A question that we’re asked all the time is ‘what scenarios are most relevant for our senior management teams?
It’s very straightforward. The two main issues are physical terrorism and cyber attack. Over the past year, we have seen a number of terror attacks in the UK and Europe and the likelihood is that there will be more. It’s important that senior management understand how to respond to ‘people-based’ issues, including accounting for staff whereabouts and trauma counselling. Remember that these events are likely to occur outside of working hours so effective communications within your crisis management team are of paramount importance.
Cyber attack risk is here to stay and will only get more frequent and damaging. The crisis management team is not responsible for solving the cyber problem directly, but must understand how a cyber attack will impact the firm’s ability to support customers and other stakeholders and that it may result in negative media coverage causing long term reputational damage.
