Crisis readiness is panacea - PR expert

Staff Writer | Monday March 23, 2020 17:12

According to the Managing Director of PR Practice, crisis is about preempting diverse crisis scenarios before crisis strikes.

“The ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic caught a number of entities unprepared and has this has led to a huge economic down fall across local and global industries,” he said.

Nkomo said local industries need to make crisis management a priority as they can always fall back during hard and trying times like the current situation which caught a number of top management executives unprepared.

“Most firms should go back to the drawing board and rethink about conceptualising crisis management  policies. 

Crisis management and  strategic  communication  is  vital in  these difficult circumstances because it gives guidance in handling and recovering from the impact of a crisis. With a crisis management policy, you are always ready for any challenge,” said Nkomo.

The communications expect noted that at this moment, a crisis management policy is important for every entity in the world as they are required to have another plan to help the business continuity during this pandemic.

“When coming up with crisis management policy, consider a wide range of situations that could affect your business operations and work on how you would respond to them. It’s always advisable to be proactive than reactive,” he said.

Nkomo further noted that is they  a  strategic  communication  firm  that  has  worked on research, branding and crisis communication for entities in different sectors such as telco, financial services,retail,tourism and hospitality.

The pandemic has led to a number of entities such as mining, aviation industry loosing huge profits in the first quarter of the year, which has a negative impact businesswise.

Some local entities have cancelled traveling trips to foreign countries, which is affecting the exportation and importation of goods.