Crisis management
Unforeseen advantage
An increase in catastrophic events driven by factors such as climate change, health, political upheaval, or cyberthreats means that every organization will, at some point in time, face a crisis situation. We help clients not just through the good times, but also in the toughest moments of a crisis, by providing clarity and confidence when it really matters. Many of our clients have emerged from great challenges stronger than before.
We offer:
Deloitte’s Crisis Management services range over the entire crisis management lifecycle, helping clients identify, assess, prevent, prepare, respond to and recover from crises.
- Crisis readiness – We help organizations prepare for high-consequence events that have the potential to seriously disrupt business operations, damage reputations, and destroy shareholder value. Specifically, we help clients identify and assess risks that pose significant threats to their business, prepare documented crisis plans and processes, create remediation activities resulting from tests of plans, as well as additional services targeted at organizational crisis readiness.
- Crisis response – We deploy experienced professionals to support organizations in crisis, particularly in the immediate aftermath of a major event. We enhance the client’s crisis response team capabilities to assist with data-gathering and reporting to manage the demands of responding to events in real-time. Using our professional resources, or through partnerships with PR firms, clients receive advice on and assistance with post-crisis communications, including help in navigating traditional and social media to pre-empt or respond to major reputation threats.
- Crisis recovery – We help organizations that have been through a crisis assess the effectiveness of their response and we provide advice as the organization looks to recover its reputation and seize new opportunities. We help clients identify and learn lessons from a crisis response and improve crisis preparedness, by carrying out a crisis reviews to assess the impact the crisis had on the organization and its license to operate. Additionally, our work includes coordinating long-term recovery strategies such as claims management, compliance with policies and regulatory requirements, and improved media/public/government relations and communications.
Five lessons about crisis management for C-Suite executives
- Don’t wait until a crisis hits to get ready. Monitoring, preparation, and rehearsal are the most effective ways to get ready for a crisis event. Organizations that have the capacity to plan and rehearse potential crisis scenarios should be better positioned to respond effectively when a crisis actually hits.
- Every decision during a major crisis can affect stakeholder value. Reputational risks destroy value faster than operational risks.
- Response times should be in minutes, not hours or days. Teams on the ground need to take control, lead with flexibility, make decisions with less-than-perfect information, communicate well internally and externally, and inspire confidence. This often requires outside-the-box thinking and innovation.
- You can emerge stronger. Almost every crisis creates opportunities for companies to rebound. Those opportunities will surface only if you’re looking for them.
- When a crisis seems like it’s over, it’s not. The work goes on long after you breathe a sigh of relief. The way you capture and manage data, log decisions, manage finances, handle insurance claims, and meet legal requirements on the road back to normal will determine how strongly you recover.
Crisis simulation: Putting readiness to the test
Many organisations devote substantial time and resources to risk management. But there’s a place where the predictable gives way to the unpredictable—and a risk, or combination of risks, turns into a crisis.
Through the Center for Crisis Management, Deloitte member firms help organisations identify potential crises and prepare leadership, through advanced immersive training techniques, to manage a crisis.
Find out how Crisis Simulation can provide insight into your organisation’s readiness.
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