Valentina Drofa, Founder and CEO at the PR firm for eminent finance and fintech brands Drofa Comms.
Crisis situations have always been part of the business landscape, but in today’s world, unexpected disruptions—the so-called “Black Swan” events—are becoming more frequent and unpredictable. Yet, most companies remain unprepared to handle them, particularly when it comes to communications and rapid response.
Having worked in financial markets for many years, I’ve seen this pattern time and time again. Regardless of whether they’re large or small, many companies operate under the assumption that “it won’t happen to us.”
And when something does go wrong, they scramble, wasting precious time while misinformation spreads, potentially damaging their credibility and reputation. The financial sector, where trust is the foundation of business, is especially vulnerable to these failures.
Why Are Companies Unprepared?
The truth is, when it comes to crisis management, quite a few problems stem from mindset. As I mentioned, many businesses hold on to the belief that they will somehow be exempt from worst-case scenarios. Even well-established firms tend to exhibit a “hope for the best” approach rather than preparing for the worst.
In practice, this means they generally have no established crisis protocols for handling unexpected events, whether it’s a PR disaster, a regulatory issue or a financial scandal. In a force majeure event, getting ahead of the damage curve is crucial, but that’s nearly impossible when you don’t have pre-prepared response strategies or a dedicated team ready to act immediately. The lack of structure and groundwork inevitably bleeds over into your communications, showing internal confusion rather than a message of confidence that your audience needs to hear to feel reassured.
At the same time, delays in responding or complete silence gives the space for rumors and speculation to spiral out of control, eating away at customer trust and damaging reputations. This is particularly true for the financial sector—when their money is involved, uncertainty is not something most people take lightly. If a company stays silent through the whole thing, even if the situation gets resolved safely, chances are high that many clients will consider switching to someone else.
There is also one other issue to consider. Namely, the fact that the more conventional, old-school crisis management playbooks were designed with more predictable challenges in mind. But today’s world is moving too fast, and outdated strategies can’t keep up. By the time a company issues a carefully worded statement, social media may have already gone crazy with speculation. “Bad news has wings,” as the saying goes.
As such, speed is of paramount importance. Delayed responses breed uncertainty, while people rush to come up with any and every possible theory to fill in the knowledge gap. Even a minor issue can escalate into a major reputational disaster if it’s not handled promptly and transparently.
How Businesses Can Prepare For Crises
In order to act swiftly when the time comes, companies must make certain to prepare in advance. This means developing proactive crisis management strategies and building response teams well before they have a need for them.
Something I always advise our clients is to take due time to identify all potential risks they can think of and come up with step-by-step responses. These plans should be regularly reviewed and updated to ensure they remain valid and relevant.
Assemble a group of experts, both internal and external, that can act at a moment’s notice. Make sure that team members can cover all aspects of crisis responses—PR, legal, compliance, operations and so on—and that they all understand their roles and responsibilities. They need to be prepared to issue official statements from the company quickly when a situation arises, ensuring information is factual and coordinated across all channels.
Finally, if you are relying on the services of an external PR agency to communicate with your audience, make sure that agency is fully prepared to work with you through crisis situations. They should have strong media relationships already developed, as well as clear processes on how to move quickly and efficiently to spread the right information. Keep in mind: It is important that the agency is treated as an extension of your own crisis response team. They need to be among the first to be informed when something goes wrong to help you manage the narrative from the beginning.
Also, when a crisis hits, having an open line of access to journalists is invaluable. It gives you the opportunity to ensure that your company is the primary source of updates before other parties start coming up with false theories and spreading misinformation.
Lessons To Take To Heart
To reiterate, failing to properly manage a crisis can make all the difference between survival and downfall, especially in financial markets. I’ve seen plenty of cases where companies failed to act in time, which resulted in rumors dominating the media landscape. By the time they attempted damage control, an unfavorable perception of them had already solidified, making recovery that much harder.
It is important to acknowledge that such situations are inevitable. The real question isn’t “if” a company will face a crisis, but “when.” Businesses that treat crisis management as an afterthought are gambling with their reputations and long-term stability.
In today’s digital age, information, true or false, spreads very quickly, and being transparent in a challenging situation can make or break a company. Being unprepared is no longer an option. Firms must be proactive in their crisis management strategies and plan ahead, or they will find themselves victims of someone else’s narrative. Companies that make the effort have a better chance of building resilient trust that lasts.
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