Crisis Management

RMI draws a clear distinction between Emergency and Crisis preparedness.  In the case of many organisations, an emergency could be described as an adverse event (such as a fire) that requires an immediate operational response to mitigate the effects of the event.  This response will be achieved by an organisation’s Emergency Response Plan and by the local emergency services, in whose area of responsibility the incident occurs.  A crisis on the other hand is fundamentally different from an emergency.  An organisation is ‘in crisis’ when its good name, reputation or very survival is threatened.  In this regard, an organisation’s response to a crisis will be externally focused and will be driven by the following key factors:

• The demand for information about the event which has precipitated the crisis
• The management of various stakeholders immediately following that event.

The goal of any crisis management strategy is to preserve the reputation of the organisation and to minimise the impact of adverse events on it.

 It is RMI’s view that an organisation’s response to a crisis, including a significant business disruption, is maximised by configuring an ‘Integrated Contingency Planning’ framework along the lines of that described in the following table.

RMI provides crisis management services as follows:

• Strategic Risk Review and Resultant Crisis Scenario Identification
• Development of Plans (Crisis Management/Business Continuity/Emergency Response)
• Training of Personnel
• Testing/Validating Plans through to conduct of ‘Exercises’
• Review and Revision of Plans
• Media Skills Training
• Annual Crisis Management Maintenance Programmes
• 24/7/365 Hot-Line Response