Crisis Management
No matter how well-managed, or safety-conscious an organisation may be, accidents will continue to happen. They may be the outcome of a technical malfunction, human error, or an act of a third party. No organisation is immune from crisis situations and the event itself can destroy corporate value. Practical experience and even academic theory all point to the fact that the better an organisation is prepared, the better it will respond, the less damage is inflicted on its business reputation.
The essence of effective crisis management is the ability to portray the company, in such a situation, as a professional and caring organisation. Such portrayal can only be achieved through swift and effective management response and sound interaction with the media. In this way, the company can present itself effectively to the public and by extension, existing and potential customers, via the media. This requires you to have a formal process and facility where a crisis management team can assess the situation and respond accordingly.
Gates Aviation will review existing plans and highlight any weaknesses apparent in the plans. We will recommend actions to ensure that the plan covers all aspects of Crisis Management which will give you piece of mind that you will not come across any unnecessary surprises during a real incident.
Everyone involved in the initial response to a major aircraft accident or other incident will be suffering from some degree of shock. This can lead to a degree of disorientation or, perhaps, a lack of concentration. Therefore, the emergency response process lends itself to the use of checklists. These checklists can form an integral part of the company’s operations manual or emergency response manual and allow an orderly way of completing essential actions.
Training is required to ensure that these intentions are backed by operational capabilities. Since training has a short “shelf life”, regular drills and exercises are advisable. Gates Aviation can offer training to those who are likely to be involved in Crisis Management to help build confidence levels and expose them to areas for which they will need specialist training (such as media response).
Organisations will come under the most severe pressure during a crisis, placing seemingly intolerable demands on the organisation and the individuals responding. Such pressures are not just immediate, but apply continuously throughout the response to the event, dependent on the severity of the situation. Gates Aviation can help develop in-house crisis management skills to those key staff who are likely to be involved in dealing with the event.
Gates Aviation offers training and exercises by consultants who have had front-line experience of several different major aircraft incidents. Testing can range from a call-out and communications plan carried out as “desktop” exercises to full emergency exercises “on-site” involving other agencies and authorities. Such exercises have the advantage of demonstrating deficiencies in the plan, which can be rectified before an actual emergency.
Gates Aviation can offer support to a client should they need it in the event of a major disruption. Our consultants have hands-on experience in Crisis Management and dealing with the media.
Crisis Media Management (specialist support of clients in a breaking story where they find themselves under media focus including strategic advice, the drafting of statements, wording for interviews and pre-interview practise). A typical Crisis Response includes a holding statement ready for media delivery within 15 minutes and a media/interview strategy plus a more detailed statement, within the hour, to match HM Government and emergency services’ own deadlines.
Media Risk Management includes exercises with media practise advice, news bulletin and journalist involvement to test client crisis teams and their own internal Communications and external Communications support mechanisms such as PR agencies.
This course is targeted preparation of potential senior spokespeople for the defence of their companies rather than promotion of them.
We offer audits of our client’s crisis communications plans and processes.
Business Continuity
To what extent are you personally, dependent on your PC, your networked systems, your business location or the availability of your office? Take any one of these away – will you still be able to undertake your business functions effectively and for how long? Is your organisation vulnerable – is its data safe and adequately protected? Is the continuation of your business dependent on key documents? Business dependencies cannot be taken for granted.
Gates Aviation can carry out a Business Impact Analysis to identify exposures to risk in your business. We produce a report which highlights exposures, dependencies and critical priorities. It determines the impact they may have should an ‘unplanned’ crisis or major disruption befall you and includes financial impact, operational impact and recovery times. Instinctive ‘on the day’ decisions
Gates Aviation can offer practical business continuity planning advice. A Business Continuity Plan needs good controls to minimise disruption to the operation of your company and ensure that damage limitation to the company’s reputation is kept to a minimum and in some cases even enhanced. We ensure that good communication paths are created and escalation plans to mobilise the appropriate personnel are in place. The restoration of service is the ultimate goal of any recovery plan but the order of recovery is essential as some areas are more critical than others. The plan also needs exercising as without this, it is still only a theory not true protection. Gates Aviation offer training and testing days.
A business continuity plan must be regularly updated and audited. An independent evaluation of compliance is essential to assure the company that its business continuity plan is current and will meet its recovery needs. Gates Aviation can provide objectivity and independent assessments.
The aviation industry has to operate within tight operational constraints and as soon as an event takes place that disrupts ‘normal’ operations such as adverse weather, volcanic eruptions, strikes etc, these constraints are magnified. Gates Aviation can ensure that your company detects these events early thereby improving the overall customer experience should they get caught up in the disruption, reducing any unnecessary costs and ultimately recovering faster from the overall event.
