Your first statement is a decision. Make it before the crisis does.
A reputational crisis rarely gives notice. The story breaks on social media, reporters call before the facts are in, and your employees are reading the same headlines your customers are.
We help communications leaders, executives, and boards decide what to say, who says it, and when, and we build the plans, messages, and practice that make those decisions faster when it counts.
✅ Practitioners who have sat in the crisis room, not just written about it
✅ Communications tied to your crisis management process, not bolted on
✅ On-call support when the moment arrives
What we hear from the leaders who call us
“Would the passing of a CEO or any executive, for example, actually constitute a crisis?”
“Security runs their tabletop. Legal runs theirs. The real incident won’t be that polite.”
“We have two crisis teams. The responsibilities overlap. The severity levels are confusing.”
“The executives have never felt what the first 48 hours would actually feel like.”
“The board asked when the executive team last practiced a crisis. I didn’t have a good answer.”
“I don’t have enough time and hands.”
Sound familiar? Most organizations don’t fail in a crisis because they wrote a bad press release. They fail because nobody agreed in advance who decides, who speaks, and what gets said in the first hour.
Crisis communications is a crisis management problem
Crisis communications isn’t a press release. It’s a decision process with a message at the end of it.
The organizations that come through a crisis with their reputation intact do a few things well:
- They write messages before they need them. You can draft holding statements and key messages for your top 10 to 20 risks today. The first statement for an active shooter incident reads the same now as it will on the worst day.
- They tell employees first. Your people should never learn about a crisis from the news. Even 10 minutes earlier matters.
- They put the right person in front of the camera. A statement from a senior executive or line leader reads as accountability. The same words from a spokesperson can read as spin.
- They don’t go silent. Silence isn’t a strategy. If you don’t tell the story, someone with their own agenda will tell it for you.
- They connect communications to the crisis team. Communications owns the message, but legal, security, operations, and the executive team own the decisions behind it.
The clock is shorter than it used to be. A public company that determines a cybersecurity incident is material has four business days to disclose it to the SEC on Form 8-K. Customers, regulators, and reporters expect to hear from you well before that.
How we help
Our crisis communications work is built around what your team needs, before, during, and after a crisis:
- Communications advisors during a crisis, as a member or leader of your crisis management or communications team.
- On-call support and leadership when a reputational crisis hits, for a few days or for the long haul.
- Strategic reviews of your crisis communications plan and program, with a clear list of what to fix first.
- Executive consultancy on building or maturing a crisis communications program.
- Support for communications leaders, senior executives, special committees, and boards of directors when the decisions are theirs.
- Exercises for crisis leaders at every level, including the C-suite and the board, with reputational and social media scenarios.
- Partnerships with communications service providers, so you have the right specialists ready before you need them.
- Training in crisis communications, interview preparation, and media interactions.
How it works
Four steps. Each one delivers value before the next begins.
Diagnose. We review your crisis communications plan, your messaging, your monitoring, and how communications connects to your crisis management process. You get a plain-English read on what works and what doesn’t.
Design. We build or rebuild the plan with your team: roles, approval paths, escalation, pre-written messages and holding statements for your top risks, and templates for employees, customers, regulators, and the media.
Deliver. We train your communications team, your spokespeople, and your executives, then test the plan in an exercise built around your real risks, through the channels a real crisis would use.
Evolve. Every exercise ends in an After-Action Report (AAR) and a prioritized list of improvements. When a real crisis hits, we’re on call.
Their emergency planning and crisis response guidance helped us protect people, reassure regulators, and keep operations moving.
Vice President, Communications · Global QSR Chain
24×7
social and mainstream media monitoring, with daily sentiment scoring for one global financial services firm’s leaders
20
reputational themes drawn from 90+ ideas in the same engagement
60+
players in a three-day ransomware exercise for a major U.S. healthcare organization
40+
recommended actions from that exercise adopted by the client
Programs aligned to
ISO 22361 · ISO 22301 · NIST SP 800-61 · SEC cybersecurity disclosure rules
Our crisis communications work
We’ve evaluated, designed, built, and run crisis communications programs for organizations of every size, around the world. All of our case studies are anonymized.
Need help right now? Contact us and tell us what’s happening. We support clients through a crisis for a few days or for months.
- A crisis communications and reputation strategy for a leading provider of software and services to the healthcare industry: a reviewed and updated plan, training for the full marketing and communications team, and a social media simulation exercise. Read the case study.
- Reputation monitoring and rapid response for a major global financial services firm confronted with ongoing, unwarranted challenges to its reputation. Read the case study.
- A data breach incident response plan for a major healthcare technology company, built inside its enterprise crisis management process. Read the case study.
- A multi-day ransomware exercise for a major U.S. healthcare organization, to practice its updated cybersecurity incident response plan. Read the case study.
- A 24×7 intelligence center for one of the world’s iconic brands, to monitor and react in real time as events threatened its people and assets around the globe. Read the case study.
- A crisis management framework and crisis communications messaging for a regional air carrier preparing for a major aviation disaster.
- An aviation incident plan for a major financial institution’s corporate aviation program, integrated with its enterprise crisis management program, with crisis and internal communications messaging and an exercise of the plan.
- Internal and external communications to contain a growing reputational crisis in the Asia operations of a global manufacturing firm based in the midwestern United States.
See our industry experience, or our crisis management and exercise services.
Ready-made, battle-tested Crisis Communications Plans
Need plans now? Beyond our custom work, we offer ready-made, battle-tested crisis management and communications plans under our Crisis Playbook® brand.
Crisis Playbook® plans come with support from our experienced crisis management and communications team for any critical moment, from a natural disaster to a violent attack to a reputational campaign.
Free Crisis Communications Introductory Training
Our Crisis Communications 101 Intro Course is an introduction to crisis communications and reputation management.
Five lessons help you and your organization prepare for a reputational crisis. When you finish, you’ll have a strong foundation for your organization’s next critical moment.
The course is free and arrives by email over five days, one lesson each day.
Click here to learn more about our free Crisis Communications 101 Introductory Course
Frequently asked questions
We’re in a crisis right now. Can you help?
Yes. Contact us and tell us what’s happening. We provide on-call advisors and crisis leadership for a few days or for as long as the crisis runs.
Do you replace our PR agency or communications team?
No. We work alongside your communications team and any agency you already use. Our job is to connect communications to the decisions your crisis team and executives have to make, and to make sure the right specialists are ready before you need them.
Can we really write crisis messages in advance?
Yes. You can draft holding statements, key messages, and audience templates for your top 10 to 20 risks today. The facts change in a real crisis. The structure, the approvals, and most of the words don’t.
Do you offer media training for executives?
Yes. We train spokespeople, executives, and boards in interview preparation and media interactions, and we prepare communications, investor relations, and senior leaders to face the press and a questioning public.
How does crisis communications fit with cyber incident response?
Closely. A cyber incident becomes a communications problem within hours: employees, customers, regulators, and the media all need to hear from you, and a public company has four business days after it determines an incident is material to disclose it to the SEC. We build communications into your cyber incident response plan and test it in exercises.
Is there a faster, lower-cost place to start?
Yes. Crisis Playbook® offers ready-made plans with pre-written internal and external messaging, and our free Crisis Communications 101 course covers the basics in five lessons.
Recent Crisis Communications Insights
Start here: When to Call a Crisis Communications Expert, our guide to the moments when outside help pays for itself.
Get a copy of our full services & capabilities guide
We can help.
Let Bryghtpath put its crisis communications experience to work for your organization
From the plan to the first statement to the board briefing, we’ll help you say the right thing, at the right time, from the right person.