Crisis management, to a business, is simply how to deal with the issues that the business is currently facing or will face in the future, alternatively Venette argues that "crisis is a process of transformation where the old system can no longer be maintained."*. Although this is agreed upon by most, the area of what is considered crisis management has expanded to areas such as short term decisions as well as the unpredictable changes in the market.

A basic but effective tool in finding possible problematic areas in the businesses target niche is to use the well known S.W.O.T analysis; S.W.O.T stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.

By creating a S.W.O.T analysis the business can find gaps in the market they can penetrate and infiltrate, in order to gain a higher amount of market share, as well as see possible risk factors that could affect the business. To do this effectively a business should make sure they do a S.W.O.T analysis not only on their own business, but also on any others that could be linked. This link could be that they are competing in the same market; they have complimentary goods; or many more. Once the niches to get into are found, the business can then setup a crisis management plan for times when such a crisis occurs.

There are typically two types of crisis management styles: those that don't see their short comings and possible weaknesses in the market and those that do see it and act on it by building a crisis management plan. This is not to say however, that creating a crisis management plan is best way to go. The main thing to remember is that it can be crucial in such critical times.

In the first of the two types of crisis management styles earlier mentioned (the non planned kind) there are, as you would expect, two possible outcomes when their crisis management is tested. In the first instant the business will resist by having a strong management team who are dedicated to their job. When people are tested the best qualities are sometimes released. The second, of course, is that the company could be hit hard and crumble or make great losses.

In the second type of crisis management, the businesses will already be prepared and everyone will know their place, thus giving both structure and confidence to the business and employees.

However, in both occasions the businesses that are able to withstand whatever the crisis has been, tend to become the businesses with the biggest market share. How so? Well businesses that show strength can then market that strength, whilst the weaker are trying to recover, giving them the advantage on expansion and swaying public opinion as the recovering businesses will need to focus on restructuring the broken market links.

Source: Tom V. Powell link