New or upcoming content

New: business book published

Topic

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Ralph Jackson has authored a new book on crisis communication preparation, management, and recovery. This is for all size of businesses but is predominantly aimed at owners, founders, Boards and/or directors of SME’s.

The book includes practical examples of how to prepare for the unexpected, the processes you should put in place should you need to manage a difficult issue or crisis, and the ways in which you can benefit from a recovery through a critical assessment of your plans and handling.

It includes relevant case studies from both the UK, and internationally, including specific examples from the US, Australia and Germany from crisis experts in those countries.

Extracts

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Here’s a snapshot of the three core chapters:

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Prepare:

“In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.”(Roosevelt).

I cannot stress enough that the steps set out in this chapter – some, but not all of them, dependent on who you are – are ones that are practical and logical for any enterprise which seeks to protect their brand and business. Undertaking them as a matter of usual business practice is sensible and will save you time, and arguably money, should a problem emerge. You will feel better able to deal with it if you have taken some steps to understand how you can in the ways set out here.

​Manage

"Crisis management is about managing the chaos while maintaining a vision for the future." (Churchill)

Problems, issues, and even crises, are to the business cycle. In dealing with them you are balancing the need for business as usual with managing those unusual events that combine to cause a crisis. The chapter sets out some good, and not so good, examples of companies who have had their crisis, and concludes with a checklist for you to assess how you will manage should one occur for you.

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 ​Recover

“A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn reputation by trying to do hard things well”. (Bezos).

This chapter looks at what recovering from an issue or crisis should include, what you have learnt from it, and what you should do to put in place new procedures should your analysis indicate they are necessary.

This includes how you can assess any impact upon your overall reputation, and that of your brand, products, and services. It also covers how you should objectively look at how you handled the issue/crisis, how your team performed, and whether all of the preparations you took worked out.

Publisher

The book, ‘Crisis? What crisis? How businesses can prepare for and manage unexpected events’  was published on 20 July, by BiteSized Books and is available from BiteSized Books at this link and through Amazon.