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1. A crucial or decisive point or situation; a turning point.
2. An unstable condition, as in political. social, or economic affiars, involving an impending abrupt or decisive change.
3. A sudden change in the course of a disease or fever, toward either improvement or deterioration.
4. An emotionally stressful event or traumatic change in a person's life.
5. A point in a story or drama when a conflict reaches its highest tension and must be resolved.*
*Source: The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, 2000, by Houghton Miflin Company.
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The Chinese word for crisis, Wei Ji, means danger and opportunity. |
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The original Greek word from which our “crisis” is derived, Κρισισ, originally meant decision, choice, event to be decided, sudden change for better or worse, turning point, and the power of judgment as the danger. |
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For a business enterprise, a crisis is any event that threatens its reputation, operations or assets. What all crisis events have in common is that they represent a crucial turning point for leadership and decision-making in an organization.
For more information, see our Crisis Management Best Practice Guides.
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We have advised our clients on, and helped them manage through, a wide variety of crisis events—including:
- Sudden changes in corporate governance
- Contests for corporate control
- CEO succession
- Management turmoil
- Financial malfeasance
- Corporate litigation and class action litigation
- Criminal investigations, indictments, and convictions of key executives
- Regulatory investigation and sanctions by SEC, FDA, US Attorney, state attorneys general, banking and insurance regulators
- Stock market activity and shareholder activism
- Hostile takeover defense, mergers, acquisitions, recapitalizations
- Accounting irregularities, changes in accounting treatment, financial restatements
- Product safety issues, product failures, and recalls
- Bankruptcy, financial restructurings
- Labor unrest
- Attack by consumer activists, gadflies, determined adversaries, and attention-seekers
- Workplace issues including allegations of racial discrimination and sexual harassment
- Natural disasters
- Special events vulnerabilities
- Terrorist attacks
- Foreign Corrupt Practices Act concerns
- Business ethics, corporate responsibility, corporate human rights, and compliance
- Intellectual property disputes
- Workplace violence and fatalities
- Advertising and marketing mis-steps and mishaps, and endorsement by controversial celebrities
- Violation of securities laws, Regulation FD
- Technology failures
- Embedded journalists and combat visibility
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What is a crisis?
