What Is Crisis Management?

Crisis management refers to the process of planning, decision-making, dynamic adjustment, resolution and employee training in response to various crisis situations. ^[1]

Crisis management is often referred to as Crisis Communication Management in textbooks in Western countries, because

Crisis management refers to the relevant mechanisms for responding to crises. Specifically, in order to avoid or mitigate the serious damage and threats brought by the crisis, the enterprise learns, formulates, and implements a series of management measures and corresponding strategies in an organized and planned manner, including crisis avoidance, crisis control, and crisis resolution. The dynamic process of continuous learning and adaptation with revival after crisis resolution.

In a sense, any measure to prevent a crisis from occurring and any effort to eliminate the risks arising from a crisis are crisis management. But we emphasize the organization, learning, adaptability and continuity of crisis management.

Crisis management is to find inevitability in contingency, find favorable factors in crisis, grasp the regularity of crisis occurrence, master the methods and arts of crisis management, try to avoid the harm and loss caused by crisis, and can alleviate contradiction and change harm To promote the healthy development of enterprises.

Crisis management refers to a new management system in which crisis management is scientific and systematic through crisis monitoring, crisis early warning, crisis decision-making, and crisis management to avoid or reduce the harm caused by the crisis, summarize the rules of crisis occurrence and development, and manage the crisis scientifically. The elements of crisis management are:

Misunderstanding crisis management: clarify the facts, use the authority to point out the source, intention, and harm to the public of the rumor, really understand the cause of the misunderstanding, and correct the problem

Accident-based crisis management: Compensation for public losses and apology. Find the cause of the accident and avoid overdoing it. Publicly acknowledge mistakes and take full responsibility. Mobilize media tracking processes.

Unexpected crisis management: Disclosure of damage. Correctly handle disputes with the public. Tell the story.

First, to understand the true state of the enterprise itself, the purpose is to control the crisis in the incubation stage.

I have to mention the Chinese business management master

Enterprises face multiple crises in production and operation, and no matter what kind of crises occur,

Crisis Management Process

Are likely to have a fatal blow to the business. Through crisis management countermeasures, enterprises have eliminated some potential crises in their infancy and reduced the inevitable crisis losses to a minimum. Although the crisis is accidental, crisis management countermeasures are not out of order. From our summary of corporate crisis practices, it is not difficult to find that crisis management countermeasures mainly include the following aspects:

(I) Do a good job in crisis prevention

The causes of crises are many and varied, and we do not rule out accidental causes. Most crises have a changing process. If the company's management personnel have keen insight and can take effective preventive measures in a timely manner based on various aspects of information collected daily, it can completely avoid a crisis or minimize the damage and impact caused by the crisis. Therefore, crisis prevention is the primary link of crisis management.

1. Establish a strong sense of crisis.

Enterprises in crisis management should establish a crisis concept, create a crisis atmosphere, make employees face fierce market competition, full of sense of crisis, and take crisis prevention as part of daily work. First, educate employees about crisis management. Educating employees to recognize that crisis prevention depends on the joint efforts of all employees. The crisis awareness of all employees can improve the company's ability to resist the crisis and effectively prevent the crisis from occurring. In the production and operation of enterprises, employees always put communication with the public first, maintain good relations with all sectors of society, and eliminate hidden dangers of crisis. Second, conduct crisis management training. The purpose of crisis management training is different from crisis management education. It is not only to further strengthen the crisis awareness of employees, but more importantly to enable employees to master crisis management knowledge, improve crisis handling skills and psychological quality in the face of crisis, thereby improving the crisis of the entire enterprise Management level capabilities.

2. Establish an early warning system for crisis prevention.

To prevent crises, a highly sensitive and accurate early warning system must be established. Information monitoring is the core of early warning. It collects information from all aspects at any time, analyzes and processes it in time, and eliminates hidden dangers in the bud state. The prevention of crisis needs to focus on the collection and monitoring of the following information: First, collect public feedback on the product at any time, and closely monitor the various factors and appearances that may cause the crisis. The second is to master industry information, research and adjust the company's development strategy and operating principles. The third is to study the current situation of competitors and compare their strengths so as to know each other. The fourth is to identify, classify and analyze the monitored information, make predictions about the types of crisis that may occur in the future and the degree of harm, and issue crisis alerts when necessary.

