On April 15th (2014) BMI Alumni Association held a two-part event „Crisis management“. Speakers Kęstutis Gečas (senior partner at INK agency) and RenataBeržanskienė (partner and the head of Commercial Contracts Team at Sorainen who is also involved in dispute resolution) discussed crisis prevention and basic behaviors to be taken by executives in time of crisis. The event was attended by more than 20 BMI Alumni community members.
In the first part of the event Kęstutis Gečas discussed Maxima disaster in Riga and its chronology with key lessons had to be done. He also presented crisis defeat algorithm, pre-crisis processes and examples. K. Gečas also analyzed what the public thinks as the crisis comes and what happens in face of logic and emotions. „In the event of a crisis it is important to be careful, more suspicious, more listenand talk less. You also need to pay more attention to customers and to work intensively with the media“ - said K. Gečas continuing discussion on preparations for a crisis, such as the anticipation of a potential crisis, a group of work and crisis management creation, training and workout.
During the second part of the event Renata Beržanskienė discussed legal steps by the executives in the event of a crisis. R. Beržanskienė discussed force majeure, essential violation of the agreement, dismissal of employees, confidential information, insurance, shareholders disputes and other issues. Also actions with regulating institutions were discussed.„The first legal steps in the event of a crisis are arrival of the regulating institutions, status quo statement, evidence gathering legal means, LDD and financial audits” - said R. Beržanskienė. She also presented Cyber Security insurance which is a one of the solutions to mitigate losses from a variety of cyber incidents, including data breaches, business interruption, and network damage. She has described it as an “effective, market-driven way of increasing cyber security” because it may help reduce the number of successful cyber attacks by promoting the adoption of preventative measures; encouraging the implementation of best practices by basing premiums on an insured’s level of self-protection; and limiting the level of losses that companies face following an attack.
R. Beržanskienė as well as K. Gečas pointed out that companies need crisis prevention.
“It's great that you as company executives attend such events because it is a proof that you are smart executives who seek to protect their company and its employees from potential crises“– R. Beržanskienė concluded the presentation inviting to continue the discussion by sharing one‘s experiences.
