MATCH FIT - a new crisis communications model for a new era

2020 has changed the rules of crisis communications and reputation forever. Corporate communication and behaviour are now under the microscope of public scrutiny like never before.

Are your crisis communications MATCH FIT for this brave new world?

Our MATCH FIT crisis simulation and crisis maturity assessment, created with renowned crisis expert Rod Cartwright, will stress-test your crisis processes, your reputational resilience and the human preparedness of your teams under live-fire conditions.

For many, the late 2010s felt complex and confusing. As 2020 arrived, we popped corks to herald a new year that might mark something of a return to normal. As we now know, 2019 was just the end of the beginning.

Despite all the memes, 2020 isn’t cancelled – quite the opposite in fact. It’s like 2019 on steroids. Six months on, the world has changed – fundamentally – and the concept of control is more of a myth than ever. Are you really Match Fit for what is to come?

Is your brand Match Fit?

New era, new rules

The global pandemic hasn’t simply upended the lives of every person on the planet. It has turned on its head a range of assumptions about how the world works and ripped up many of the accepted rules of business life.

We assumed that ‘work-life balance’ meant life in the office with the occasional home-working day. Not any more!

We took it for granted that globalisation – though under pressure – remained the norm. Are we still so sure?

We talked of digital transformation and e-commerce. We’d barely scratched the surface.

We still viewed true wellbeing as a nice-to-have – aided by free office yoga and the odd duvet day. Our people will certainly tell us different now.

We took it as read that our key workers and caregivers would silently work and care with scant reward or recognition. No longer.

We hoped that our sustainability report would help save the planet. The world expects far more.

And we presumed that meeting a gender quota or that colour-blind CV process made us diverse and inclusive. George Floyd has told us to think again.

Have you stress-tested the assumptions driving your behaviour and communication?

The expectation tsunami

For all its tragic force and heart-breaking human cost, COVID-19 has been a catalyst and accelerant for so much of what went before.

People – including your people, communities and investors – now anticipate and expect more. Diversity not domination. Life balance not just bank balance. Communities not commodities. Transparency not trickery. Wellbeing not welfare. Cleaner skies not climate deniers. All at the same time.

For all the fear, anxiety and trepidation that will accompany recession, austerity and unemployment, they will make their voices heard ever more loudly.

Are you prepared for this moving wall of expectation?

At the crossroads, YOU decide

Amid these sky-high expectations, deciding which paths to take at the current crossroads carries real reputational risks.

Barclays and ExxonMobil are just two giants facing major investor pressure over climate change action;

FE Fundinfo research has found that 82 per cent of investment advisers thought the demand for ESG options would increase over the next 12 months. The same number already include ESG options in their proposition or plan to do so;

Research by Proxy Insight saw 68.3 per cent of 87 major investors – managing £6trillion of assets – backing pay cuts for executives;

Fund management behemoth, Aviva Investors is urging boards to cut executive pay before making large-scale redundancies.

But those choices also hold boundless opportunities for those willing to prepare for the new rules and to build back better. To be race ready. To be on the right side of the new history when the wave of expectation breaks. How confident are you that you’re set up to succeed not suffer?

It’s time to get MATCH FIT

As you emerge from the initial upheaval of COVID-19, don’t risk being ring rusty when the rules have already changed. We have created the MATCH FIT SIMULATION to help test your human preparedness and organisational resilience.

To stress-test your resilience, your teams and your processes, we will hit you with a range of potential reputational issues driven by the new expectations of business behaviours post-COVID. Simultaneously, we will benchmark where you are on your journey with a Crisis Maturity Assessment, based on our crisis maturity modelling tool. Your MATCH FIT simulation can kick off your crisis preparedness journey or mark its culmination.

No actor would take to the stage without repeated rehearsals and no athlete would run onto the pitch without being MATCH FIT. Why would you? Now’s your chance to reap the rewards of preparation, not run the risks of inaction. Take it and make sure your crisis preparedness is MATCH FIT.

Make sure your crisis preparedness is MATCH FIT

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