It's When Not If - 21st Century Resilience & Strategic Crisis Management

In this episode I review Warnings: Finding Cassandras to Stop Catastrophes In Greek mythology Cassandra foresaw calamities, but was cursed by the gods to be ignored. Modern-day Cassandras clearly predicted the disasters of Katrina, Fukushima, the Great Recession, the rise of ISIS, and many more. Like the mythological Cassandra, they were ignored. There are others right now warning of impending disasters, but how do we know which warnings are likely to be right? Through riveting explorations in a variety of fields, the authors—both accomplished CEOs and White House National Security Council veterans—discover a method to separate the accurate Cassandras from the crazy doomsayers. They then investigate the experts who today are warning of future disasters: the threats from artificial intelligence, bio-hacking, mutating viruses, and more, and whose calls are not being heeded. Clarke’s and Eddy’s penetrating insights are essential for any person, any business, or any government that doesn’t want to be a blind vict

This a an overview of former stock market high flyer Chipotle (NYSE: CMG). The “fast casual food with integrity” chain in the United States is the poster child of the impacts of 21st-century crisis, poor business continuity planning, and just plain smugness by management. For all their vision that management had building the company into a darling of the stock market with the skyhigh valuation, they seem to have and have no vision on risk, the effect of crisis on the operations, customer perception, and employee loyalty. Ultimately the share price fell by half, and has only rebounded modestly. Management seemed to have no idea as to the multitude of issues they would face, while trying to dig out of the hole they put themselves in. The market capitalization of the company while peaking at around $24B, now stands at just under $14B. Activist investors Pershing Capital bought up 10% of the company at a hefty discount. New expectations have been set, and the company is struggling to meet them. The standard commu

First came the low information voter, next was the no information voter and now we have the dis-information voter. Where does this lead us in terms of crisis response? Why should we be concerned? As the world gets more complicated and intertwined every day, people are raging over a 140 character tweet. Fake news and conspiracy theories take off virally and it is difficult to being people back to reality. Now it is even more important to prepare your organization for crisis response. Because you don’t know who will react in which way across your staff. We are in a post truth world, facts are fungible and are readily molded to one’s core beliefs. Who will they believe? Will they carry out directives in the best interest of the organization if it runs counter to their own internal compass? Do they see they world through the eyes of the conspiracy theorist, or through the lens of always seeking an enemy?

It’s When Not If  is the podcast for strategic crisis management for the 21st century.  The world is a volatile place and we are all connected.  We can no longer hope that a crisis will blow over without doing substantial damage.   In a world of 24/7 news cycles based on 140 character tweets and social media if we are not prepared we are doomed to failure.  Financial position and reputation are all at risk. In this podcast series, your host Tom Chiginsky, a veteran of over 50 large scale crisis simulations for the Fortune 500 and NGO’s, defines what it means to be prepared today.  He will analyze past crises, current crises and talk over the lessons we should all learn.  Organizations must all be on the same page, from the “board room to the lunch room” and understand the risks of being unprepared. We hope you find it interesting!