Deloitte Center for Crisis Management

1. Don’t wait until a crisis hits to get ready. Monitoring, preparation, and rehearsal are the most effective ways to get ready for a crisis event. Organizations that can plan and rehearse potential crisis scenarios should be better positioned to respond effectively when a crisis actually hits. 
2. Every decision during a major crisis can affect stakeholder value. Reputational risks destroy value more quickly than operational risks. 
3. Response times should be in minutes, not hours or days. Teams on the ground need to take control, lead with flexibility, make decisions with less-than-perfect information, communicate well internally and externally, and inspire confidence. This often requires outside-the-box thinking and innovation. 
4. You can emerge stronger. Almost every crisis creates opportunities for companies to rebound. Those opportunities will surface only if you’re looking for them.
5. When a crisis seems like it’s over, it’s not. The work goes on long after you breathe a sigh of relief. The way you capture and manage data, log decisions, manage finances, handle insurance claims, and meet legal requirements on the road back to normal can determine how strong you recover.

These four areas represent key opportunities for improvement in the crisis management approaches we see today.

24/7 monitoring 

• A 24/7 monitoring capability is necessary to track all the relevant sources of data for potential business disruptions.  
• The same monitoring capability is also applicable post-crisis. 

Crisis simulation 

• Simulations are a robust way to assess crisis readiness.
• Simulations are an effective way to know if your "model" will work when crisis strikes.

Real-time response 

• Companies need rapid response teams operating under the direction of a crisis management office.
• Proven experts should staff the crisis management office, representing core competencies, industry, and crisis-specific expertise.

Crisis communications 

• General communications professionals often fail to deliver the business insights and financial acumen needed to protect stakeholder value.
• Crisis communications are also financial communications. 

Crisis simulation: Putting readiness to the test

Many organizations devote substantial time and resources to risk management. But there’s a place where the predictable gives way to the unpredictable—and a risk, or combination of risks, turn into a crisis.

Through the Center for Crisis Management, Deloitte member firms help organizations identify potential crises and prepare leadership, through advanced immersive training techniques, to manage a crisis.

Find out how crisis simulation can bring insight into your organization’s readiness.