I have had to contend with lots of crises in my 25 years as a CEO. Most of them I didn’t see coming. Here are the major ones.
· In the aftermath of 9/11, no one knew what the impact would be on sales, supply chains, and most of all, employee morale. People were pretty scared then. And we had a significant Muslim population in our workforce at the time, giving rise to concerns that they would be singled out by other employees.
· The “Great Recession” of 2008. While I could see a recession coming, I had no idea how deep and long it would be.
· The industrial recession of 2016. That one came right out of the blue but caused a significant and sharp drop in sales.
· The mother of all crises, the pandemic of 2020.
These were only the major ones. In between, I had many mini crises to deal with such as unpredictable competitor moves, surprising adverse government regulations, and the sudden loss of key people.
Through all of these, I learned from experience six things you should never do in a crisis……