There may come a time when your organisation faces a crisis and where your reputation will come under scrutiny. It may be injuries to your workers, a fire at your premises, customers impacted by bad worth etc. Bad news travels fast and is of great interest to local or other media. How you deal with this crisis could make or break your company.

Preparation: "fail to prepare, prepare to fail".

You need to have your team and staff ready for all eventualities, so train key personnel that are contactable at all times, to know what to do in the event of a crisis.

Crisis management is 75% planning and 25% doing. Putting in place emergency contingency plans and practising them could save your business. You only have to sit down once to prepare a plan then check its relevance every now and then.

When it happens

Often the worst crisis arises from what you do next rather than the crisis itself.

Above all, your company needs to be proactive NOT reactive. In the event of a crisis, you will need your key team members around you and to respond quickly. Call the relevant media or fax a short press release - expressing:

• sorrow/regret
• current action
• scheduling of media information
• spokesperson availability
• attach a backgrounder about your company

Tell the whole truth fast: don't "bury" information. The public are often willing to forgive human errors. They will never forgive a cover-up.

Clearly in the aftermath you will need to take measures to prevent future crises, a review must address five questions:

• what happened
• why did it happen
• what did you do to prevent it happening
• what will you do to ensure it does not happen again
• how was it handled

Summary:

Be prepared, be prompt in your response and review your procedures. Remember, there are no silver bullets guaranteed to kill off any crisis, but there are things you can do to manage their impact.