Crisis management
Preparing for the inevitable
A company lays off thousands of employees, a flood submerges a local shopping centre, unionized employees go on strike, picketing consumers boycott your product, a suspected terrorist attack, an ecoli outbreak affects millions of people, an accounting firm creates illegal tax shelters, a drug has adverse affects on patients. The list could go on and on, from the likely to the possible to the unimaginable.
The good news is that there are many things your company can do to be prepared that can help to effectively manage, reduce impact and possible prevent some forms of crisis that may already be brewing below the waterline, just out of view.
Echo Communications conducts crisis vulnerability audits and then develops custom-tailored business continuity programs and guidelines to provide crucial direction in the heat of the moment. This will ensure that management teams are not just reacting and scrambling to protect your employees, your assets and your company’s reputation.
A recent survey by the International Association of Business Communications (IABC) found that one-third of all organizations have no crisis communications plan. Of the 66 with plans, the vast majority would serve little or no purpose on the day of the crisis because of design flaws and outdated content.
In these uncertain times, no one can afford to ignore the message of crisis management: planning. It is crucial to have the right strategies and people in place to anticipate and control crisis when they do occur.
To protect your reputation we:
- Build crisis communications and business continuity action plans that outline the key people, roles, action
- sequences, scenarios that will be followed based on severity of circumstances.
- Anticipate and manage crisis communications efforts to reach your key stakeholder groups.
- Conduct internal and external communications audits to identify gaps.
- Develop audience specific communications strategies and plans.
- Measure the effectiveness of all communications activities.
