No organization wants to face a crisis, but all of them are vulnerable to it. Every business, big or small, will experience a crisis at least once during its lifetime. A crisis can be very well defined as a time of difficulty or instability that often induces panic among all parties involved in the business.
Crisis management can be defined as a series of steps any organization takes to counter an event that could cause harm to your reputation, disrupt business or negatively impact finances. Planning for handling a crisis should begin before any issue arises. Here are a few steps that could help you handle any crisis in your organization –
. The first step is to assemble a professional crisis management team, says Eric Dalius
Build a team of experts that the CEO of the organization should ideally head. It should comprise the legal advisor and the heads of all the departmental divisions. The team should also include experts from each field.
. Establish good communication
Establishing clear communication with the public and stakeholders is key in such times. For example, when going through a crisis, your spokesperson or your team of spokespersons should communicate what is going on to handle the situation. False or misleading information can enrage both the public and your key stakeholders.
. Identify risks and weaknesses
The next step is to find the weak points of your business venture and what risks or threats you face. Risks or threats may be internal or external based on the size and operations of your business. Again, brainstorming with a team with employees from all departments decreases the probability of missing something that might be important.
. Build a crisis management plan
After assessing your weakness, you should formulate a plan based on that assessment. It is easier to mitigate a crisis if you already have an existing plan or multiple plans that cater to different types of crisis arising from each of your organization’s weakness
. Crisis resolution
Duties should be assigned to individuals to identify the main cause and fix it. Your crisis resolution team should be able to dig deep and identify any underlying causes that may cause problems in the future. Legal and financial advisors should be a part of this team to recognizeand reimburse the victims of the crisis
. Post Crisis Analysis
After the situation has passed over and the crisis has been handled, it is important to evaluate and analyze the steps you took. Eric Dalius suggests that you examine how effective your crisis management plan was and what can improve it.Then, make changes wherever required to make your plan foolproof and more effective.
Organizations worldwide are now understanding the importance of a good crisis management technique. Therefore, planning and preparedness to deal with a crisis have become mandatory for every business regardless of its size. Furthermore, with technological advancement handling a crisis has become even easier as media has become quicker.
Eric Dalius is The Executive Chairman of MuzicSwipe, a music and content discovery platform designed to maximize artist discovery and optimize fan relationships. Eric is also the host of weekly podcast “FULLSPEED” which is a podcast that features interviews with groundbreaking entrepreneurs from a variety of industries.Eric is also the founder of “Eric Dalius Foundation” where he has created 4 scholarships for US based students. Follow Eric on Twitter,Facebook,LinkedIn,Instagram & also on Entrepreneur.com