Crisis management

An integrated response to crisis

Whether a corporate scandal, a data breach or a global pandemic, every crisis brings with it layers of complexity and uncertainty. 

With an integrated crisis management plan, your business has the structure and guidance to respond to an unplanned event and make it through intact — even potentially stronger

Treating crisis management as more than just a one-off incident puts you ahead of the curve when something does go wrong.

76% of organisations plan to further integrate crisis management into their broader strategy.

Source: PwC’s Global Crisis Survey 2021

Crisis management strategies provide clarity

A cohesive, clearly articulated crisis management plan is a solid foundation to support your organisation through the course of a crisis.

You’ll save time in the often chaotic early moments of a disruption — because your plan is already in place. You’ll keep mission-critical functions running normally. Your team will have confidence that they know what’s expected of them and what to expect from others.

And you’ll gain added benefits that extend into “peace time.” Among them:

  • Clearer delineation of roles and responsibilities 

  • Greater awareness of risk

  • Better understanding of the value of your brand

A holistic approach to reduce impact

Every crisis is unique. But there are common threats that come with disruption, no matter your sector or business. Financial harm, for example, as a corruption scandal alarms shareholders. Or workforce turmoil, when a pandemic forces teams to a remote situation.

Holistic crisis management planning, attuned to your specific needs and with flexibility to adapt, helps your organisation withstand disruption, sustain your core business functions, and reduce overall impact.

An effective crisis response must address both the tactical and the strategic, in order to weave the right narrative:

Crisis structure

“The How”

Organises your response with clear ownership and accountability, while enabling transparent information sharing to inform key decisions.

Crisis strategy

“The What”

Establishes and communicates crisis response guiding principles that align with strategic objectives. Keeps an eye "looking around the corner."

Crisis response narrative

“The Why”

Aligns workstream activities to strategic objectives, provides a framework to track progress, and enables communication with stakeholders.

Navigate crisis with confidence

Solutions as part of your overall crisis management program include the following:

Ready Command, our customisable, web-based tool, provides enhanced project management capability with dashboards and metrics that update in real time, and helps you develop a governance framework, define a core team cadence and logistics, and formulate core crisis response principles and values.

A crisis project management office (PMO) is the foundation for a successful response effort, establishing clear roles and responsibilities across workstreams.

Response reporting and dashboards provide the capability to view key metrics and derive insights from your response data.

On-call agreements provide priority access to our PwC global network of subject matter specialists, experienced response personnel and surge capacity.

Crisis strategy and scenario planning helps you evaluate multiple scenarios and develop contingency strategies to identify opportunities and mitigate risks.

Experience, skill and a record of success

Our Global Centre for Crisis and Resilience brings experience designing crisis programs for hundreds of organisations around the world. And we continuously enhance our approach, incorporating learnings from our work in crisis response side-by-side with our clients.

Collaborating with PwC, your team will develop a crisis management plan to help you prepare. And when disruption hits, we’ll help you respond so you can emerge stronger.

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Contact us

Dave Stainback

Dave Stainback

Global Crisis & Resilience Co-Leader, PwC United States

Tel: +1 678 419 1355

Bobbie Ramsden-Knowles

Bobbie Ramsden-Knowles

Global Crisis & Resilience Co-Leader, PwC United Kingdom

Tel: +44 (0)7483 422701

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