Beata Leyland
Business Owner & Author of this article
The reason why so many fear a crisis is because it’s a very honest reality check which many times is very difficult for us to face.
Intrigued ?
Crisis Management is one of these situations and skills which all of us will face in our life.
It’s not the most pleasurable one, however essential to learn, grow and create better plans.
The world changes, and so do we and our businesses and clients, so necessary adjustments are needed to keep up with our product and services.
During this process of adapting, we all face truly difficult moments but here I would like to focus on longer crisis management, not an hour a week, or every second week.
A root cause of crisis can come from external sources like war, famine, market crash, global pandemic, unpredictable government laws which can ruin you from one day to another.
The most common internal sources will be, neglecting small problems, putting them under carpet until point where everything comes up (usually at once), neglecting risk management and safety.
During the last decade we have faced a combination of both external and internal sources rather frequently which has made us no strangers to crisis management.
So many businesses went under or reconstructed during COVID and so many people changed career paths, and new businesses opened.
As I write this article, we can see the world order changing as a big shareholder of the global economy, the U.S., struggles with internal and external polices which cause tension and is sending investors and business partners searching for business opportunities in more calm environments.
The rise of AI will reshape the landscape of business and perception of employment. Social media, technology addiction, younger generation that has chronic problems with staying focused will impact us all.
If we think about it as a big picture, we are all in it.
We are all experts in our own way with crisis management.
I am not here to scare anybody, rather to encourage acknowledgement of problems which we have and face them.
Acknowledging will be my first point as without admitting that the problem exists, it is hard to create any plan to fix it.
Once we take the first step, we can have time to think what we can do about it.
Let’s take an extreme example: war.
If you think about for instance Ukraine, yes many of their businesses went under, many people became refugees, and thr country is clearly struggling yet you have country which uses brain power to the max, incl. new technologies to create awareness, organising help, and is becoming a military development superpower
( I do recommend reading my interview with MD Maksym Pozhydaiev on our website to learn more).
So, let’s be like Ukraine and choose the brightest minds in the company from different sectors to understand what to do about the biggest problem which the company faces now.
A brainstorming meeting should bring us to conclusions and steps what we should do.
Don’t be afraid to express the wildest thoughts as a crisis is the time when many of them are more adaptable than ever to implement.
What is worth to highlight is that stress and creativity can be really close friends if we don’t allow scarcity and anxiety being too loud.
What if the plan is not the best?
There are no perfect plans; here trial and error will be simply quicker to define what would work and what not so agility and adaptability are crucial.
Document what works and what doesn’t and keep trying.
This article will not be useful without a few real-life examples:
1 You are a small business owner and tariffs ruin your business.
You can’t buy your products in the same quantity and quality and at the same time your clients are getting poorer.
This is an unfortunate, yet very visible example in the U.S . 2025 & 2026.
This what I see the most is race to the bottom which kills businesses even faster. Freelancer Portals are swept with low ball offers regarding sourcing for manufacturers and custom brokers tripled their pricing.
This is a clear reaction driven by scarcity.
What could be done about it instead?
Well, maybe changing your clients gradually?
Modify your product?
Actually, calculate rate of the tariffs instead of spending money chaotically for advisory from a tax broker where in the end Customs and Border Protection will define the end price as they allow /scan goods through the U.S. border.
Another popular move during this time is a wave of very amateur, poorly executed, and desperate marketing campaigns which many companies did.
The problem was that they didn’t acknowledge that the problem exists (tariffs and impact on small businesses), they simply used old methods with an extremely poor outcome.
2 Another brilliant example of crisis management was COVID-19.
There were closed borders and issues with supply chain across the whole world.
Companies which had diversification of portfolio among their manufacturers were just fine;the ones which put all their eggs to one basket truly struggled.
Covid was an excellent time for the audit of ports, containers, and procedures.
It exposed that working online can work in some circumstances and exposed how many people are miserable at their work.
After COVID, we could see people globally started freelancing, opening new businesses, and changing their career path.
The reason why so many fear a crisis is because it’s a very honest reality check which many times is very difficult for us to face.
From another hand, it can be a time for creativity, auditing, reconstructing, and building anew; all is in our own perception.
Although I wish all events which I’ve described were far long time ago the truth is that they are rather recent events and all of us are students of it.
All of them expose how important it is to keep sanity, take care of mental health equally as well as bodily health (especially applies to Europe and North America).
Our perception is key as we will not avoid crises.
What we can develop is a set of skills like critical thinking, adaptability, and asking very honest questions to make sure we can find ourselves present in the difficult situation so we can navigate it better without harm for ourselves.
If you need a help with crisis managment just text us!
Call us,
Text us,
Book a Consultation
We work on the global clock 