Never Waste a Crisis

CS&A's resident expert in high-risk industries, Thomas Helmer, explains why a crisis is an opportunity to learn new habits and skills that can help build resilience within your organisation.

Around 55 million people were affected by a major power outage that struck Spain, Portugal and southern France at the end of last month. At the time of writing this article, there’s still no official explanation for why it happened. Experts indicated that the makeup of the Iberian Peninsula’s power grid likely triggered the failure that destabilised an electrical grid largely powered by wind and solar energy. The media reports it as the first major blackout of the clean energy era. This unprecedented event resulted in all-around chaos. There were disruptions to transport and traffic, cancelled flights, interruption of landline and mobile phone networks, ATMs were not operating, hospitals resorted to using backup generators, some retailers shut their stores, people were stuck in elevators and play at the Madrid Open tennis tournament was suspended. Red Eléctrica, the public company responsible for operating Spain’s transmission infrastructure, preliminarily ruled out a cyberattack, human error, or peculiar weather or atmospheric conditions as a reason behind the outage.

Whatever the reason, the outage caused a crisis of monumental proportions and has reportedly been linked to a number of fatalities. Beyond the chaos and inconvenience, the Spanish Confederation of Business Organisations (CEOE) said it caused economic damage to approximately €1.6 billion (US$1.8 billion), or about 0.1 percentage point of Spain’s GDP. El País, Spain’s daily newspaper, reported that some bank analysts expected losses ranging from €2.25 billion to €4.5 billion. Crisis seems to have become the norm since COVID-19 became part of our lexicon in 2020. The power outage in the Iberian Peninsula reminds us again that we are vulnerable. It also motivates us to do more to strengthen our crisis resilience. How can we do this?

Conflict, political instability and violence are making the world riskier than ever. With so much turmoil around the globe, it is worth considering what the Italian political philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli once wrote, “Never waste the opportunity offered by a good crisis.” Taking advantage of a crisis might seem tasteless, but in this case, it’s about using it to build resilience. The extra attention a crisis provides allows you to accomplish something you might not be able to do in normal circumstances. Whether a crisis has directly impacted your industry or another, there are lessons to learn that can help build resilience within your organisation. Here's how you can make the most of a crisis.

Spend one hour each week with your management team to reflect on crises you have heard about that may present lessons for your organisation to become even more resilient. This weekly event should have these steps:

1. Select a crisis from the last week that has a lesson for your company.

2. What actions can you define from it to check/improve your resilience?

3. Nominate someone on your team to manage, frame and implement these actions.

4. Set a deadline for completion.

5. Track the action(s) until completed.

While it is true that a crisis can happen out of the blue, many crises can be predictable and preventable. In its latest annual crisis report, published in 2024, the Institute for Crisis Management said that 50.2% of crises tracked were smouldering, in that they start as minor internal problems and gain momentum over time due to management’s inattention.

The upshot is that if risk and issue management are effective and professionally conducted, 50.2% can be detected and mitigated before they escalate and get out of control. Spain experienced several power glitches, and industry officials sounded repeated warnings about the instability of its power grid ahead of the blackout. Red Eléctrica had also warned earlier this year of the risks of excessive renewable energy while closing nuclear plants. Meanwhile, energy experts suggest that there is a risk that such an outage may happen again because Spain’s infrastructure is not currently in a position to cope with all the renewable energy produced.

While recent events are a wake-up call for reviewing current network strategies and energy infrastructures in Europe, they are also a valuable opportunity to learn and use the knowledge to refine skills and develop new habits and perspectives. This evaluation process should happen hot on the heels of a crisis because it helps to keep the momentum while everyone still remembers why it’s important.

Organisations that fail to learn from their crises, let alone those that happen elsewhere, are wasting valuable opportunities to keep on building their resilience. Lessons learned can support the prevention or mitigation of the impact of a crisis, as well as preparation to respond quickly to emerging and unexpected chaos. Resilience boosts an organisation’s ability to absorb shocks and strengthens crisis preparedness.

Don’t wait until you have your crises to improve how you handle them. The survival and recovery of your business may depend on it.

Thomas Helmer is a Senior Director with CS&A International, a consultancy specialising in risk, crisis, and business continuity management. His expertise is in high-risk industries, including oil and gas, petrochemicals, aviation, shipping, and transport. He worked with Shell for many years in a range of roles that included assessing the effectiveness of risk management, business contingency planning and continuity, crisis management, and emergency response. Thomas has also worked for Nord Stream AG and Maersk Drilling, among other industry leaders.