Clifford Chance
A crisis that threatens your company's reputation will strike even the best-managed business. But there is no certainty as to where the crisis will hit, or how far across the organisation it will reverberate.
Clifford Chance will help you implement an immediate, effective and flexible crisis response plan, to be deployed whenever and wherever a reputational crisis breaks.
We work with the world’s leading businesses to protect them against reputational exposure and guide them confidently through crises as they unfold, and as they restore their businesses.
Be clear on crisis management
5 questions to ask yourself
Do we know where a crisis could emerge from?
The political and media landscape is evolving quickly, as is society's tolerance of "big business" practices. Your company should constantly review its systems/culture against the latest demands of investors, politicians, lenders and customers. Areas of risk that used to be "compliance" risks are now reputational risks that need to be assessed at board level. Is your board taking a dynamic approach to reputational risk management?
Does our board fully understand the new emerging risks facing the business?
It is only when key current and future risks are understood by decision-makers that resources can be directed to the right risk areas, enabling risk management to be properly directed and embedded throughout the organisation. Are you sure that your board is on top of the breadth and depth of the new risk areas the company is facing so that it is not caught off-guard?
Is our board trained and fully briefed for a crisis?
When your company unexpectedly hits the news headlines for the wrong reasons, does the board have a full and up-to-date plan to put into action? Does it know who to call and how to take control? The first period of crisis management is the most important. It sets the tone and direction of future engagement and strategy, and can make the difference between a successful outcome and a reputational disaster.
Is our company's risk incident management plan water-tight?
When a risk incident or scandal breaks, the best start is knowing that there is a full internal team ready and trained to act immediately, with trusted advisers on hand to guide the organisation through the early stages of the crisis. All companies should have a plan covering what they would do if a crisis hits and implement dry runs of emergency scenarios to keep that plan current.
Do we live, learn and adapt?
Where a risk incident has a reputational impact, this presents an opportunity to reassess the systems, compliance controls and risk culture of the organisation, whilst improving its way of doing business, its way of dealing with issues and its approach to risk management. Does your board seek to learn from its experience and invest in implementing improvements in systems, processes and messages to the business?
