International SOS Calls for Innovation in Crisis Management

New Comprehensive Global Crisis Management White Paper Leads the Way to Transform Crises into Catalysts for Resilience and Innovation.

International SOS, the leading global security and health risk management company, has unveiled a comprehensive global guide to help organizations navigate the complexities of modern crises. The paper, Building a Responsive and Effective Crisis Management Program and accompanying webcast emphasises the importance of moving beyond traditional crisis response to adopt innovative strategies.

Giles Hill, Global Head of Security Services at International SOS, comments:

Crises , though inherently disruptive, serve as powerful crucibles for greater resilience and innovation. They expose latent vulnerabilities, sharpen decision making and compel organizations to think about agility – an essential capability in a volatile world. They are a brutally honest appraisal of an organization’s strategy and culture. Leaders and organizations that embrace crisis as a catalyst – not just as a threat – emerge stronger, with more agile systems, clearer priorities and greater competitive advantage, ensuring their organizations not only survive but thrive in the face of adversity.

Using real-world scenarios and events, the paper demonstrates how, through informed, pragmatic, and adaptable crisis management, organizations can sustain operations and flourish, and how visionary leaders can transform their organizations into resilient entities capable of facing even the most unforeseen challenges. Based on International SOS’ unique 40 years of experience supporting clients and their employees through crises, the paper provides practical insights into all key aspects of best practice in dealing with today’s crises – from pre-crisis planning and post-crisis demobilisation to the critical roles of perception, strategic communication, and innovation.

Gautier Porot, Group Crisis Management Practice Leader at International SOS, emphasized the importance of adoption of best practices across the workforce:

We have seen from recent escalations particularly how imperative it is to have robust crisis management and to encompass all eventualities. This paper is not just a source of information but a real call to action for all organizations, their leaders and each employee. Only by collaborating and preparing actively can crises be turned into opportunities and ensure sustainability and success.

Key Highlights of the White Paper:

• Pre-crisis planning¹: Identifying systemic risks, organizing resources, and training teams to minimise potential impacts. This includes creating ad hoc teams with specific and complementary skills and developing key documents such as crisis management policies, plans, communication strategies, and guides.
• Crisis Response²: Mobilizing teams, controlling the situation, and resolving issues through rapid decision-making and clear communication. The paper outlines the importance of modular and agile response teams tailored to each crisis's specificities.
• Post-Crisis Demobilisation³: Supporting teams, analyzing the new ecosystem, and adapting strategies to better cope with future crises. This involves a structured approach to problem-solving, including identifying the desired end state, breaking it down into workstreams, prioritizing them, and developing strategic intent and action plans.

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<sub>1. Stacey Conlin, Head of Risk, Cricket Australia, comments on pre-crisis planning: “When you look at quite traditional crisis and incident management, it’s often linked to very high risk-based thresholds or impacts. Once an impact hits this level, organizations then convene the crisis management team. With the growing frequency of incidents and crises, early intervention is paramount, and I’ve established and recommended that organizations set up an Early Intervention Impact Assessment team. This means that prior to an incident hitting high impact levels, we gather, assess the facts, risks, impacts, and most of the time, we are able to de-escalate the situation and minimise impacts.”
2. Eduardo Jany, Global Security & Safety, News Corp, said on crisis response: “Any organization should operate with strong contingency plans…. If you don’t have resources in place to adapt and overcome that challenge you will have a critical problem. You must have fail-safe procedures that are actionable and practicable”.
3. Laurent Giezendanner, Head of Corporate Security and Legal Transformation, Syngenta Group, comments on post-crisis demobilisation: “We look at the biggest risks that we could face with the company. Then we regroup the teams associated to those biggest risks. We then create a scenario that is built with them because they have the knowledge. We use them to make the scenario very realistic and then we train them on a classical tabletop exercise either face-to-face or virtual to see how they react as an experience”.</sub>