Prevention services

When planning for crises, there is a tendency by many organisations to predict and produce complex plans to deal with eventualities that most probably will never happen.

This inevitably leads to the production of plans that are reams of pages long and which need constant and conscientious updating - an activity that rarely takes place.

Crux Risk understands the nature of crisis planning and the critical requirements of effective resilience and response planning.

Working with our clients, we help compose a framework that establishes the organisation’s objectives of achieving effective security, its crisis management policy, methodology and its security process. In effect a comprehensive, bespoke company risk statement that demonstrates corporate responsibility and duty of care to stakeholders.

A resilient and pro-active organisation will have implemented plans, procedures and protocols to enable it to react to, and manage, a crisis.

However, the best laid plans become redundant if the organisation is unable to communicate critical information, immediate actions and instructions to a diverse group of crisis responders and stakeholders.

Communication is the critical choke point that is so often overlooked and which can rapidly turn into the organisation’s Achilles’ heel.

Crux Risk implements a communications system with the rapid means of alerting and enabling communication to supply critical information to pre-designated groups of individuals through a wide range of devices such as mobile and land telephones, email, SMS, facsimile, pagers and custom devices.

Crises and casualties draw increasing attention from the global news media.

A manageable crisis can escalate out of all proportion and control if those faced with presenting to the media do not understand the critical elements of good public relations.

Crux Risk has a strategic relationship with a crisis public relations team which has extensive experience in managing the media during, and in the aftermath, of a piracy or kidnap incident.

Combining the prevention and response experience of both consultancies, Crux Risk offers specialist media training courses for frontline company spokespersons to face the media in any crisis situation.

Business continuity management is a process that seeks to identify potential impacts that threaten the business and provides a framework for building resilience within the organisation and a capability for response. The benefits to the organisation through effective business continuity are brand resilience, competitive advantage, regulatory requirements and a reduction in insurance premiums.

Perversely, business continuity is a process that often fails to meet its objectives within an organisation. In the main this is due to lack of commitment by senior management. Other key reasons include the organisation’s inability to fully understand its critical outputs and dependencies, poor control of the business continuity process, out-dated, ambiguous plans and a lack of recognition that business continuity is a ‘living’ process that needs to be maintained, reviewed and exercised.

Crux Risk understands the nature of dependencies, recovery time objectives and critical actions. We further understand that complexity is an anathema to good business continuity management.

Our safe-guarding initiatives concentrate on proven, practical advice and the implementation of cost effective business continuity strategies delivered on web-based or traditional platforms.

It is now widely accepted that it is no longer a question of ‘if’ but ‘when’ an enterprise is the target of a security breach. In 2015 to 2016 the average time to detect a breach was around six months in spite of costly investment in perimeter defences that should have raised the alarm but often proved ineffective or were circumvented. It is now considered best practice to assume a state of compromise and to plan accordingly.

Organisations need to understand what they are trying to protect and why, to assess the risks and the impact of losing valuable assets, to understand the value of controls and to plan appropriate investments in security - people, process as well as technology. In order to build resilience, an organisation needs to be able to protect, detect, respond and to recover from an attempted breach.

Crux Risk works with key stakeholders to conduct an information and cyber maturity assessment to:

• Review the maturity of the organisation’s information security and risk management controls and highlight where these could be improved;
• Provide a high-level benchmark of current control maturity along with future targets, comparing this against those implemented by competitors;
• Develop a prioritised list of control improvements and initiatives.

Crux Risk also carries out a risk and impact analysis of organisations’ value/supply chains - often an overlooked, and potentially highly damaging, weak link in an organisation’s security. Crux helps assess the potential benefits of putting in place external contracts for response and forensic investigations which may save critical time in the event a breach is detected.

The benefits of building breach resilience cannot be overstated. In the event, being prepared saves time, retains customers and suppliers and demonstrates to stakeholders and investors that an organisation cares for and protects its valuable assets.

