Crisis situations are becoming increasingly difficult to avoid due to all of the new means of communication and the rapid spread of information via the Internet. When it comes to protecting your company or organization from a crisis situation, the best defense is a good offense. By being prepared before a crisis arises, you will be less likely to see negative consequences.

The types of crises you should be prepared for:

Crisis of Malice

This is when a person or group of people opposed to your cause or organization use extreme tactics to tarnish your image or even attempt to bring down the organization. These acts could include tampering with products, equipment, or software, malicious rumors, or even acts as severe as terrorism. These are very touchy crises to deal with, so it is important to have a team of people dedicated to mitigating the risk of such an event.

Technological Crisis

This type of crisis occurs when the technology you use in your daily business stops working and starts to affect your ability to serve your customers.  The internet going down might not qualify as a crisis, but your website being hacked would. Depending on the scale of a technological crisis, the fallout could be severe. It is extremely important to have a plan in place if this happens.

Natural Crisis

These are natural phenomena such as storms, hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, or other acts of nature. Because these can be large-scale, and a risk to human life, the best way to prepare for a natural crisis is to plan. While nothing can be done to avoid such an act of nature, a communications plan should be prepared ahead of time to deal with such things, especially if you are a leader of an organization in an at-risk area.

Crisis of Deception

This happens when an executive or leader conceals or misrepresents factual information about his or her organization. This can be a nightmare depending on the extent of the deception, but it is important for the organization to work closely with its attorneys and communications consultants to help manage through a difficult situation.

Financial Crisis

Financial crises occur in all kinds of organizations. Financial issues that affect your reputation could be anything from severe revenue losses, significant cost increases, lack of funds and ability to pay vendors, bankruptcy, or loan default. All of these issues can give your company a negative public reputation and how you manage these crises will determine whether or not you recover. If a financial crisis is handled poorly, the public will lose faith.

If you think your company could be at risk of experiencing any of the following or if you would like to become more prepared for a crisis situation, please feel free to contact Darren Richards at 813.228.0652 or via email at drichards@tuckerhall.com.