Crisis Management

“The process by which a business or other organization deals with a sudden emergency situation that threatens to harm the organization, the public or its stakeholders.”  A crisis can strike any company anytime, anywhere. Advanced planning is the key to survival. Many organizations incorrectly view a negative incident or happening as a crisis. Dominion PRM adds the requirement that the incident must require change, before it is defined as a crisis. Simply put the steps to handle an incident are completely different than that to handle a true crisis. Crisis management means dealing with threats before, during, and after they have occurred. It consists of skills and techniques required to identify, assess, understand, and terminate a negative situation. The enaction of these steps, to reach an end goal must begin as soon as the event occurs, and must be evaluated, adjusted and appropriated throughout the crisis cycle.

A Crisis may not be your fault, but it is your responsibility

Our PR/Crisis Management team functions from a crisis mindset. This mindset demonstrates the ability to think of the worst-scenario while suggesting a number of solutions. Remember in the eyes of your customers, the public and your employees waiting to respond to a crisis is unacceptable. If the public must wait for explanations, plans or answers, they generate answers and assumptions. Confusion and possibly anger arrive next and your organization is viewed as inept at best and deceitful or criminal at worst. That is a high price to pay for a crisis that may not have seen your company at fault in anyway. Think back to the crisis of Pepsi when syringes were placed in their cans, think back to Tylenol being laced with cyanide. These were horrendous events that could have permanently damaged both companies, had they not immediately communicated effectively with the public and provided assurance of resolution.  Our team will urge and guide you to create clear roles and responsibilities and process related organizational requirements company-wide. We will form an agreement as to what constitutes a crisis, and what qualifies as a “crisis resolved.” The proof of effective crisis management is to be well prepared for crisis, ensure a sufficient and timely response to the crisis, maintaining clear lines of reporting and communication in the event of crisis and agreeing to rules for crisis resolution.

You only have One chance to manage a crisis 

Creation of a Crisis Management Plan

Insuring Crisis prevention, crisis assessment, crisis handling and crisis resolution. This plan is a need for every organization. You must be prepared before you can be ready. What channels of communication will be used? Who will represent you to the press? Are they qualified and trained? Have you assessed weak points that can be changed via policy right now, to mitigate or prevent a future crisis? We would like to help you do this.

There are 3 phases to Crisis Management

1. Diagnosis of trouble or the danger signals.
2. Choice of the best resolution strategy.
3. Initiating a change system and its monitoring

Are you in a crisis now? Do you need a management plan now? Contact Us and let’s check this one off your to do list.