May 15 saw an inaugural one-day conference “Crisis Management: Building a Strategic 21st Century Capability” in London, run by a crisis management consultancy. The event at One Great George Street in Westminster, was by Steelhenge Consulting.
A capacity audience of 150 delegates listened to speakers from the UK Cabinet Office, Unilever, Goldman Sachs, the BBC and Bank of England discuss how organisations are protecting their people, future performance and reputation from the impact of crises.
Organisers report that themes to emerge were:
Crisis management isn’t just about the response to a crisis. It is a capability that has to be built and encompasses prevention (horizon scanning), preparation (planning, training and, above all, rehearsal), response (adaptability and flexibility) and review
People with the right knowledge, skills and experience are central to an effective crisis management capability
There is a positive correlation between the crisis management capability, resilience and prosperity of an organisation
Identifying lessons is only beneficial if they are put into practise so lessons identified become lessons learned
An organisation’s values should guide its response in a crisis as much as they guide day-to-day business
Building your reputational capital before a crisis is as important as communicating well during a crisis; trusted relationships and supportive publics are essential.
The event was described as “a truly inspirational conference, with too many highlights to list” by attendee Richard Brooks, Business Continuity Manager at Crossrail, and Alan Heaton of the Met Police proclaimed it to be “… the best conference I have ever been to; the speakers were top drawer and consistently excellent.”
Afterwards, the conference chairman and Managing Director of Steelhenge, Dominic Cockram, said: “I am delighted with the overwhelmingly positive response we have received to this conference. In convening it, we felt there was a clear need for a platform to support sharing of experience on the realities of managing crises by industry for industry. The speakers are to be applauded on promoting open and honest discussion. This success lays the foundation for a wider programme of events and possibly a forum for crisis management.”
For a full report on CMC 2013, visit www.steelhenge.co.uk/knowledge-zone/2013-crisis-management-conference
