3 Important Crisis Management Trends for 2023

As we enter a new year, it’s important to re-evaluate our preparedness for potential critical issues/incidents. Here are three crisis management trends that will most likely continue to grow in importance as executive leadership teams seek to protect their institutions from serious reputational harm.  

1. Organizational Values 

Employees are demanding more from their organizations when it comes to corporate social responsibility, and this affects its actions and communications in a crisis. For this reason, organizational values and principles will play a more prominent role in crisis plans and serve as more of a guide in crisis decision-making. Already, we’re seeing executive leaders take the values of an organization as a key element in discussions around ransomware payments, employee layoffs and severance packages.  

2. Direct Stakeholder Contact  

With an ever-growing list of tools available to reach stakeholder audiences directly, crisis management planning is prioritizing these channels to reach key constituencies with unfiltered and targeted messages. Timely and thorough information shared directly to employees, partners, suppliers, regulators, legislators, customers, etc. mitigates undue concern and creates an immediate opportunity for important feedback that will assist in management of a current crisis.  

3. Core Response Teams  

While a large crisis response team spanning multiple functions and departments looks impressive in a plan, in practice, the effort to assemble such a substantial and potentially decentralized team can waste precious time in the early stages of a swiftly developing and evolving crisis. Strategic crisis plans are moving toward engaging smaller core response teams. This group is tasked with making immediate early decisions that can mean the difference between a well-contained and managed incident and a major crisis causing long-term reputational damage. These decision-makers and strategists can gather information quickly and remain the operational center of the crisis while bringing in expertise or resources from the larger organization as needed.  

As you embark on this new year consider including these three crisis management trends as important areas of focus in 2023. If you need help with your crisis management strategy or want to learn more about our Corporate Advisory Group, connect with us.    

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