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FAQ / Frequently asked questions

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What is an emergency?

An emergency is any situation in which there is an imminent danger to property, animals or the physical integrity of people.

What is a crisis?

In corporate management, a corporate crisis is understood as a threat to the continued existence of a company or a significant business area.

What is crisis management?

Crisis management is a special form of top-priority leadership whose task is to avoid or manage all those processes in the company that would otherwise be capable of substantially jeopardising the company’s continued existence or even making it impossible (source: The Big Encyclopaedia of Business, 2009).

What does BCM stand for?

Business continuity management (BCM) refers to the development of strategies, plans and actions to protect activities or processes whose interruption would cause serious damage or devastating losses to the organisation (such as business disruptions), or to enable alternative operations. The aim is thus to ensure the continued existence of the company.

What does the crisis manual contain?

A crisis manual includes scenarios and approaches, stakeholders (internal, external), crisis organisation incl. deputies, alerting process, tools in staff work, important telephone numbers and checklists.

What are the functions of a crisis team?

A crisis team in a medium to large company ideally includes a crisis manager (e.g. CEO), a crisis team leader (e.g. COO), staff functions (e.g. operations, HR, communications) and a support team. In a smaller company, at least two management functions form the crisis team.

How many people do I need for a crisis team?

This depends on the size of the organisation and its complexity. A crisis team includes a minimum of two people, in large companies a crisis team can include fifty or more members.

How do I ensure that all members of a crisis team can always be activated?

That is never possible. A crisis team usually functions as a militia organisation. That means whoever can come, helps out. It therefore makes sense to staff the functions in the crisis team with at least three people if possible (1st priority, 2nd priority, replacement or replacement).

What is meant by stakeholders?

Stakeholders or stakeholders are persons for whom it matters how a particular company behaves because of their interests (e.g. shareholders, employees, customers, suppliers).

What is meant by the 4C?

The 4Cs are the different disciplines in crisis management. C1: Command (crisis organisation), C2: Communication (crisis communication), C3: Care (care of affected persons or relatives) and C4: Compliance (adherence to all legal provisions and internal guidelines).

How can a crisis unit exercise be conducted?

For a crisis management exercise, a realistic scenario is developed for the respective organisation. The exercise takes place announced or unannounced. It must also be defined whether partner organisations are to be involved and whether the exercise is to take place only in the crisis team (table top) or also on the damage site.

What is a Table Top Exercise?

A table top or desktop exercise is a planning exercise. No incidents (e.g. explosion, fire, etc.) are acted out on a 1:1 basis, but the corresponding approaches to solutions are dealt with theoretically in the crisis team.