Knowledge Zone

Here you will find articles, archive blogs and case studies that PlanB have used or created over the years. To find information please type a keyword into the search box or click on the relevant tag.

We publish weekly updates from the business continuity world, covering recent news items or reflecting on our travels and experiences with clients.

Charlie addresses topics from a Business Continuity perspective and you might be surprised how much of today’s news relates to BC! Providing valuable insight, Charlie raises critical questions which will surely encourage you to reconsider your Business Continuity plans.

Guidance on Writing the First External Communication After a Cyber Incident

In today’s bulletin, Charlie provides some useful information on how organisations should approach their communication to customers after a cyber incident. The following is guidance on communicating after a cyber incident. The formats for the initial communications are likely to be a press statement and information on the organisation’s website. 1 – Decide how visible you want the

Good, but Could Be Better: Cyber Comms Lessons from Glasgow City Council’s Cyber Attack – Initial Communications

In this week’s bulletin, Charlie discusses the strengths and weaknesses of Glasgow City Council’s initial communications following a recent cyber attack, highlighting key lessons for crisis and business continuity professionals. As a business continuity professional, I rather enjoy reviewing the crisis communications from an organisation in the few days after a cyber attack. It provides valuable insights into

The Crisis Communications Iceberg

This week, Charlie looks at key considerations in your communications response to an incident, and highlights the importance of including all staff in the communication. I have been delivering some crisis training this week to a client in the South of England, and I thought I would share some thoughts from that training. Typically when we mention communications in the context of a crisis/gold/strategic

Gregg Wallace – A Case Study

In this week’s bulletin, Charlie discusses the recent Gregg Wallace scandal and gives an insight into what we can learn from the accusations. The news over the last few days, especially at the weekend, was full of what Gregg Wallace had done, not done, said, and not said. So, for this week’s bulletin, I thought I would do

When to Use Silence as a Crisis Media Strategy

In this week’s bulletin, Charlie discusses the positives and potential drawbacks of keeping silent after an incident, and looks at when we could consider silence as an effective response strategy. There are many instances when saying ‘no comment’ and not engaging with stakeholders can be seen as crassness. It can imply that you have something to hide and

A Conversation about Resilience during the Ukrainian War

Charlie Maclean-Bristol FBCI and Gianluca Riglietti CBCI discuss resilience at a time where the conflict in Ukraine dominates the global scene.  During this informal conversation, Charlie and Gianluca address arising issues from the war in Ukraine such as cyber security and supply chain disruptions, as well as discussing related topics including the power of fake news and propaganda,

Crisis Communications – Do You Have a Team?

Charlie lists his suggestions for organising your incident management to include communications roles, and what that may look like. I thought I would leave events in Ukraine to the newspapers and TV this week, and talk about crisis communications teams. Over the last six months, we have been conducting lots of exercises, cyber being one of the main

Comments on the Yorkshire Cricket Club Racism Crisis

Have you given any thought to what your company would do if they were accused of wrongdoing and suddenly in a reputational crisis? This week, Charlie discusses what business continuity professionals should take away from the Yorkshire Cricket Club scandal, and points to consider when thinking about your own company. For the past year and a half, most

Fantasy Crisis Communications – Prince Andrew

In today’s bulletin, Charlie dives into the Prince Andrew court case and the communication issues surrounding it. Discussing the importance of branding, strategy and response, not only in this case, but in all crisis management cases. My daughter, Phoebe, is rather good at knowing who’s who in rugby and in last year’s 6 Nations she organised the family’s

BrewDog Crisis Communications: Case Study Review

This week I take a look at the BrewDog crisis communications, including how well they handled accusations against them and how your company can use the lessons learnt. I am partial to a Punk IPA and some of the company’s rather gooseberry tasting beers. So I thought now that the incident is out of the news, I would

The changing face of journalism and how it should be reflected in our plans

This week I shares my thoughts on the evolution of journalism and how crisis communication plans should be adapted to keep up with the changes. I have been working on some strategic/crisis level plans and have been thinking about what should go into the crisis communication section of the plans. In quite a number of plans I have

Dealing with emotion in crisis communications – the UK results fiasco

Following the release of A-level and GCSE results in the UK, I discuss how to counter an incident which has invoked a lot of emotion. The algorithm seemed flawed This week my daughter Phoebe was one of the students anxiously awaiting her GCSE exam results. You couldn’t fail to see the government flailing around trying to produce a set

Crisis Communications – Skype to the rescue

This week Charlie looks at an article from The Times, ‘Welcome to The Skype Pandemic’, which discusses how journalists and experts tuning in to interviews from their homes is affecting our news consumption. A team of Kim, Gillian and I have been teaching the CBCI course this week and I was thinking of talking about the lessons learned

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