Imagine being on your last legs. You have an incurable disease. How would you feel? This is a time when it is all over and you have to face the reality. It’s pretty scary!
Putting yourself in moments of crisis is an important skill for crisis management. Of course, the example above is perhaps the ultimate test to measure where you are in life. God forbid such a challenging situation. We also have to consider what could be in order to prepare for future outcome. This can be used to facilitate strategic business decisions that can impact results.
Crisis management is a strategic approach that organizations use to identify and respond to critical events that could negatively impact their people, property, or business processes. The goal of crisis management is to minimize damage to the business and its stakeholders while maintaining business continuity.
When you are put in a situation you have to deal with it. Acceptance or rejection have to be sought. If you have no control over it, then denial would be in vain. If it is difficult to resolve it doesn’t mean give in, but rather try and try again using everything you have got to overcome the situation. Here is an example:
An import company decides to bring a product from abroad. They make an import of 5,000 items which are sold. Sales went well, so they bring another 5,000. Again, they find new customers. In the meantime, they have not managed any replacement business.
They bring another 5,000 and the expansion of customers increases. Now they have realize there are hardly any repeat sales. This process continues until they have distributed to wholesalers and retailers 30,000 items.
Once the range of potential customers wanes to an end, they were reliant on repeat business. It daunted on them that registered clients were losing interest in their product due to lack of end user consumption.
They tried contracting promotional staff and placing them in strategic sales points, but return on investment (ROI) was minimal. Advertising was expensive and again there wasn’t the required returns. Trying every trick in the book wasn’t sufficient to save the firm.
Imagine being in a similar tight spot. What would you do? Obviously, every situation is different, and needs to be strategically thought about to enact on possible solutions. Moreover, once you’ve tried many and failed what decision must you make?
Incidentally, how would you deal with a terrible situation mentioned in the first paragraph in one word?
Take care!
Prof. Carl Boniface
Vocabulary builder:
On your last legs (idiom) = someone is extremely tired or close to death. For example, "We'd been out walking all day and I was on my last legs when we reached the hotel."
Forbid (v) = prohibit, ban, prevent, outlaw, stop, hinder, inhibit, (ant) allow
In order (adj) = acceptable, appropriate, correct, OK, permissible, permitted, satisfactory, adequate, all right
Denial (n) = rejection, disowning, repudiation, disavowal, renunciation
Wholesalers (n) = the middle firm (warehouse) that distributes to retailers whilst nowadays we are seeing more wholesale / retailers selling directly to members or associated clients / customers cutting out the middle man.
Wanes (n) = diminishes, decreases, declines, fades, disappears, vanishes
Every trick in the book (idiom) = to do everything one can to achieve something. They'll use every trick in the book to get you to buy their products. He tried every trick in the book to get the car started, but nothing worked.
Tight spot (n) = difficult position, tight corner, tricky situation, predicament, quandary, fix
Enact (v) = 1. make (a bill or other proposal) law. "Legislation was enacted in 1987 to attract international companies." 2. act out (a role or play) on stage. In the text usage it means to play out possible scenarios of possible solution i.e., act out on resolving the issue (tight spot).
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