Crisis Playbook

Crises don’t need to cause severe reputation harm.

Amid all the geopolitical uncertainty and social unrest today, people generally understand that we all make mistakes that aren’t based in malice. They are amazingly forgiving. They love a comeback story. They just need you to take the first step on day one of the crisis.

Organizations that delay, deflect and disinform key audiences will pay for it in the end. Even for companies that are authentically caring, news travels so fast that they must be ready for rapid response action within 15 minutes. Poor planning sends the best of intentions down in flames. And trust — the only currency that truly matters in business — goes right down with it.

Leaders attribute two-thirds of their organization’s value to their reputation.

But only 1-in-3 have a crisis plan in place.

Know what to do before the pressure hits.

A crisis does not wait for an organization to get organized.

When news breaks, leaders are forced to make fast decisions with incomplete facts, limited time, competing advice, and intense scrutiny. The organizations that respond best are rarely improvising. They already know who is in the room, who has authority, what needs to be assessed, how decisions will be made, and how communications will move from facts to action.

Chase Global develops the Crisis Playbook for companies, executives, boards, institutions, and leadership teams that need a clear, practical framework for managing high-stakes communications before a crisis arrives.

A strong playbook does not predict every possible event. It prepares leadership to respond with discipline when the unexpected happens.

A practical operating guide for reputation risk.

No matter the industry or the business model or the honesty of the executives, the odds of a scandal hitting your organization move to 100% over time. There is likely nothing a business leader can do that will have a better ROI than a Crisis Playbook. Mitigating risk is simply a no-brainer.

Many crisis plans are too long, too generic, or too disconnected from how leaders actually make decisions under pressure. They sit in a folder, get outdated, and offer little help when the organization needs to act.

The Crisis Playbook by Chase Global is built to be used.

It gives leadership a clear communications operating system for the first hours, first day, and first week of a serious issue. It defines roles, escalation paths, decision points, stakeholder priorities, message principles, approval processes, and response options. It also helps the organization identify where legal, operational, human, reputational, and business considerations intersect.

The goal is not to create a binder. The goal is to reduce confusion, sharpen judgment, and help leaders communicate with credibility when the stakes are high.

And contrary to what you may hear elsewhere, the Crisis Playbook isn’t a panacea. There are always surprises, so any crisis management firm that tells you their playbooks have “everything you need” — it’s a lie. What you do get with Chase Global is full assurance that you’ll be ready for anything.

What the Crisis Playbook can address.

Every organization has different vulnerabilities, audiences, and operating realities. Chase Global develops playbooks around the issues most likely to create reputational, legal, operational, or leadership pressure.

A Crisis Playbook may address:

• Leadership misconduct or sudden executive departures

• Litigation, investigations, or regulatory scrutiny

• Data incidents, cyber events, or privacy concerns

• Workplace allegations or employee unrest

• Layoffs, restructuring, or major organizational change

• Product, service, or operational failures

• Public criticism, activist pressure, or social media escalation

• Media scrutiny or investigative reporting

• Safety issues or physical incidents

• Customer, investor, partner, or community backlash

• Misinformation, rumors, or hostile narratives

• Board, founder, or succession issues

• High-profile personnel matters

• Reputation threats tied to political, cultural, or social issues

The playbook can be broad enough to guide multiple scenarios or narrow enough to prepare for a specific known risk.

What the playbook includes.

Chase Global tailors each playbook to the organization’s structure, leadership style, risk profile, and communications needs. The work is designed to be practical, usable, and confidential.

A typical crisis playbook may include:

• Decision-making structure and response roles

• Communications command center model

• First-hour and first-day response steps

• Stakeholder mapping and audience prioritization

• Internal communications guidance

• Media response protocols

• Holding statement frameworks

• Message development principles

• Approval workflows

• Legal and communications coordination

• Spokesperson guidance

• Social media monitoring and response approach

• Employee, customer, investor, partner, and board communications considerations

• Scenario-specific response guidance

• Common pitfalls and reputational risks

• Post-crisis review and reputation recovery steps

The result is a working document leaders can understand, use, and update.

Built for the people who will actually use it.

A crisis playbook should not be written only for communications teams. It should help the people who will make the hardest decisions: CEOs, founders, boards, legal counsel, HR leaders, operations leaders, investor relations, security teams, and senior communications staff.

Chase Global builds playbooks with leadership realities in mind. That means clear language, defined responsibilities, fast decision paths, and practical guidance for moments when pressure is high and time is short.

The work can also include facilitated discussion, scenario testing, tabletop exercises, executive briefings, or training sessions to ensure the playbook is understood before it is needed.

Why preparation changes outcomes.

A weak crisis response often starts before the crisis itself. The organization has no clear escalation process. Leaders disagree about who has authority. Legal and communications teams operate on different timelines. Employees hear rumors before they hear from leadership. External statements sound defensive, vague, or overly polished. Stakeholders do not know where to turn for information.

A Crisis Playbook helps prevent those failures.

It gives leaders a shared framework, reduces delay, and creates a disciplined path from assessment to response. It also helps the organization avoid the most common mistake in crisis communications: saying too much, too little, too late, or too vaguely.

Build the ark before the storm.

The best crisis playbooks are developed when leaders still have time to think clearly. They can be stress-tested, refined, and adapted before the organization is under public pressure.

But the value becomes clearest when an issue breaks.

In that moment, the playbook becomes a stabilizing tool. It helps leadership identify what matters, who needs to be involved, what audiences need to hear, what facts must be confirmed, what risks must be considered, and what messages should guide the response.

It cannot remove uncertainty. It can prevent chaos. It can deliver more ROI than nearly any other single service an organization uses. Easier to pay for proper preventative measure than to fix a broken reputation.

What Chase Global brings to the table.

Chase Global brings senior reputation counsel, crisis communications experience, and executive-level judgment to the development of Crisis Playbooks. The work is not theoretical. It is built around the kinds of real-world pressures that can damage trust, distract leadership, and define an organization’s public narrative.

The playbook is developed with candor and discretion. It focuses on the decisions leaders will actually face, the audiences they cannot ignore, and the messages they may need to deliver when confidence is hardest to maintain.

For organizations that cannot afford to improvise.

Every organization is vulnerable to moments of scrutiny. The difference is whether leaders are prepared to respond with clarity or forced to build the process while the crisis is already unfolding.

A Crisis Playbook gives leadership a stronger starting point.

It helps organizations move faster, communicate better, and make decisions with greater discipline when reputation, trust, and business continuity are on the line.

The First and Last Call for crisis readiness.

When the next serious issue arrives, the organization should not be deciding for the first time how to respond. Chase Global helps companies, executives, boards, and institutions build a Crisis Playbook that turns uncertainty into a clearer path of action.

Chase Global is always on call, so you stay in control.