Protecting Your Company From Everyday Threats To Major Disasters

Bad CEO behavior. An oil spill. A dangerous product. These are the kinds of catastrophes that come to mind when many of us think of the corporate cautionary tale. It’s something that happens to someone else. Not us. Or we tell ourselves that disasters are large and cataclysmic in cause and effect. There isn’t anything on our corporate radar that can do that much damage. And if something does happen, we’ll respond quickly and avert any real damage. We mistakenly think we’re covered.

If the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us anything it’s that no matter what the size of your company or how healthy your market is, no one is immune from damaging forces beyond their control. In 2019, who would have thought a global pandemic would sound the death knell for an additional 200,000 businesses of all sizes according to the Fed? We’ve seen legacy brands such as Hertz, Neiman Marcus, Gold’s Gym, and J. Crew file for bankruptcy protection. A crisis can be the death knell for even the healthiest companies.

We don’t need to look to a once in a hundred-year pandemic for dangers to companies. To be effective executives, we must broaden how we define and mitigate a crisis.  If a competitor suddenly announced a product that exceeds your product’s features and is backed by top brand endorsements and a high-quality marketing campaign, would that pose a threat to sales? Would a social media firestorm criticizing the company based on a policy or controversial customer action affect your ability to sell and hire? Would an unflattering analyst report damage the sales funnel? How about a problematic funding or IPO effort that could cause a financial crisis? The smart executive team realizes that threats come in all shapes and sizes and at any time. Thorough preparation is the best tool to mitigate even the most damaging market, natural disaster, and global event.

At Karbo Com, we’ve crafted custom crisis protection models for companies from startups to multi-billion-dollar brands. These shields of protection can focus on competitive threats, product issues, stock de-listings, social media revolts, community issues, management team errors or misbehavior, employee misconduct on social media, and more.

There are four critical elements to our unique process:

1. Threat Assessment Matrix: This stage anticipates any threats to the company that could result in critical damage. This may include product failures, social media campaigns, competitive strikes, a problematic funding or IPO event, executive misbehavior, and more. Karbo Com also conducts an audit of key stakeholders and relevant outside sources such as media and analyst perceptions.
2. The Message Matrix: In this stage, protective foundational messaging and customized narratives for key stakeholders and personas are developed and tested.
3. The Playbook: Next, we create a custom playbook. This document will identify players, threat process and mitigation, and proactive and reactive programs and processes.
4. Post-Threat Analysis and Correction: In the final phase, if a crisis occurs, a thorough assessment of the event and response is carried out and any necessary corrections made.

The crisis plan is a necessity, not a nicety. Don’t get caught in a game of Russian roulette.  The stakes are too great. Assess and prepare to alleviate – and in many cases avoid – threats to your company’s survival. If your company, no matter the size, is interested in learning more about how we can protect you from vulnerabilities, please contact us today: info@Karbocom.com.