Our System Is Down — Long Live Our System!?
On Friday morning, an update from the CrowdStrike antivirus system almost entirely crippled Microsoft-based IT systems in Hungary and around the world. Planes were unable to take off, television stations could not broadcast, and outages and chaos emerged everywhere. It is too early to judge how different companies are handling the situation, as it is still unfolding. But one question immediately arises.
How can we prepare for such a situation in communication?
Many assume that disaster-style events like this reveal the risks of having a crisis communication system, or “strategy,” arguing that a rigid structure limits quick reactions. After all — who could have predicted this?
As we often say during media trainings: the opposite is true. It is like a pilot insisting they do not need training, manuals or checklists because these only slow them down when reacting “instinctively” in an emergency. It is safe to say that such a pilot would not fill passengers with confidence.
At FleishmanHillard Café, we believe that no one can prepare for every crisis in advance — reality always surpasses even the wildest imagination. Who would have predicted a global virus like COVID before 2020? Instead, a flexible crisis communication system that provides a strong framework is what enables an organisation to handle even the most unexpected situations.
A crisis of this magnitude shows how much of an advantage a company has when it already has a well-developed and continuously updated system that helps it detect, manage and monitor a crisis.
Such companies already have escalation chains in place, pre-defined stakeholder lists, essential checklists for understanding the situation and even holding-statement templates. Where this groundwork has not been done, the morning began with stressful searching for names, numbers and contact lists.
And during the scramble, there is a high risk that someone or something gets overlooked — a decision-maker is unreachable, a responsibility is unclear, or the reaction arrives too late. Important considerations may be missed, whether concerning consumers or government authorities. This is how legendary corporate mistakes occur.
Anyone who has ever handled a crisis knows that by nature it is a stressful, urgent and emotionally charged situation — one in which people do not always make their best decisions when relying solely on instinct.
In contrast, if detection and internal alignment happen quickly, within a clear framework, leaders and communication professionals have more time to respond and understand the situation.
And later, they are less likely to forget to follow up — adapting messages and solutions as the situation evolves.
System = Protection?
Does having a crisis system mean we can put it on the shelf, lean back and declare ourselves prepared? No. Again, quite the opposite. Just as pilots continuously train in simulators so that they know exactly what to do when a real emergency strikes, corporate leaders must also refresh their training at least annually. They must test themselves and their systems to ensure that what works in theory also works in practice — or refine protocols and checklists where needed. That way, when an overwhelming crisis strikes, as it did now, they have something to rely on.
If all of this is in place — and there is a well-coordinated team that knows exactly what to do — an organisation stands a much better chance of successfully managing a crisis involving even a complete system outage, while minimising reputational or customer-loss risks.
The coming hours and days will reveal how successfully individual companies are able to manage this situation, and how prepared and deliberate their crisis systems are. Early reactions suggest that many organisations were indeed preparing for IT-related crises.
This article also appeared earlier on Kreatív.hu.
