How can you identify a business crisis before it happens?

Continuous stakeholder engagement is one of the catalysts to identify potential threats. Others will be the auditing of processes, robust risk assessments and the testing of the system. No person is an island within an organisation. I have realised that the more one integrates and understands the rest of the business and vice versa. It makes it much easier to identify any threat/crisis. That will make the crisis management meeting/simulation that more effective and the use of "real" scenarios.

In my experience it has been critical to utilize tools to monitor the activity of your application. Some of the tools that have been really helpful include New Relic, Monitis, and many more. My personal experience with both tools was very positive and they not only helped me identify threats, but also opportunities to optimize the code for better performance and scalability.

There are many tips to ensure that you are assessing risks properly, but my first advice would be to hire an expert "hacker" to perform a thorough review of your code base so they can assess how vulnerable your application is to attacks. It is very customary for many developers to store confidential information in files that can be easily accessed by hackers, information such as authentication keys to third party API services or connection strings to your database. Yes it sounds like basic 101 in the todo list to follow best practices, but many times, these details are overlooked and can cause drastic issues for your applications. Enforcement of best practices is key to the success of your business and avoid irreparable disasters.

First and foremost, security is the most important factor to ensure the success of your organization. In order to do so, you must encourage and foster a culture of continuously learning and training. Your teams in all departments must be aware of the best practices to deliver the service you are offering. It is imperative to have full awareness of the consequences that not following these best practices would bring to the organization. In the worst case scenario it could be the differentiator of having your business grow or be a complete failure. Train your staff and promote continuous learning of the latest trends that pertain to your business's goals.

Communicating company values is crucial for several reasons, as it helps shape the organizational culture, guides decision-making, and establishes a strong and positive brand image. It is an integral milestone for building a positive organizational culture, fostering employee engagement, shaping brand identity, and establishing trust with stakeholders. It serves as a guiding force that influences both internal and external perceptions of the organization.

There are many instances where the existence of the conditions that could create a business crisis have been evident without action being taken. Wilful blindness, recklessness, flawed reporting & monitoring processes often compromise the value of audits, monitoring systems & training. In this instance the courage to challenge is the only "treatment" available when an organisation is intentionally or unintentionally blindsided to developing exposures. It requires a strong audit committee or risk function to provide this challenge and for processes & protocols to be transcended by the strength of individuals who are prepared to deliver bad news.