Popular rake crisis management

Recently, I have become extremely interested in anti-crisis management, and this is partly to blame for the process of preparing a case about Marvel , which I published some time ago. As for me, restoring a company in crisis is much more difficult than managing a stable business.

And today I would like to write that the restoration is not always successful. We will read about companies that were able to overcome all the difficulties in books and articles, and some of them may even be shot films, but we will not even remember those who failed. In some ways this is unacceptable, because the experience of failures is much more important than the successful experience.

The reasons for failure can turn out to be anything, but most often there are erroneous actions of management, because of which completely decent people turn out to be unemployed. And how do I see them happen when the management makes one of the mistakes listed below.

Slow loading

The crisis manager does not have the right to start his activities, as well as the usual manager. To begin with cautious meetings, familiarization, visiting dozens of places, leisurely discussion of the current situation with a large number of employees, reading long-standing reports or creating target groups, and dying like.
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Usually such managers are hired in the most unattractive situations, when everything that could be done without extraordinary measures has already been done or is being done. In such situations, every hour, day or week can significantly worsen the current breakdown. A newly hired manager should take over duties immediately.

Neglect of decisive and immediate action.

Many of the measures that need to be taken are obvious. If a dead horse is lying in the middle of the lawn, there is no need to hire a dead horse consultant to analyze how and why she was there. Illiquid divisions of the company, most often also visible to the naked eye. Therefore, employees certainly know about obvious problems and are just waiting for someone who could give an order, and this is the direct task of the crisis manager.

A good idea would be to set up some initial recommendations for obvious solutions at various levels of the organization, which need to be implemented without delay. At the same time, managers of lower levels of responsibility should not have wide discretion in their implementation. The simpler, the faster, the faster, the more likely a successful exit from the crisis. In resuscitation, there is a term - the “golden hour”, which vividly illustrates the need for such quick and decisive actions.

“Golden hour” is a term used in resuscitation to determine the time interval (received by people close in duration to 1 hour) after receiving an injury, which makes it possible to provide first aid most effectively.

Delay in primary cuts

It is better to cut 20% of the staff once, than four times at 5%. With gradual reductions, the morale of the employees will turn out to the devil. After the initial five percent reduction, employees will forget about the work, constantly worrying about whether they will be next. Some experienced leaders even say that it is better to make a big cut right away, and if necessary make a further recovery.

Portion reduction can reduce the negative emotional burden on the manager, but this reduction in psychological stress should not be an end in itself. Moving too slowly, the company is likely to lose some of the most enterprising employees that it would prefer to have as part of its team.

If the chief manager cannot identify hard-to-replace employees, the following can help. The management of subdivisions makes up the top 10-20 most urgent tasks in the part concerning, and also makes a complete list of employees of their departments. After that, the lists are reconciled, the result of which will be the list of employees required to perform the priority anti-crisis tasks.

These lists can help identify people whose dismissal will affect the company's activities less disastrously, as well as those capable of performing a number of tasks. Although this technique is not without flaws, it can provide a firm basis for making the following decisions and determining the most important operational elements.

Income declaration has absolutely nothing to do with the cash flow statement

Ignoring this fact is disastrous. A crisis manager is lucky if there is enough cash in the company. Income is income, and cash is cash. Cache rules. Cash is the blood of the company, and management must keep a tight hand on the pulse in order to feel when the flow of funds weakens to incompatible with life. Costs that are not directly related to the operation of the company should be cut out mercilessly.

Cost reduction has another side effect of multiplication. Opponents of the necessary reductions are certainly not worthy of being in a team, and daring reductions will help in defining those.

Although the opportunities depend on the nature of the business, the crisis manager should show by personal example that working overtime is necessary. Defeat from such dedication will have the most beneficial effect on personnel. Inspiration of employees will add some shred of chances to increase the survival rate of the company.

Hiding the truth and bad news

Many people want to learn bad news as early as possible in order to be able to maneuver. Most workers are no different. It is desirable for your employees to learn the bitter truth from you, and not from the morning news. If suddenly something happened, then bother to bring it to the team before anyone else and with the maximum possible amount of details.

In times of crisis, managers should be more concerned with employees who are persistently trying to reverse the situation than shareholders and investors who care only about returning their investments. Of course, this is true only in cases where management is interested in stabilizing the company's position, otherwise the company will be pulled apart and all interested parties will lose.

Communication opacity of all stakeholders

Employees, freelancers, wholesalers, customers, trade unions, suppliers, bankers, shareholders, industry and mass media - everyone should know what is happening and what can happen. Clarity and accuracy of communications where money is spinning is probably the most important component of successful recovery.

The crisis manager should work tirelessly for the sake of the business, deciding what else can be done immediately and what can wait. But paradoxically, the restoration of any company is achieved by hard work of ordinary employees, many of whom are frightened by the possible loss of earnings and their habitual way of life. In any case, the manager involved in the restoration of the company must be especially careful to avoid the mistakes of managers who have brought the company to such a deplorable state, and this can only be achieved by avoiding typical mistakes. At this point, and "Long live Caesar, going to die welcome you!"