In 2022, the Collins English Dictionary declared its ‘word of the year’ to be permacrisis, defined as “an extended period of insecurity and instability”. Four years on, not only have we not emerged from the permacrisis, but it feels like things have got even worse.
What comes after a permacrisis? A megacrisis? A polycatastrophe?
For organisations, the possibility of occasional disruption has now been replaced by a relentless cycle of threats – reputational, operational, societal – that could come knocking on the door at any moment and escalate into a full-blown crisis in a matter of hours.
Given the state of the world in 2026, the volcano is not going to stop erupting any time soon. Crisis is the new normal and brands must pay attention like never before.
Crisis is unavoidable – prepare for it
In less turbulent times, crisis management was more of a response than a strategy. When an issue became a live threat or a looming crisis, companies reacted to try and prevent things escalating further. Once business operations went back to normal, the crisis was deemed to be over and the organisation either was or wasn’t able to restore their reputation.
Even organisations that did have a crisis management plan saw it more as an insurance policy; good to know it’s there but we probably (hopefully) won’t need it. Maybe a crisis playbook or manual stashed away in a folder somewhere.
Today, crisis management planning has become a critical business function. There are simply too many potential threats out there for organisations to not have a crisis management plan they can deploy: cyber attacks, data theft, AI misinformation, supply chain disruption, ESG scrutiny, employee unrest, consumer outrage, to name a few.
When these events occur, they usually start slowly – say a negative customer video on TikTok – but escalate fast. The classic crisis lifecycle plays out through issue detection (e.g. online activism), crisis (media scrutiny, regulatory intervention), response (crisis communications plan) and finally recovery – or not.
As countless organisations have discovered, the ones that manage to make it to recovery stage are not necessarily the ones that avoid getting themselves into trouble – it’s the ones who are prepared that have the best chance of survival.
A robust crisis management strategy and crisis communications plan (although the two overlap and dovetail, they are separate strategies) usually starts with effective issues management. Essentially, this means scanning the horizon for potential threats. There are a number of models or approaches but the types of potential issue that must be monitored include:
- Political
- Economic
- Social
- Technological
- Environmental
- Legal
Within these six categories (the PESTEL model), organisations draw up a range of specific situations that could emerge, then plan their response, usually in tandem with the comms and leadership teams. The company then keeps eyes on all those threats – often by appointing internal ‘crisis champions’ – for signs of possible escalation.
By continuously scanning for potential threats, monitoring stakeholder sentiment, simulating and stress-testing organisational vulnerabilities and – crucially – ensuring crisis preparedness is a live business topic, organisations can anticipate trouble and either prevent it from happening or put out the fire quickly.
How to do it – and how not to
Last year, American Airlines was widely praised for its response to a fatal midair collision near Washington DC. Immediately after the crash, the airline showed empathy and compassion to victims – personified by CEO Robert Isom’s early video message – while avoiding speculation about the cause of the incident.
As the investigation continued, the airline maintained consistent messaging across all channels while operational teams continued responding behind the scenes. Although the incident could have seriously damaged the brand, by having a plan in place. the airline did not suffer major reputational damage.
In contrast, EV behemoth Tesla has been repeatedly criticised for the way it has handled safety concerns regarding autonomous driving technology. The company has come across as defensive, dismissive, arrogant and uninterested in reassuring stakeholders. To put it another way, it seems like they don’t care.
For brands that do care about maintaining trust with stakeholders and protecting their reputation – often hard earned over many years – preparation is the best way to ensure you are able to withstand a potential crisis.
Over the coming months, we’ll look in more detail at how organisations can put in place a strategy to anticipate threats, react to escalating issues, get ahead of crises and minimise long term brand damage. We’ll also look at how brands can turn PR crisis into opportunity.
In the meantime, does your organisation have a crisis management strategy? If the answer to that is yes, when’s the last time it was discussed? And if the answer’s no, it might be time to protect your brand from a permacrisis that looks like it might actually be permanent after all.
About the author
David Powell is a copywriter and content specialist with Cullen Communications
