First 24 hours of a crisis: the board's agenda

A reputational crisis rarely begins with a press release. It begins with an email from a customer, a post on social media, a call from a production site or a journalist's question that lands at reception. At that first moment the board almost never knows all the facts. It must act nonetheless, because silence is also a message, and usually the worst one available.

The first day is not about closing the matter. It is about regaining control over three things: the facts, the decisions and the company's voice. Organisations that come through a crisis relatively calmly are not usually better informed than others. They are better organised.

Before the journalist calls

The most valuable hours are those in which the matter is known inside the company but not yet outside it. Sometimes there are several; sometimes there are only minutes. The board should use that time for a few simple, if not entirely obvious, steps.

First, set up a small crisis team and name one person to lead it. It need not be the chief executive. It must be someone with a mandate to take decisions and the time to deal with nothing else. The team should include a board member, the person responsible for communications, a lawyer and the head of the area where the problem has arisen.

Second, separate what is known from what is assumed. A simple document with three columns ("confirmed", "unconfirmed", "to be established"), updated every few hours, brings more order to the discussion than any presentation. It also guards against the most common mistake of the first day: repeating in public information that later turns out to be wrong.

Third, secure the channels. Employees should know that all external questions go to one person. Scheduled marketing content is best put on hold, because a cheerful post published in the middle of a crisis can do more harm than the incident itself.

The first statement

The first statement does not need to contain every answer. It should, however, show that the company is aware of the matter, takes it seriously and is acting. A good first statement usually fits into a few sentences: what has happened (to the extent confirmed), what the company has already done, what it will do next and when it will provide further information.

In the first day of a crisis, a company is judged not by how much it knows, but by how it behaves.

Two extremes are best avoided. The first is "no comment", which audiences read as an admission of guilt or a loss of control. The second is excessive detail and speculation about causes before they have been established. If people have been harmed, their situation should come first in the statement, ahead of the company's own interests.

Every statement should be reviewed with legal counsel, particularly where the disclosure obligations of listed companies, personal data or possible proceedings are involved. The lawyer's role is to limit risk; the role of communications is to preserve trust. The board has to weigh these perspectives rather than allow one of them to prevail by default.

After the first media contact

The moment the matter becomes public, the pace changes. More questions arrive, along with online comment and calls from customers and partners. The crisis team should then work to a steady rhythm: short meetings every few hours, an update of the facts, a review of what is being said outside and a decision on the next step.

Communicating with those who matter most to the company is as important as dealing with the media. Employees should not learn about the problem from news websites. Key customers, the bank, the supervisory board and the most important partners deserve direct contact, ideally before they read about the matter in the press. These conversations often matter more to the company's future than any single article.

The board must also decide who will be the face of the company. If the matter is serious, it is natural to expect the chief executive to speak. That person needs preparation, however: a few key messages, answers to the hardest questions and clarity about what cannot yet be said.

A checklist for the first day

• Crisis team in place, leader named, meeting rhythm agreed.
• Facts separated into confirmed, unconfirmed and to be established.
• One spokesperson and one route for external questions.
• Scheduled marketing content on hold.
• First statement agreed with legal counsel and ready to use.
• Employees, supervisory board and key partners informed directly.
• Media and online monitoring running.
• Time of the next update set, and kept.

The first 24 hours rarely decide whether a crisis happens. Very often, though, they decide how long it lasts and how much it costs. Companies with a prepared team, a procedure and draft first statements gain something invaluable in those hours: time to think.

If you would like to test how your organisation would cope with the first day of a crisis, or to discuss a situation that is unfolding now, we would welcome a confidential conversation with the TORRE team.