Still don’t think crisis management should be a priority?
We all know that crises can create financial damage, but do you really understand how much damage? The stats below, quoted from a BusinessInsurance.com article, may surprise you:
Natural catastrophes and man-made disasters caused insured losses of $20 billion in the first half of 2013, with floods a major contributor to that total, according to a Swiss Re Ltd. report released Wednesday.
The Swiss Re sigma study found that natural catastrophes and man-made disasters caused economic losses of $56 billion and resulted in insured losses of more than $20 billion during the first six months of the year, $17 billion of the total due to catastrophes.
In the first half of 2012, natural catastrophes and man-made disasters caused insured losses of about $21 billion, Swiss Re said.
The numbers confirm what we’ve long espoused — crisis preparedness is an investment, not an expense. The above mentioned damage averages at $9.3 billion monthly. The cost of comprehensive vulnerability assessment, crisis planning and training is miniscule compared to the potential losses.
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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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[Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc., an international crisis management consultancy, author of Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management and Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training. Erik Bernstein is Social Media Manager for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]