The importance of preparing for crises

The life of organizations is not very different from the life of humans. Crises are a major part of the life of any organization, but from a realistic perspective we find that some organizations ignore this stage and do not pay any attention to it. Others believe in preventive planning by sensing and predicting potential crises, and developing scenarios and plans to deal with them. And confront it if it occurs, and thus abort the crisis before it is born.

Therefore, crisis management represents the ability of organizations to recognize current and potential risks and threats and work to avoid them or reduce their negative effects, extract lessons learned to prevent the recurrence of these crises or improve ways to deal with them in the future, and benefit from the opportunities they provide. From this concept, crisis management is not limited only to the time of the crisis, but is preceded by a stage before it occurs.

The crisis goes through several stages similar to the stages of the life cycle of an organism, where the organism goes through different stages from birth, then the stage of growth and maturity, all the way to the stage of death. Some believe that the crisis goes through three main stages, which are the stage before the crisis occurs, in which early warning systems and procedures are put in place. The necessary preventive measures to try to prevent the occurrence of crises, then the stage of confronting the crisis by taking measures that limit its harmful effects, and the post-crisis stage and absorbing the lessons learned.

There are organizations that target crises and do not apply the crisis management approach or make the necessary preparations to confront them. They wait until the crisis occurs and then confront it. On the other hand, there are institutions prepared to confront crises. These are organizations that carry out all activities through which they can increase their ability to confront crises and form a crisis management team. It contributes to the speed of response.
Organizations must realize the importance of preparing for crises and taking the necessary measures if they occur, and believe that if organizations are not now in a crisis, then they are in a pre-crisis stage.

written by Dr. Mahmoud Shafei.