Taking a human-centred approach to risk
Modern-day crisis management isn’t exclusively about mitigating risk and communicating promptly with stakeholders. It’s also about acknowledging that the impact of unforeseen circumstances can reverberate beyond business-as-usual to take a serious human toll.
At PwC, we understand that any remediation process or attempt to build risk resilience must address the emotional damage a crisis can wreak on a company, alongside issues around logistics and reputation. For a major waste-management company that was asked to ground its fleet of trucks in the wake of a catastrophic accident, PwC empowered an empathetic and emotionally intelligent approach to leadership while drawing on our deep knowledge of forensic risk and safety systems and our globally renowned crisis methodology.
By working in tandem with the regulator as well as the organisation, we pooled collective strengths to create a meaningful system for the risk response process. Our joint effort sent a consistent message to employees and board members and imbued stakeholders with confidence.
This clear-eyed series of actions enabled a calm and methodical process that saw trucks return to the road and quickly identified and managed potential issues and bottlenecks. This set the stage for a risk outlook that prioritised people over profits. It also helped the business bounce back from crisis stronger, equipped with tools to tackle challenges in the future.