To put it simply, a crisis is when nothing is the way it was or, rather, the way it should be. This applies both to exceptional events such as the current COVID-19 crisis and especially to “smaller” and more time-limited events. These are highly escalated, exceptional situations that cannot be handled by the normal organization and for which even the operationally oriented business continuity management (BCM) does not offer a complete solution. This is because a crisis is not exclusively about restoring normal operations, but much more about limiting the overall business damage, in a situation where a solution is initially unknown. And it is precisely this aspect that is often overlooked in the initial reactive and “noisy” phase of an incident response. In the current COVID-19 crisis, the crisis staffs of many companies and organizations have been meeting for months, responding to the ever-changing state and coming up with solutions in what is largely an unknown situation. The basic lessons learned1 range from insufficient pandemic plans, the challenges of staff work from home, the simultaneous occurrence of ransomware attacks, the challenge of decision-making, to the demands of international coordination and a massive push for digitization with the introduction of MS Teams, SharePoint, Office 365 and similar tools. During the ongoing Corona crisis, there was very little willingness among many companies to make fundamental changes in their crisis management. With the hope that the current situation will soon come to an end, there is a growing willingness to learn the right lessons from the experience of the past months. An unbiased assessment should now lay the foundation for a sustainable improvement in preparation for future challenges in the field of continuity and crisis management. Numerous weak points must be identified, assessed and eliminated with the appropriate measures. For the insuring industry, this initially means optimizing existing insurance contracts. In the companies, a holistic view is required that encompasses issues of insurance management, supply chain management, corporate security, continuity and crisis management. Change processes are required, which do not even stop at classic departmental thinking. The buzzword “resilience management”, which has been discussed for some time, is experiencing a new blossoming. Demands for a reorientation of corporate security are being heard. A comprehensive understanding of risk management is stimulating internal discussion. What impact does this discussion have on the area of crisis management that is focus here? The fundamental requirement for crisis management is to create a situation in which strategic decisions can be made in a structured process, taking advantage of the challenges and opportunities of digitization in the future. One of the biggest challenges in staff work is the decision-making process. The challenges of decision-making are often underestimated. Poor decision-making makes an already difficult situation even worse. At its very core, crisis management involves responding well to a highly escalated situation based on the best available information and using it to implement decisions, thereby controlling the organizations response to the event and minimizing the impact of the event2. This decision-making process represents the flowing organization of the crisis management teams work and is reflected in the so-called “leadership rhythm”. But do these measures derived from classical doctrine meet the requirements for successful crisis management? Aren’t the acting employees and their interaction decisive for successful management? What are the challenges for “leadership” in a highly dynamic situation? What special demands are placed on the members of a crisis team? These aspects have received little attention in the past<sup>3</sup> but are critical to the success of crisis team operations. These aspects will be addressed in depth based on the preliminary work in the British Crisis Management Standard and in the future ISO CD 22361. System integration as a success factor – DEMiOS complements and leverages existing systems What are the manifestations that characterize a crisis? Chaos typically reigns, especially in the early days. Usually without warning, the crisis occurs and abruptly changes the conditions for the affected companies. Previous rules and processes no longer apply. The key executives must first come together to work in a coordinated and structured manner in one direction. All this happens under immense pressure, because the time factor is crucial for success. If you wait too long, you minimize your room for maneuverability and your chances of getting out of the situation in one piece. But defining rapid and, above all, correct measures for globally networked systems is easier said than done. Because we all know excessive stress paralyzes the ability to think and analyze. Under pressure, spontaneous reactions often occur that are rather counterproductive or even turn a budding crisis into a major one. In addition, the numerous organizational measures require a high level of human resources. At this point, the combination of methodology and technology can provide serious support. The consistent methodical approach of strategic decision-making, applied as a “leadership rhythm” in numerous staffs in the field of civil defense or the military, provides the necessary orientation in the structured sequence. If this leadership process as a structural element in crisis management is embedded in a program tailored to it, a support tool is created that provides decisive relief for the crisis staff and situation center. The leadership rhythm of crisis management – proven in Swiss civil defense and adapted for use in commercial enterprises The problem points in classic crisis management often include the accompanying administrative processes, such as placing assignments, controlling assignments, writing minutes and gathering information. They are often very time-consuming and tie up disproportionate resources. This also includes the visualization of the situation, which is often not designed in such a way that all members of the staff really have a “common picture of the situation”, despite the great effort involved. And the loss of time until the staff is ready to act before its first meeting is often a serious problem point as well. A modern crisis management application supports the crisis team in its work, i.e., it addresses these typical weak points of the classic crisis management Read more
