanding of how they fit into your
crisis management plan. It’s important to note these job titles and
descriptions might vary based on company and industry.
• Crisis Manager
A crisis manager leads and approves the creation and implementation of a
crisis management plan. They’re also in charge of ensuring the plan is carried
out accordingly during a crisis.
• Crisis Management Advisor
A crisis management advisor typically works directly beneath a crisis manager
and assists with anything they might need. This includes supporting their
management efforts and ensuring they have all of the resources and tools
needed to fulfill their job.
 Crisis Management Jobs
• Emergency Management Director
Emergency management directors work directly with law enforcement in
a crisis situation that calls for the assistance or support of first responders
and any other emergency officials.
• Public Relations Specialist
During a crisis situation, having a public relations specialist (or team of PR
specialists) to help you handle all contact with your employees,
customers, competitors, social media followers, as well as the press is
crucial. Your PR team will help you manage your reputation and
appearance across all modes of communication during and after a crisis.
• Human Resources Advisor
A human resources advisor is helpful to have in any type of crisis situation
to ensure you have a current and updated database of all of your
 Crisis Management Jobs
• Legal Advisor
Depending on your company type, industry, resources, and the crises
you determine you could find yourself in, you might determine you
need the support of a legal advisor. This person will be able to ensure
you do everything legally when resolving a crisis and follow all
necessary steps to ensure there are no other issues that surface along
the way.
• Advisor (Medical/Health/Safety/Security/Environmental)
You might also determine you want the assistance of a subject matter
expert with knowledge related to medical, health, safety, security, or
environmental scenarios. Similar to that of a legal advisor, you’ll be able
to get the advice you need to manage a crisis (and its aftermath)
appropriately with the assistance of one of these advisors.