My Thoughts

Crisis Management: Why Most Australian Businesses Are One Power Cut Away from Total Chaos

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You know what really grinds my gears? Walking into boardrooms across Sydney and Melbourne, only to watch executives nod sagely about "digital transformation" and "agile methodologies," while their entire operation would collapse if the office Wi-Fi went down for more than twenty minutes.

I've been consulting for Australian businesses for seventeen years now, and I can tell you this with absolute certainty: 87% of companies I've worked with have crisis management plans that are about as useful as a chocolate teapot. And yes, I made up that statistic, but it feels bloody accurate.

Last month, I was called into a mid-sized logistics company in Brisbane after their main server crashed on a Tuesday morning. Simple technical hiccup, right? Wrong. What followed was three days of absolute pandemonium because nobody – and I mean NOBODY – knew what to do when the computers stopped talking to each other.

The operations manager was running around like a headless chook, trying to coordinate deliveries using a whiteboard and post-it notes. Sales were calling customers on their personal mobiles because the office phones were somehow tied to the same system. And the CEO? Well, he was busy posting inspirational quotes on LinkedIn about "embracing uncertainty."

The Uncomfortable Truth About Crisis Planning

Here's what I've learnt after watching companies implode faster than a soufflé in a thunderstorm: most crisis management plans are written by people who've never actually lived through a real crisis.

They're usually created during some mandatory planning session where everyone sits around a conference table, munching on Tim Tams, and brainstorming worst-case scenarios that sound impressive on paper but have absolutely nothing to do with reality.

I remember working with a Perth-based mining services company whose crisis plan had detailed procedures for handling "cyber attacks from foreign governments" but no mention of what to do when their key client suddenly cancelled a multi-million-dollar contract. Which is exactly what happened six months later.

The plan was useless. Completely, utterly useless.

But here's the thing that really gets me fired up – and this might upset some HR professionals reading this – most crisis planning focuses on the wrong bloody things entirely.

What Actually Matters When Everything Goes Sideways

Real workplace crises aren't usually dramatic Hollywood moments with sirens and evacuation plans. They're much more mundane and infinitely more destructive to your bottom line.

The real killers are:

Key staff members suddenly quitting without notice
Major clients walking away
Supply chain disruptions
Technology failures
Regulatory changes that blindside your industry

And yet, I can't tell you how many times I've seen companies spend weeks developing elaborate procedures for handling "workplace violence" (which, statistically, is incredibly rare) while completely ignoring the fact that their entire accounts department runs on software from 2019 that crashes every other week.

It's like buying insurance for meteor strikes while your house is on fire.

I worked with a Melbourne-based professional services firm last year that had invested thousands in security systems and emergency protocols. Beautiful laminated cards on every desk explaining evacuation procedures. Very impressive stuff.

Then their senior partner – the bloke who handled 60% of their client relationships – announced he was leaving to start his own practice. Taking half the client base with him.

Guess what their crisis plan said about that scenario? Sweet Fanny Adams.

The Real World Crisis Planning Framework

After nearly two decades of cleaning up these messes, I've developed what I call the "Actually Useful Crisis Planning" approach. And no, that's not the official name, but it should be.

First principle: Plan for the probable, not the dramatic.

Start with a simple question: What are the five things that could happen tomorrow that would genuinely screw your business? Not "what if aliens invade" – what if your biggest client decides to take their business elsewhere? What if your key software provider gets bought out and decides to triple their prices?

Second principle: Make it stupidly simple.

Your crisis plan should be something a stressed, panicked person can follow at 2 AM when everything's going wrong. If it requires a flowchart and three different approval processes, it's not a plan – it's a bureaucratic nightmare waiting to happen.

I always tell my clients: if you can't explain your crisis response in three sentences or less, you're overthinking it.

Third principle: Test the damn thing.

This is where most companies completely fall down. They write these beautiful plans, get them approved by the board, file them away, and never look at them again until it's too late.

The Adelaide Example (And What We Can Learn From It)

One of my favourite success stories comes from an Adelaide-based manufacturing company I worked with three years ago. Small operation, about 45 employees, family-owned for two generations.

Their "crisis" hit on a Thursday afternoon when their main production line broke down during their busiest period of the year. Under normal circumstances, this would have meant weeks of delays, angry customers, and potentially losing major contracts.

But here's what made the difference: six months earlier, we'd done a simple exercise where we asked, "What happens if the machines stop working?"

The answer was beautifully straightforward: they had a backup arrangement with another manufacturer in Victor Harbor, pre-negotiated rates for emergency repairs, and a communication plan that meant customers knew what was happening within two hours.

Total downtime? Thirty-six hours. Customer complaints? Zero. Lost contracts? None.

The key wasn't having a complex plan – it was having a practical one that people actually knew how to execute.

Technology: Your Friend and Your Enemy

Let's talk about technology for a minute, because this is where I see businesses making some truly spectacular mistakes.

Everyone's obsessed with "digital resilience" these days, which usually means buying expensive backup systems and cloud solutions that nobody really understands how to use properly.

I was in a meeting last week with a Sydney-based financial services firm that had spent $200,000 on a "comprehensive disaster recovery solution." Sounds impressive, right?

Turns out, when their main system went down during a routine update, nobody could figure out how to activate the backup. The IT manager who'd set it up had left the company eight months earlier, and the documentation was... well, let's just say it was incomplete.

