How to Realise Opportunity from a Crisis?

PwC Helps Clients “Get Up To Speed” on Risk Management

4 November 2008

PwC introduces a new series of short papers designed to help clients recognise and prepare for risk and regulation relevant issues. Titled the “Get up to speed” series, the short papers review emerging risk and regulatory trends that result from the increasingly connected, global world and provide concise, real-life examples of experiences from businesses in all sectors.

The first of these papers, titled “From crisis to opportunity” focuses on the four critical steps to managing a crisis:

  1. Acknowledge the crisis – Admit that the crisis exists and assume responsibility. This may include tapping an independent, external advisor/panel to ensure you consider every angle and make objective decisions.
  2. Communicate – Identify all key stakeholders and communicate with them promptly and clearly, using the medium of communication they prefer. Act fast and personalise communications from senior executives to build trust with those audiences.
  3. Take control – Collect input from key audiences, but maintain control and do not let others’ agendas control your recovery plan.
  4. Gain from the pain – Once the crisis has been averted, identify opportunities to implement lasting change. This might be a good time to make organisational, process or cultural changes to improve transparency and accountability.
“In an increasingly global world, connectivity is facilitating the implementation of new business models and new ways of working, opening up new markets and providing new means of customer interaction. But this is also creating a breadth of new threats as risk containment grows increasingly more challenging. We are committed to increasing clients’ awareness of and readiness for crises in order to mitigate potential disruption to their businesses” - said David Wake, Advisory Service line leader of PwC Hungary.

The next paper in the six-part “Get up to speed” series will focus on having a risk-savvy enterprise. “From crisis to opportunity” is available for download by using of the right-hand links.

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