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The Evolution of a Crisis

09 April 2019

Decisions made in the first hours of a crisis often have impacts that resound for years. 

It begins

It's 7.30 am. You've been in the office for an hour and you've made fifteen calls already. That's because you "got the call" from your CIO at 3am. Even your CIO is usually asleep at 3am... it was the call you never wanted to take. By its very nature, Crisis Management won't be a stress-free affair, but the hundreds of people who will be arriving across 8 different offices in just less than half an hour will all be expecting a calm and reassuring response from you with an instant set of solutions to ensure they can service your customers with zero break in service. A tall order? Not if you've planned ahead.

 

Show no weakness

Businesses are no stranger to the concept of disaster planning... on paper. In practice, poor planning can result in a destructive state of limbo for any company struggling to create the impression of "business as usual". A common scenario is one where half your team are already set up in a disaster centre while the other half are wondering where "Dave" is today. They're not sure if he was part of the disaster team or not. And there you have it. Has your disaster plan been effectively rehearsed? None of us are strangers to the Tuesday 10am fire alarm test - the simplest, most effective form of rehearsed crisis planning.

 

Are all your ducks in a row?

Now look at the detail of your own plan... how long will your systems be down? How much data will be lost from back-up to restoration? Who sits where? How are instructions being relayed? What are you going to do about the Channel 6 News Van already parked outside the main entrance? ... they really, really want to talk with you... but they'll happily make do with that grumpy guy from accounts who appears to have no internal monologue filter... well, at least we found "Dave", let's just hope he doesn't start waxing lyrical about how he knew this was going to happen sooner or later - nightmare!

 

Perfect planning

A water tight Crisis Management plan combines a world class team of lawyers with intelligent, real-time software. DWF 360 have a robust and systematic approach to your crisis management designed to minimise your immediate risk through solid technology and communications. Just what you need as the police turn up and begin taking statements.

In reality, the same crisis, carefully managed by our team and our technology, will ensure that all you actually needed to do was fire up your bespoke Crisis App and "hit the big red button". We provide your entire Crisis Management Group with an app that enables us to immediately invoke legal privilege. It starts the second you flag the incident to us. Now you can get on with the business of drafting that all important press release. At a time when you need to be making instant decisions, you'll never find yourself worrying about what to do next.

 

Crisis response - Protecting your organisation, your people and your reputation from the impact of a major incident.

Decisions made in the first hours of a crisis often have impacts that resound for years. We have seen this recently surrounding the Thomas Cook and Alton Towers incidents, both handled in very different ways. DWF Crisis Response brings together specialist consultants with detailed knowledge of managing crisis situations for your business. These include lawyers, PR specialists, clinical psychologists, IT forensics specialists and industry bodies as well as consultants specialising in safeguarding online reputation.

Further Reading