Surviving In A World Of Chaos - GRIT Ed. 8 | The Relentless Pursuit - Magazine - Page 25
Surviving In A World Of Chaos
CRISES ARE
MULTIFACETED & DIVERSE
SURVIVING
A WORLD
In Chaos
GREG VANIER
Senior Vice President, Crisis &
Reputation Risk, Edelman
If you feel like the world is in a perpetual state of crisis,
you certainly wouldn’t be alone.
O
n January 29, 2022, the world watched as
the so called “freedom convoy” descended
upon the nation’s capital. While Canadians
were fixated on the daily developments in
Ottawa and at U.S. border crossings, images
of the occupation spread through social and
traditional media to reach every corner of the
globe, sparking similar action in the streets of
Paris, Brussels and London, and cities across
Australia and North America.
The City of Ottawa estimates the protests will
cost local taxpayers in excess of $30 million.
That does not account for lost business revenues
and wages. The impact on some of those
businesses may last years. Some may never
recover. But while the City continues to count
the invoices, businesses assess their losses,
and impacted employees try to rebalance their
budgets, the rest of us have moved on. That
was yesterday’s crisis. Today there is a war in
Ukraine.
If you feel like the world is in a perpetual state
of crisis, you certainly wouldn’t be alone.
Over the last few years, we have seen a rise
in the number and frequency of crises so
large that they have cascading effects across
sectors, industries, nations, and economies. It’s
only been two years since the world watched
in horror as fires raged across Australia. Since
then, America left Afghanistan and the Taliban
rose to power. A shipping vessel blocked the
Suez Canal. The effects of climate change and
its impact on business has gotten more severe,
and crippling cyber-attacks have become a
critical issue for governments and businesses
of all sizes in every sector.
% WHO HAVE SAID THEIR
COMPANY HAS FACED THE
FOLLOWING ISSUES IN THE
PAST 3 YEARS
In
addition,
powerful
social
justice
movements – such as the #MeToo and
anti-racism movements – have rippled
through our culture and ecosystems, forcing
institutions and organizations to examine
their shortcomings and rethink their
employer value proposition in the midst of
“The Great Resignation.”
All this while a relentless and tragic pandemic,
forecasted to cost the global economy
$28 trillion according to The International
Monetary Fund, continues to rage across
the world, leaving economic chaos in its
wake and fundamentally changing life and
business as we knew it.
In 2021, Edelman surveyed 100 crisis
management and business continuity
executives in markets around the world. On
average, those surveyed faced four different
types of crises over the last three years, with
almost 90 per cent indicating they had faced
at least one large crisis in the same period.
In addition, 68 per cent indicated that they
were facing both internal and external
pressure to be more vocal on key societal
issues, and 69 per cent were concerned
35%
35%
33%
30%
30%
29%
27%
22%
21%
18%
16%
15%
12%
8%
PRODUCT & SUPPLY
CHAIN ISSUES
LABOUR ISSUES &
LEADERSHIP CHANGES
FINANCIAL, LEGAL &
REGULATORY ISSUES
CRBERSECURITY &
CYBERCRIME
TECHNOLOGY
FAILURES
ACTIVISM AGAINST
THE COMPANY
MISCONDUCT
GEOPOLITICAL &
HUMANITARIAN
about employee and consumer activism.
Activism is on the rise - along with
disinformation and misinformation - and
detractors will weaponize information against
companies,
industries,
and
individuals.
Stakeholders, including employees, consumers
and investors now expect radical transparency
regarding social and environmental issues and
will hold companies accountable.
Consumer, employee and shareholders values
and behaviours have profoundly changed over
the last few years, creating a new paradigm
and a new climate for businesses and brands.
In this new era of cancel culture, there is little
room for error and the cost of failure can be
significant. Brand and corporate reputations
can shatter in a moment, taking a company’s
value and future with it.
It is no longer enough for companies to
provide a high quality or dependable product
or service; companies are now expected to
operate with integrity and purpose, while also
helping to address some of society’s most
pressing issues.
In this new world, business founders and
leaders must think about reputation as a both
a strategic asset and a material risk to be
constantly nurtured and protected. This means
that leaders must be intimately connected to
culture and understand how emerging and
evolving issues might affect operations. It
means that leaders must be able to sense and
anticipate issues and address them before
they become crises. And this unpredictable
environment requires principled management
that integrates reputation risk into the business
strategy and planning.
At a minimum, organizations should be regularly
assessing the issues landscape and associated
reputational risks while benchmarking the
company’s perceived performance on those
issues against stakeholder expectations. For
each issue or risk that poses a real or significant
threat, monitoring systems and processes,
powered by data and intelligence, need to be
established.
While early warning systems are important,
a well-planned and carefully considered
crisis response protocol is critical. How an
organization responds to a crisis can cause
more damage than the precipitating event.
When faced with a crisis, leaders need to
act decisively and make decisions rooted
in organizational values, and they must
be supported by a well-trained team that
recognizes the importance of maintaining
stakeholder trust.
Protecting an organization’s
reputation and brand in an
increasingly disruptive and chaotic
world is a complicated challenge
– but it’s also a manageable one.
At its most basic level, it requires a commitment
to proper risk oversight and governance,
a strategic approach to trust building and
reputation management, and building a culture
of compliance that is driven by strong values
and responsible leadership.
A few years from now, very few of us will
remember that it is was Valentine’s Day when
the Government of Canada invoked The
Emergency Act to deal with protestors at
border crossings and in the nation’s capital. By
then, our memories will be clouded by a series
of crises and issues that will have captivated
our attention, disrupted our economies, and
changed the way our societies and workplace’s
function.
The businesses that survive these events, and
thrive despite them, will be the ones that have
learned to anticipate the unexpected and find
ways to operate with purpose, agility and
resilience.
ONLINE / SOCIAL /
DIGITAL ATTACKS
ENVIRONMENTAL
ISSUES
MISINFORMATION
VIRAL SOCIAL MEDIA
CONVERSATION
DIVERSITY AND
INCLUSION
TERRORISM
2021 CONNECTED CRISIS STUDY, GLOBAL RESULTS, EDELMAN
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