Crisis Management: Do You Have The Right Plan?

Every day you see another business blow-up. Good crisis management is all about companies dealing with problems the right way. Most don’t. The last thing you want to do is learn how to manage a crisis in the middle of one. GETTY

Good crisis management is all about companies dealing with problems the right way. Most don’t. Every day you see another business blow-up. WeWork’s problems grew, its value tanked, and the IPO was cancelled—after excusing the CEO from any further duties (does that make it “MostOfUsWork”?). Vapers are being stricken with a mysterious lung illness and in the wake of this health crisis, Juuls’ CEO departs and its prospects plunge. Then there is the opioid epidemic which has, deservedly or not, pummeled numerous companies, but especially Purdue Pharma—maker of OxyContin—which just entered bankruptcy. 

Crises abound. Good crisis management does not. Plan for the worst. The last thing you want to do is learn how to manage a crisis in the middle of one.

Planning For The Worst

People struggle with crisis planning. You get extremes. There’s the prepper with a 20-year supply of tinned sardines in his basement—which means you’ve created a plan where the prize for “surviving” is a banquet of 20-year-old sardines. Ewww. At the other extreme, you see the opioid industrial complex. They’ve haltingly stumbled into reaction mode as the health crisis and lawsuits grew—a game plan which the vaping industry is avidly copying. Meanwhile, attorneys general and a volt of lawyers circle overhead. 

You get extremes with crisis planning. You either have a 20-year supply of canned sardines in the basement or you haltingly stumble into reaction mode. Each extreme is costly. 
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It’s easy to overreact. It’s easy to hide. But each extreme is costly.

For you youngsters, Johnson & Johnson was once THE Jedi Master of crisis management (notwithstanding the recent talcum powder and opioid lawsuits against J&J). In 1982, seven people died in the Chicago area from Tylenol laced with potassium cyanide. J&J did not collapse into a defensive crouch or come out attacking. Instead, the company wisely and bravely took on the storm. J&J rapidly publicized warnings, pulled all of its Tylenol pills from shelves—regardless of evidence of tampering—and offered refunds. Next J&J suspended all Tylenol sales until the company was able to sell them in then-revolutionary tamper resistant bottles. Ultimately, J&J and Tylenol came out of the crisis stronger.

You Need A Plan 

While crisis management must vary with each situation, some elements are essential.

Read more: forbes