Preparation lies at the core of successful crisis and reputation handling. Reputation resilience underpins response.

Crux Risk takes a systematic approach to understanding an organisation’s reputation risk profile, its capabilities and resources, and assessing where vulnerabilities lie. We conduct a Reputation Maturity Review - a straightforward but deceptively inquisitive assessment process that provides evidence and guidance for an organisation to develop a roadmap for dealing with challenges to its reputation.

Outputs of the process highlight opportunities for improvement or deficiencies in the organisation’s ability to manage a significant reputation crisis. From that process, Crux is able to help the company develop a Maturity and Resilience Plan to build reputation capital and withstand the shocks that can cripple organisations in hours or even minutes.

Those organisations that adopt an approach to reputation risk resilience demonstrate a commitment to not only mitigating the risks associated with reputation damage but to increasing shareholder value and profitability.

Individuals working in or travelling through hostile environments need to live and work safely. Should they be faced with extreme circumstances they need to know how to react for their own safety and how best they might help and save the lives of others.

Organisations that operate in hostile environments have a duty of care to ensure those sent to work in dangerous regions of the world are adequately prepared and in extremis, capable of survival.

Crux Risk’s Hostile Environment Awareness Training (HEAT) and Hostile Environment First Aid Training (HEFAT) courses are specifically run for organisations whose personnel are crossing through, entering or working in dangerous areas of the world.

The courses are taught and run by conflict journalists and high-risk security consultants who themselves have lived and worked in complex and hostile surroundings.

No two courses are the same. Crux Risk consults closely with its clients and builds a thoroughly researched and up-to-date profile of an organisation’s specific needs and objectives. Courses are then designed specifically to meet these requirements and their areas of operation.

Crux Risk’s global network of contacts and worldwide experience enable our advisers to continue to support and advise personnel throughout their deployment and upon their return. Our services range from providing a 24-hour over-watch, crisis management and resolution, country evacuation and post-crisis aftercare including PTSD counselling.

Those individuals likely to find themselves responsible for managing a crisis situation are understandably anxious that they might not have the requisite training or experience. Given that appointments within an organisation continually change, it is unrealistic to expect individuals to become and remain experts in the management of crises.

Crux Risk’s approach to this common dilemma is to provide a process that adopts a series of procedures to follow. The process is common to any crisis; the procedures are toolboxes that are specific to the crisis in question.

Within its service-line portfolio, one of the training procedures that Crux Risk conducts is Simulated Incident (SIMINC) training.

As the name suggests, SIMINCs are designed to practice and test attendees in the management of a given crisis situation. While ‘testing’ is clearly a necessary validation of training, it can elicit a degree of anxiety amongst attendees who feel it is a ‘pass or fail’ scenario. The emphasis and assessment, however, are principally on ‘understanding’ and then ‘practice’ which in turn lead to confident, competent management.

At one end of the spectrum SIMINCs can be designed to be complex simulated incidents conducted in real time frames utilising a series of bolt-on components to add reality. At the other, local scenario, table-top exercises are conducted with small groups.

In the first instance, Crux Risk ascertains the skills and experience of the crisis team. Crux then develops, builds and conducts exercises based on the organisation’s operations, structure and objectives.

Rehearsal and familiarity in dealing with crises through incident training ensure those responsible can take critical decisions effectively and with confidence.

The movement of high value goods or confidential papers cannot always be entrusted to mass-market couriers.

Clients who want the confidence of knowing that high value assets - ranging from jewellery and fine art to valuable documents - will reach the intended recipient, use Crux Risk’s specialist resources to ensure they are delivered both securely and in person.

Every consignment is carefully planned, documented and routed by a Crux consultant to ensure safe movement, both unobtrusively and discreetly. Collection and transport are undertaken by couriers with specialist training and through our contacts can be given specialist transit insurance cover.

Where movement of goods requires specialist documentation, Crux Risk arranges this through its network of partners and contacts.