VW. Chipotle. Target. What comes to mind with these names? Defective emissions equipment? Or deception and fraud? Food-borne illness? Or mismanagement and stock price freefall? 100 million credit card records hacked? Or denial and inadequate crisis management plans? Each of these examples represents a business crisis that damaged reputations, hurt sales and negatively impacted the…
Being able to communicate during a crisis is essential for any organization. Understanding what to say and how to say it should be part of the crisis preparedness planning process. All stakeholders need to be addressed and your spokespersons should know what to say when the media request an interview. Have you ever considered being…
As we start this years Olympics and millions of people converge on Rio, the publicity machine is starting its usual move into overdrive-both negative and positive. Already the media doom mongers are running stories (and have been for some time) that it will be a disaster and that Brazil isn’t ready for the Games. Turn…
As is painfully well known to many companies that have endured crises, social media can be a troublemaker: An irate consumer posts a recording she captured of some impolite customer service she experienced from your company, and it’s being re-Tweeted ad nauseum. Or, a diner’s video of a cockroach backstroking through your restaurant’s clam chowder…
Does your organization have a workplace violence policy? Are there procedures to follow? Has your organization conducted an active shooter or other violent intruder drills or exercises? Are your staff and other key stakeholders prepared for such an attack? How would your staff respond and how would you manage the event? Answers to the above…
Violent situations can happen at a moment’s notice and are typically planned events. Dallas police just experienced an active shooter situation that took five police officers lives during a peaceful demonstration. How do you prepare yourself and your organization for violent attacks? Do you have a process for evaluating your organization’s ability to respond to…
According to Wikipedia, Hurricane Sandy (unofficially known as “Superstorm Sandy”) was the deadliest and most destructive hurricane of the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season, and the second-costliest hurricane in United States history. The importance of preparing for hurricanes can’t be overstated. Families, individuals as well as businesses and government and none government entities need to have…
How does your organization prepare for hurricane season? It’s almost hurricane season in the US and many communities, businesses, and property owners are starting to prepare. Knowing your surroundings and talking to the local emergency management agency to find out the hurricane risks can be a good place to start your planning. Are you…
In episode 13 of the PreparedEx podcast, we discuss exercise criteria and provide some examples of exercise criteria and how PreparedEx evaluate using a tool known as Fulcrum. Benchmarking one facility or one area of the business against others essential provides better data and overall understand of where the organization is with respect to readiness….
When creating a cybersecurity tabletop exercise to validate the organizations ability to respond and manage a cybersecurity incident, consider the following three exercise goals. Validate Leadership Decision-Making One of the most important functions of a leader in a crisis is to stabilize the situation as much as possible. A very important aspect of crisis leadership…