Knowing the risks and actually being ready for them are very different things, what’s more dangerous than not preparing for crisis management? How about believing you are ready when you’re not even close?
A major study from Deloitte recently looked at the beliefs of board members when it comes to crisis preparedness and planning, finding a dangerous trend of over-confidence.
For example…
- 76% of board members believe their companies would respond effectively if a crisis struck tomorrow, but only 49% have taken steps to be truly crisis-ready.
- Only 50% have evaluated key crisis scenarios or done a basic SWOT (strengths/weaknesses/opportunities/threats) evaluation. A paltry 43% have evaluated worst-case scenarios.
- Threat to corporate reputation was ranked as a top area of vulnerability by 73% of respondents, but only 39% have a plan in place to deal with it.
In most cases the board of directors holds tremendous influence, making it the ideal group to push for thorough crisis management planning and preparedness efforts. Waiting until mid-crisis has cost many organizations dearly, making reputation repair more difficult and more expensive than it needs to be.
Let us leave you with a question " when the mess hits the fan, do you want to be left saying, “I knew we should have been ready?”
The BCM Blogging Team
www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com
