3) Crisis Administrative Officer � position responsible
for the management of documentation and informa-
tion related to the response efforts conducted by the
corporate crisis management team; 4) Crisis
Communications Officer � position responsible for
the management of communications and public
relation-related information related to the crisis and
5) Crisis Liaison Officer � position responsible for
coordination of local authority relationships and
support during a crisis.
The local crisis management teams should be
developed for each business unit that is operating
in the businesses various operational regions.
These local crisis management team structures
should be supported with the same team struc-
ture as the corporate crisis management team
structure to allow for efficient communication and
response coordination in the event of a crisis.
During a crisis, the local Crisis Commander should
be able to effectively manage the response efforts
at his/her location, but should also be able to
communicate with other local Crisis Commanders
to coordinate response efforts.
In addition, the other positions should be able
to effectively communicate with their respective
corporate team members to maintain a cohesive
response process. By creating this standardized
team structure, all parties in the company respon-
sible for crisis management understand the
nature, severity and response steps being taken
manage the response.
The effectiveness of global crisis management
is dependent on the ability of the team members
to have clear and concise responsibilities before,
during and after a crisis. If a crisis occurs on a
local level, a company's crisis management goal is
to effectively respond and contain the crisis at a
local level and provide the needed support to the
local crisis management team to effectively man-
age the crisis and maintain a safe environment. In
addition, the corporate crisis management team
should be involved to ensure the company's public
image and operations are not hindered during
and after the crisis.
Step 2: standardized crisis levels
A global crisis management approach should
include a standardized manner to escalate
response efforts on a local and global basis. The
global crisis management approach should
include standardized crisis levels (Crisis Level
1�Crisis Level 5) that allow for both the local and
corporate crisis management teams to escalate
the response efforts depending on the nature and
severity of the crisis.
Each type of crisis that can occurs should be
identified and be assigned crisis levels that allow
the corporate and/or local crisis management
teams to escalate and de-escalate the response
efforts and resources. Crisis Level 1 crises are
those which only affect a single location and
don't require the assistance of the corporate crisis
management team. Crisis Level 5 crises are those
which affect multiple locations and/or could
adversely affect the company's operations or
public image.
The standardized crisis levels should also
include trigger points that escalates the crisis from
Crisis Level 1 to Crisis Level 5. Within each Crisis
Level, there should be information on how the cri-
sis will be locally managed and what corporate
resources will be utilized to assist in the response
efforts. This approach would allow a company's
global crisis management program to coordinate
response efforts and resources without affecting
company operations not affected by the crisis. In
addition, this type of scalable approach allows a
company to increase or decrease response
resources and personnel as dictated by the crisis'
location, nature and severity.
In this standardized crisis level approach, a local
crisis management team would be expected to
manage a crisis at a local level until the crisis
requires additional resources above and beyond
INTERNATIONAL FIRE PROTECTION 75
GLOBAL CRISIS MANAGEMENT
anagement
By standardizing the crisis levels, all locations in
a company's global operations would be able to
manage a crisis in a uniform manner that allows a
company to effectively manage operations and crisis
response efforts while minimizing the negative
impacts the crisis might have on operations and
the company's public image.

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