How To Tackle A Business Crisis?

[Purvi Dalvi]

A business crisis is an extreme scenario potentially threatening your company's growth and success. It can happen anytime. Both internal and external reasons can cause them. There is very little you can do to prevent them. However, you can prepare for it. Here is how to do so:

Identify possible crisis threats

All businesses are vulnerable to crisis. The type of crisis you face depends on the business you are into. Identify possible threats to your business. It could be financial or organisational challenges or a technological breach. Once you know the crisis your business can face, assess its impact on your business.

For example, if there is a data breach, understand how it will impact sales and revenue. It is easier to come up with a solution when you have a clearer idea of the crisis you are dealing with.

Plan of action

Always have a plan ready that you can follow in any crisis. Crisis preparedness planning helps you deal with the threat more equipped. During these scenarios, your company's reputation is at stake. Your competitors are looking for an opportunity to take advantage of your vulnerability. Hence, it is necessary to portray a strong front and build back. A crisis plan helps you do so.

Appoint a crisis leader

There is panic and uncertainty during the crisis, both internally and externally. In a situation like this, people need a familiar face they can trust. When preparing for a crisis response plan, decide who will lead the situation. Generally, the organisation head should be the face of a crisis. As per thought leadership research, people are more willing to trust leaders that reflect power and reliability in such times.

Train people involved

Everyone who is on the crisis response team needs should be trained. You cannot afford a single employee doing something wrong. It further aggravates the situation.  A significant part of the crisis response training focuses on crisis communication. Clear communication is necessary. This trains you for everything right from how to communicate to your employees to give satisfactory answers to the media without risking the company's reputation and more.

Conducting a mock run

Just doing crisis preparedness planning is not enough. You need to put your learnings to practice being 100% ready. Most crisis response trainers recommend doing a mock run post-training. Here, the company is given a hypothetical situation. You need to apply your learnings from the crisis training to practice and come up with a solution. A mock run lets you brush your learning and identify areas you need to work on.

Make sure to follow these steps because only then can you achieve success during any challenging circumstances.