Crisis Management kicks in when unforeseen threats affect an organization. Whereas risk management assesses the possibilities of different risks occurring, crisis management takes place during emergencies. A crisis occurs when surprising, unfortunate events threaten an organization, leaving it with little time to respond. Examples of crises that may require management include, but are not limited to: natural disasters, technical problems, organizational misdeeds, unexpected vandalism, and malevolence. Trained professionals know how to handle a crisis before it occurs.

A good Crisis Management group knows how to plan for a potential disaster, how to address it soon after occurring, and how to help people cope with the outcomes, which could include death of loved ones. General tasks that a Crisis Management team conducts can be planning fire drills, offering counseling services, providing temporary housing / shelter and "first aid" response, and so on.

Natural disasters can be hard to predict, so Risk Management can seldom oversee the potential damage that a tsunami, a volcano, a tornado, an earthquake, or even excessive hailing can cause. Even a seasonal thunderstorm can knock out a power line, or crash through your roof, causing thousands in damage. Whether or not Risk Management took care of purchasing insurance against natural disasters, the job of Crisis Management is to allow your business or organization to carry on and conduct business with the least amount of delays.

To do so, the team must
1) identify the necessities required of running the organization,
2) plan out alternatives for operations that temporarily cannot be continued, and
3) work with the directors on restoring normal operations. It's not a bad idea to rehearse Crisis Management procedures - not only those related to a natural disaster, but all potential hazards (this is why many businesses and organizations such as schools run emergency fire drills). Other examples of natural disasters may include flash floods, tidal waves, draughts, poverty, and many more.

Technical problems arise when there's a breakdown of communication somewhere with a system. When computers (or the code that they are running) get too complicated for system administrators to handle - which may happen suddenly - a Crisis Management team intervention may be due. The Y2K bug is an example of an impending technological issue that could have affected banking, health, travel, and other industries on midnight of January 1, 2000. Organizational misdeeds are deliberate actions on behalf of managers in power that place shareholders of a company, or other people that a particular organization may affect, at unnecessary harm. Examples may include poor investment choices or deception of others. This is closely tied to malevolence Crisis Management, and can often be a result of an angry or immoral employee, including things like sexual harassment and/or assault in the workplace.

Vandalism, or "malicious destruction of property" as defined by law, can be a shop window graffitied by an unruly punk out to cause trouble in the middle of the night, or even a neighborhood house getting egged on Halloween. Just because something is a prank doesn't mean the people behind an organization will be OK with it and willingly pay restitution to get it cleaned up or fixed. Often one of the least harmful types of criminal damage to an organization, it is nonetheless illegal and may require the attention of appropriate authorities, such as the police.

Source: Tom Powell link