The crisis as the new normal
For an increasing number of Belgian food companies, crises are no longer the exception, but the new normal. The days when a crisis was a clearly defined incident, are far behind us.
We are entering an era where continuous, overlapping, and interconnected crises are the new normal. Think of the growing number of cyberattacks, the impact of climate change, and ongoing economic uncertainty.
In 2025, these challenges will only become more present. Crisis management is no longer a nice to have, but a necessity.
- How can I prepare my company for a crisis?
- How should I handle a crisis, anno 2025?
- Who should I involve in this process?
While crises used to be exceptional, 2024 brought our companies a series of challenges. The Belgian food companies also had to deal with low profitability, skyrocketing energy bills, and rising raw material prices that significantly increased the pressure over the past year.
While we can be cautiously optimistic about the economy, tomorrow’s challenges are already present today. Environmental issues are surfacing more frequently, and numerous cyberattacks have caused unexpected incidents over the past year.
Consider, for example, the cyberattacks completely shutting down food companies or the floods destroying the harvests of West Flemish companies. These types of ongoing crises or permacrises will not simply disappear, and their likelihood is only increasing.
Moreover, companies are increasingly confronted with polycrises: multiple crises that strike simultaneously and amplify each other.
By investing in crisis management, you can make your organization resilient, protect your reputation, and limit damage when a crisis occurs.
Our three tips:
Prevent the crisis: invest in a crisis management culture
Effective crisis management starts with an alert team. Your employees need to recognize risks in time, accurately assess them, and report them to the right person. This crisis awareness must be present at every level of the company, from the production floor to the executive offices.
Only then your company has a genuine crisis management culture - a mindset, way of working, and approach to collaboration that makes your company agile and resilient, even during the most challenging times.
Handle the crisis: develop a practical crisis management plan
Despite the growing risks, crisis management remains a distant concern for many companies, until a crisis actually strikes. By then, it is unfortunately too late. Trying to draft a crisis management plan in the middle of chaos only leads to more panic.
A well-thought-out crisis management plan is your guide for turbulent times. It clearly states who does what and how a crisis will be handled. Not a lengthy manual filled with jargon, but a practical guide with tools that truly work: concise checklists, brief guidelines, and clear roles and responsibilities.
When everyone knows their role and how to execute it, structure emerges from chaos. This creates a team that is prepared, efficient, and confident in handling any crisis. Because tackling a crisis starts with a smart, actionable plan.
Train your employees: prepare your team for complex crises
A crisis management culture is not developed overnight. It is a continuous work in progress. To truly embed crisis management into your organization, you need to regularly train and prepare every layer of your company.
Teach your communications team how to handle the media and craft clear holding statements. Ensure that your first line employees know exactly how to report and escalate incidents properly.
Never neglect the safety of your production environment, intrusion tests can help identify vulnerabilities before they become issues.
Simulation exercises are the ultimate test. They reveal whether your crisis manual is practical and ensure that every member of the crisis team fully understands their role and tools. Only through practice can your organization become truly resilient in times of crisis.
How can we help?
Make crisis management your top priority in 2025
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❓ Questions or in need of immediate advice?
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