3. Establish crisis management institutions.

This is an organizational guarantee for the effective management of corporate crisis management. Not only is this an indispensable organizational link when dealing with a crisis, but it is also very important in daily crisis management. Before a crisis occurs, enterprises should do a good job of preparing for the crisis, establish a crisis management organization, work out crisis management procedures, and clarify the responsibilities of leaders and members. The establishment of crisis management institutions is the successful experience of developed countries, and is the organizational guarantee for successfully handling crises and coordinating relations between various parties. The specific organizational form of the crisis management agency can be an independent full-time agency or an inter-departmental management team. You can also set up a full-time staff in the corporate strategic management department instead. Enterprises can make flexible decisions based on their size and the nature and probability of possible crises.

4. Develop a crisis management plan .

Enterprises should formulate a set of crisis management plans based on the different types of crises that may occur, and make it clear how to prevent a crisis from erupting, and immediately respond to it when the crisis erupts. The crisis management plan prepared in advance should include various aspects of the enterprise's entertainment plan. The plan should focus on the transmission of the crisis and its solutions.

(2) Accurate Crisis Confirmation

Crisis managers should do daily information collection and classified management, and establish a crisis prevention and early warning mechanism. Crisis managers should be good at capturing information before a crisis occurs, and when a crisis sign appears, confirm the type of crisis as soon as possible, and do a good job of effective crisis control.

(3) Theoretical basis for crisis management (Mr. You Changqiao's 5S Principles of Crisis Public Relations)

1. Principle of Responsibility (SHOULDER THE MATTER)

After the crisis, the public will be concerned about two issues: on the one hand, the issue of interests, and interests are the focus of public attention, so no matter who is right or wrong, enterprises should bear responsibility. Even if the victim has some responsibilities in the accident, the enterprise should not hold them accountable first, otherwise they will stand by each other, deepen contradictions, cause public resentment, and are not conducive to the solution of the problem. On the other hand, it is a matter of emotion. The public is very concerned about whether the company cares about their feelings. Therefore, the company should show sympathy and comfort from the standpoint of the victim, and apologize to the public through the news media. To win the understanding and trust of the public.

In fact, the public and the media often have a scale in their minds, and they have a psychological expectation on the company, that is, how the company should deal with it, I will be satisfied. Therefore, companies must not choose confrontation, and attitude is crucial.

2. Principle of sincere communication (SINCERITY)

When companies are in a crisis vortex, they are the focus of the public and the media. Every move you take will be questioned, so don't be lucky and try to get through. Instead, they should take the initiative to contact the news media and communicate with the public as soon as possible to explain the truth of the facts, promote mutual understanding and eliminate doubts and anxieties.

Sincere communication is one of the basic principles for dealing with crises. Sincerity here means "three sincerity", that is, sincerity, sincerity, and honesty. If this "Sancheng" is achieved, all problems can be solved.

(1) Sincerity. As soon as possible after the incident, the company's senior management should explain the situation to the public and apologize, thereby embodying the corporate culture of the company's courage to take responsibility and be responsible to consumers, and win consumer sympathy and understanding.

(2) Sincere. It is all about the interests of consumers, do not avoid problems and mistakes, communicate with the media and the public in a timely manner, explain to consumers the progress of consumers, and regain consumers' trust and respect.

(3) Honesty. Honesty is the most critical and effective solution to crisis management. We will forgive one's mistakes, but we will not forgive one for lying.

3. Speed First Principle (SPEED)

Good things don't go out, bad things travel thousands of miles. In the first 12-24 hours of the crisis, news spreads at high speed like a virus. At this time, there are not many reliable news, and the society is full of rumors and speculation. The company's every move will be the main basis for judging how the company handles the crisis. The first statement issued by the company was closely watched by the media, the public and the government. Regarding the company's approach and position in dealing with the crisis, public opinion is often immediately reported in the media.

