Crisis readiness is a journey and not a destination. With the world more prone to crisis, building organisational crisis resilience is essential. As we become more interconnected, our vulnerability to crisis increases. The rapid spread of the coronavirus showed how entwined supply chains, technology, and travel are with the global economy and society. Our digital interconnections leave us vulnerable to cyber attacks that can stop business in its tracks. Weather and climate-related disasters have a far-reaching impact on our complex and often fragile food, water, energy, health and security systems. An organisation’s ability to anticipate and respond to crises brought about by disruptions in supply chains, geopolitical upheavals, economic instability, climate change or cybercrime will help them survive. And if it can deal with adversity and adapt, it has the potential to thrive.
The opportunities brought about by new teams, new revenue streams, expanding operations or production sites or launching into new markets also give rise to higher risks of failure and exposure. External threats, such as geopolitical upheavals, socio-economic instability, climate change, security breaches or cybercrime, will continue to provide the risk, crisis or business continuity manager with plenty of issues to address. In the face of so much uncertainty, building resilience is a business imperative.
Consider whether your plans are up to date. Have you conducted a crisis readiness assessment? Are you scheduling crisis training and exercises? Are you complying with audit requirements? Which digital tools are you considering adopting to facilitate enhancing crisis resilience? Have you planned for any such activities in your budget cycle?
With 2024 approaching, now is the time to determine your priorities. Where are the gaps? What can you realistically accomplish in the next calendar year, and for how much? The following checklist can help you do that.
CHECKLIST
GAP | SOLUTION | CHECK |
1. Are your Risk Registers and Issues Catalogues up-to-date? | Conduct Risk and Vulnerability Assessment | ▢ |
2. Have you experienced a major organisation change? | Update your Crisis Plan | ▢ |
3. Are there new members on your crisis team? Do your team members have alternates? | Conduct crisis leadership refresher training | ▢ |
4. Is your Crisis Management Custodian new to the job? | Coaching | ▢ |
5. When did you last practice your plans? | Organise a crisis exercise | ▢ |
6. Have you thought through your most common crisis scenarios? | Use stock scenarios and specific response plans | ▢ |
7. Are your executives ready to face the media? | Conduct Crisis Media Training | ▢ |
8. Does your organisation know how to manage social media in crisis? | Develop a Social Media crisis policy and practice it on the ICONS simulation platform | ▢ |
9. Do you struggle to sustain crisis leadership and communication skills on your crisis teams? | Implement CrisisEcademy© courses as a cost-effective complement to yearly training programmes | ▢ |
10. Do you want to know the state of your readiness versus your peers? | Find out using Crisiscan© | ▢ |
11. Do you have a secure way to communicate with your crisis team members virtually? | Adopt Crisiscom© | ▢ |
12. Do you know how to communicate with your employees quickly in the event of a disaster? | Consider adopting a Mass Notification System | ▢ |
13. How will you respond to family and public inquiries in the event of multiple fatalities/injuries? | Assign and train first responders | ▢ |
14. Have you organised your business recovery and continuity? | Business Impact Analysis | ▢ |
15. Have you got a BCP for every critical risk? | Develop/Update your BCPs | ▢ |
16. When did you last test your BCPs? | Conduct a simulation exercise | ▢ |
17. Do you comply with your corporate management system? | Audit your Risk and Crisis Management | ▢ |
18. Are you ready for a cyber crisis? | Organise a cyber exercise | ▢ |
19. Do your crisis team know how to map stakeholders under pressure? | Train crisis teams in this critical crisis leadership skill with Untangle© | ▢ |
20. Are your crisis team skills in worst-case scenario development? | Conduct training and coaching in this essential skill | ▢ |
The best approach is customised to fit your needs and adapted to your organisation. Combining internal expert resources with external specialist service providers achieves optimal results cost-effectively. For more information or an assessment of your needs, get in touch here.
Caroline Sapriel is Managing Partner of CS&A International. With over 30 years of experience in risk and crisis management, she is recognised as a leader in her profession and acknowledged for her ability to provide customised, results-driven counsel and training at the highest level.
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