Here's my radical suggestion: before you invest in fancy technology solutions, make sure your team actually knows how to use the technology you already have.

Can everyone access their email from home? Do people know how to use the conference calling system? Can your sales team process orders manually if the CRM goes down?

Basic stuff. But you'd be amazed how many businesses skip these fundamentals in favour of more exciting (and expensive) solutions.

The Human Element Nobody Talks About

But here's what really separates successful crisis management from total disaster: it's not about systems or procedures – it's about people.

The companies that navigate crises successfully are the ones where people feel empowered to make decisions without waiting for approval from seventeen different managers.

I remember a transport company in Darwin where a major client complained about delayed deliveries. Instead of escalating through multiple management layers, the customer service representative called the client directly, offered a discount on future services, and arranged expedited delivery for the affected shipments.

Problem solved in twenty minutes. Customer actually became more loyal than before.

Compare that to a Brisbane-based professional services firm I worked with, where a similar customer complaint took three weeks to resolve because it had to go through the account manager, the regional manager, the operations director, and finally the CEO for approval.

Guess which company kept their customer?

Communication: The Thing Everyone Gets Wrong

Crisis communication is where most businesses completely lose the plot. They either say nothing (hoping the problem will magically disappear) or they over-communicate with corporate-speak that tells everyone precisely nothing.

I once watched a retail chain send out an email to customers that said, "We are currently experiencing technical difficulties that may impact service delivery timelines."

What they meant was, "Our payment system is broken, and we can't process your orders."

Why not just say that?

People appreciate honesty. They understand that things go wrong. What they can't stand is being treated like idiots with meaningless jargon.

The best crisis communication I've ever seen came from a small catering company in Hobart. Their commercial kitchen flooded three days before a major corporate event they were supposed to cater.

Instead of sending a formal letter about "unforeseen circumstances," the owner called the client personally and said, "Our kitchen flooded, but I've arranged with two other caterers to handle your event. Here's exactly what we're doing to make sure everything still goes perfectly."

Client was impressed by the honesty and the proactive solution. They ended up giving the company even more business the following year.

The Planning Process That Actually Works

So how do you create a crisis plan that doesn't end up gathering dust in a filing cabinet?

Start with a simple brainstorming session – but not the usual corporate rubbish where everyone sits around trying to think of dramatic scenarios. Focus on the boring, everyday things that could genuinely disrupt your business.

Get your team to think about last Tuesday. What would have happened if your key supplier had called and said they couldn't deliver? What if your biggest client had decided to pay their invoice six months late? What if your star employee had announced they were leaving in two weeks?

Write down the top five realistic scenarios. Then, for each one, figure out:

Who needs to know immediately
What decisions need to be made
Who has the authority to make those decisions
How you'll communicate with customers/clients
What resources you'll need

That's it. No fancy frameworks or consultant-speak. Just practical answers to practical problems.

The whole process should take about half a day, not half a year.

Implementation: Where Good Plans Go to Die

Of course, having a plan is only half the battle. The other half is making sure people actually know what it says and feel comfortable using it.

This is where most companies stuff things up completely. They'll spend months developing detailed procedures, then send out a single email with a PDF attachment and consider their job done.

Here's a radical idea: practice the damn thing.

Run through scenarios during team meetings. Not elaborate simulations with clipboards and stopwatches – just casual "what if" discussions that help people think through their responses.

I worked with a Canberra-based consulting firm that did this brilliantly. Once a month, during their regular team meeting, they'd spend ten minutes discussing a hypothetical crisis scenario. Nothing formal or stressful – just, "What would we do if the office was flooded tomorrow morning?"

When they actually faced a real crisis eighteen months later (their main client suddenly cancelled a major project), the team response was seamless. Everyone knew what to do because they'd been thinking about it regularly.

The Feedback Loop Everyone Forgets

Here's the thing about crisis planning that nobody talks about: your plan will be wrong.

Not because you're stupid or because you didn't think hard enough – but because real crises never unfold exactly the way you expect them to.

The companies that handle crises well are the ones that treat their plans as living documents, not sacred texts carved in stone.

After every crisis – even small ones – ask three simple questions:

What worked well?
What didn't work?
What would we do differently next time?

Then update your plan accordingly. It takes maybe thirty minutes, but it's the difference between getting better at crisis management and making the same mistakes over and over again.

Why This Matters More Than You Think

Look, I know crisis planning isn't the sexiest topic in the business world. It's not as exciting as talking about growth strategies or market disruption or whatever buzzword is trending on LinkedIn this week.

But here's the reality: businesses that can handle crises well don't just survive – they thrive. While their competitors are running around like headless chooks, they're staying calm, solving problems, and often gaining market share in the process.

I've seen small companies completely dominate their markets simply because they were the only ones who could maintain service during challenging periods. When everyone else was struggling, they were the reliable option customers could count on.

That's not luck. That's preparation.

The Bottom Line

Crisis planning doesn't have to be complicated, expensive, or time-consuming. It just needs to be practical and realistic.

Stop planning for movie scenarios and start planning for Murphy's Law. Because if something can go wrong, it probably will – and when it does, you want to be the company that shrugs, adjusts, and keeps moving forward.

Not the one that spends three days trying to coordinate deliveries with post-it notes.

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Trust me on this one. Your future self will thank you.