Crisis and emergency management
Most crisis plans fail for the same two reasons. Nobody is certain who may decide what, and the plan has never been run under time pressure. We build the structure that settles the first question, and we run the exercise that answers the second before anything is handed over.
What the work covers
Crisis and contingency planning built around named roles rather than departments, with decision thresholds written as conditions somebody can check at three in the morning. Evacuation planning that names the assembly points, the transport, the border crossing and the fallback when the first route closes. Business continuity for the operational side, meaning the site, the people and the supply route, not only the data center. Support during a live incident.
Then the exercise. The first run tends to surface the same classes of failure. The decision maker is unreachable, the deputy has no authority, or two roles are held by the same person on the same flight.
Why crisis plans fail
Missing authority is where a plan breaks most often, and authority can only be settled beforehand. So we write down who gets notified, and past that, who may decide what alone, up to what value, and what applies when that person cannot be reached.
It is an uncomfortable conversation with the board, because it fixes responsibilities that normal operations deliberately leave soft. It is also the real value of the work. A team that knows who may decide keeps working even when half the named people are unreachable. ISO 22361 puts exactly this first and treats governance and decision making as the core of a crisis management capability.
The exercise is what gets cut most often, and most of the rest follows from cutting it. It reads as optional, because the plan already exists and the exercise looks like proof of something everyone assumes. Yet it is the only part of the work that finds out whether any of it is true.
Who delivers on the ground
Structure, planning, exercise design and crisis support are ours. Physical execution, meaning the vehicles, the escorts, the aircraft and the medical leg, runs through local partners from our own vetted network.
During a live incident that split is what makes the difference. You talk to one crisis manager who already knows the plan, and the partners in several countries are working to the same standard because they were briefed to it beforehand.
Standards we work to
Questions we get asked
We have a crisis manual already.
Most clients do. The useful question is when it was last run and what broke. We are happy to start with an exercise against your existing manual and give you the findings. Sometimes the manual is fine and the gap sits in the detail, in authority, in reachability, or in a deputy who was never told.
How large should a crisis team be?
Smaller than most organizations assume, and the number is not a matter of preference. Span of control in the US Incident Command System is set at three to seven direct reports per supervisor, with five as the working figure, on the reasoning that fewer wastes capacity and more exceeds what one person can hold under load. We size crisis teams to that, so five to seven people with named deputies and one clear role each.
Above that a team stops deciding and starts meeting, and in a live incident that difference gets expensive within the hour. Where an organization wants more people involved, we split the structure into a small decision cell and a wider support group that feeds it, rather than letting fourteen people arrive at a view.
Can you support us during an incident?
Yes, and it is a different engagement from planning. During an incident we work as your crisis manager or alongside your crisis team, with the local partners already briefed. That works far better when the plan came from the same place. Retrofitting a crisis manager into an unfamiliar structure costs time you will not have when it counts.
Can we get certified to ISO 22361?
No, and that is not a shortcoming. ISO 22361 is guidance, not a requirements standard, so there is nothing to certify against. ISO 22301 for business continuity is certifiable. Where you need to show something to a client, an insurer or a regulator, a crisis plan with a documented exercise behind it carries more weight in practice than either certificate.
How often should a plan be exercised?
At least annually as a walkthrough, and after any change to the people in the named roles. Role changes invalidate a crisis plan faster than any change in the country does.
Every exercise is documented before and after, with a briefing, a debriefing and a list of what did not work. That list is the actual output. It goes into the next version of the plan and into the next exercise. What accumulates over the years is a traceable line of improvement.
Other capabilities
Travel risk management and duty of care
Travel risk programs built to ISO 31030, thresholds through escalation.
Learn moreMedical support and rescue planning
Medical concepts, staffing plans and the full MEDEVAC chain.
Learn moreClose protection and executive protection
Protective concepts, advance work and command, low profile by design.
Learn moreRisk and threat assessment
Country and site analysis, surveys and audits that end in decisions.
Learn moreTalk it through first
Every engagement starts with a confidential conversation, and it is free. Describe the operation and the concern. We will tell you whether this is the right capability, another one, or nothing at all.
enquiries@foxpedition.com