Crisis management high in local companies

Ramani KANGARAARACHCHI

Companies must develop specific recovery plans to resume operations after a crisis to ensure that the business continuity plans are capable of extended operation, giving time for development of recovery plans. President ISACA, (Information Systems Audit and Credit Association). UAE Chapter Nalin Wijetilleke said.

Speaking at a seminar on Crisis Management organized by McQuire Rens and Jones at Cinnamon Lakeside yesterday, he said crisis management is vital to any organization because a crisis can be turned into an opportunity if properly managed.

Therefore the team should know what and how to do it.

Managing in crisis situations generates feeling of pressure and managers need to find ways to get more information and how to recover loss or cost of resource.

Sri Lanka has fulfilled the basic requirements in crisis management. But it is necessary to update them continuously because the crisis is usually the publicity and not the crisis itself that will cause damage.

"A real crisis is not what actually happened, it is all about what people think," he said.

It may be an issue that has been ignored over a period of time, therefore communication plays a major role in crisis management, he said.

Wijetillake elaborated on two types of crisis namely smouldering and sudden crisis.

Reputation is a very important concern in both. In the case of type one any serious business problem may be not known within or out of the organization, which may generate negative coverage if or when goes public.

The type two crisis is a disruption in organization business that occurs without warning and is likely to generate news coverage and may adversely affect all stakeholders, other business assets, revenue and share prices.

However, all crisis have someone to blame, human error or malice, something is at stake and someone finds it out, he said.