Therefore, companies must act decisively, react quickly, act decisively, and communicate with the media and the public. Therefore, the situation can be controlled quickly, otherwise the scope of sudden crisis will be enlarged, and even the overall control may be lost. After the crisis, whether the situation can be controlled first so that it does not expand, escalate, or spread is the key to handling the crisis.

4. System operation principle (SYSTEM)

When evading one danger, do not ignore the other. It is necessary to operate systematically in crisis management, and we must never lose sight of this. Only in this way can we see the essence through surface phenomena, creatively solve problems and turn harms into benefits.

Crisis system operation is mainly to do the following:

(1). Brake with cold and heat, and with static: Crisis can make people anxious or fearful. Therefore, the senior management of the company should be "cold" to "hot" and "quiet" to "move" and calm down, in order to reduce the psychological pressure on the employees.

(2). Unify viewpoints and stabilize position: Quickly unify viewpoints within the enterprise and have a clear understanding of the crisis, so as to stabilize the position, and unite as one, and quarrel with the enemy.

(3). Establish a team with special responsibility: In general, the crisis public relations team is composed of members of the company's public relations department and the company's senior leaders involved in the crisis. In this way, on the one hand, it is a guarantee of high efficiency, and on the other hand, it is a guarantee of consistent external caliber, so that the public can trust the sincerity of the company in handling the crisis.

(4). Decisive decision-making and rapid implementation: Due to the rapid changes of the crisis, under the condition of timeliness of crisis decision-making and lack of information, any vague decision will have serious consequences. Therefore, we must maximize the decision-making and use of resources, make decisions quickly, deploy the system, and implement them.

(5). Harmony with others, with the help of external forces: When a crisis comes, you should fully cooperate with government departments, industry associations, peer companies and the news media to cope with the crisis. While everyone is picking up firewood, the credibility and influence will be enhanced. force.

(6). Step by step, both the root cause and the root cause: To truly and completely eliminate the crisis, you need to find the crux of the crisis in a timely and accurate manner after controlling the situation, prescribe the right medicine, and seek to cure the "primitive." If we just stay in the stage of tackling the symptoms, we will lose all our efforts and even trigger a new crisis.

5. The principle of authority confirmation (STANDARD)

Praising yourself is useless. Without authoritative approval, you can only laugh at it. After the crisis, companies should not hold their tweeters all day to scream for injustice, but to save the country by curves, ask heavyweight third parties to speak at the front desk. , So that consumers can lift their vigilance and regain their trust.

(The above is taken from the "5S Principles of Crisis Public Relations" initiated by Mr. You Changqiao, a well-known crisis public relations expert)

(3) Aftercare work in crisis

The aftermath of the crisis is to eliminate the problems and impacts left after the crisis is dealt with. After the crisis, the corporate image has been affected, and the public will be very sensitive to the enterprise. It will rely on a series of crisis management to recover the impact.

1. Conduct crisis summary and assessment. Conduct a comprehensive evaluation of crisis management, including the evaluation of the organization and working procedures of early warning systems, crisis management plans, and crisis decision-making. It is necessary to list in detail the various problems in crisis management.

2. Rectify the problem. The outbreak of most crises is related to the poor management of the enterprise. Corrective measures are put forward through summary assessments, and relevant departments are instructed to implement one by one to improve the content of crisis management.

3. Find business opportunities. The crisis has created another kind of environment for enterprises. Enterprise managers must be good at using the crisis to explore new ways of operation and carry out major reforms. In this way, the crisis may bring business opportunities to enterprises.

In short, a crisis is not the same as a company's failure. A crisis is often a turning point. Crisis management is an art and a long-term plan in a company's development strategy. While enterprises are constantly seeking a series of innovations in technology, market, management and organizational system, they should put crisis management innovations in an important position. The success or failure of an enterprise in crisis management can show its overall quality and comprehensive strength. Successful companies can not only handle crises properly, but also turn crises into business opportunities.