Crises – Bet the Company situations – usually don’t arise over night. The concept of crisis includes matters that are moving in negative directions and that, if not remedied, may place the company in real full blown crisis.

Optimally, the onset is noticed well before it is at disaster proportions. What ought to worry management usually does worry management. The problem is frequently one of denial. Management denial and procrastination allow most negative circumstances to become of crisis proportions.

The politics of management style in many companies is such that those who may actually see the problems believe that bringing them to the fore for immediate consideration is a position threatening choice. If your better people are looking for other positions in other companies or taking early retirement, that could be a message delivering trend. Reluctance to be the bearer of bad tidings very often permits what no one wants.

If your angels are watching over you, these issues are being brought up. Especially in the conditions of today, give negative issues immediate serious attention.

For over 45 years I have dealt with bet the company conflict and difficulties in franchising and other industries. My primary focus has been on antitrust and franchise issues, but frequently over the years other industries and other problems have arisen to be addressed within projects of which I was the senior counselor.

Within the past two years crises and their remediation have been crossing my desk more frequently. This has caused me to focus more heavily upon crisis counseling than anything else, starting with the last half of 2008.

What has most surprised me is that committee approaches within large organizations are so structured that outside the box thinking is scarce. Ours is a more direct and common sense attack on whatever the problems are, and we focus intensely upon prioritizing issues. If you can quickly find the lever upon which the most critical issues are balanced, the ability to properly prioritize is enhanced. That and the refusal to be as concerned with political correctness tend to make us highly effective.

To be sure, we sometimes aren’t telling a client what the client wants to hear, and sometimes that breaks the client relationship with us. We would rather lose you than babysit you.

Real crises require a lot of guts ball analysis and rapid addressing of what cries out for immediate attention on the merits. That’s what we do, and that’s how we do it.