Crisis management, crisis communication and other subjects that have caught our eye
Will their reputation suffer? EU leaders have called it a hijacking, others are describing it as air piracy when Belarus scrambled a Soviet-era MiG-29 fighter jet to force Ryanair Flight FR4978 to land at Minsk airport. The flight had been traveling from Athens to Vilnius when it was suddenly diverted. Belarus authorities claimed there was... Continue Reading →
By Jim Preen, Director of Crisis Management at YUDU Sentinel Bosses are terrified that remote working means loss of productivity. There are widespread fears among the C-suite that staff who once beavered away furiously at their desks are now spending more time looking to see what’s in the fridge. To solve this problem YUDU has... Continue Reading →
By Emily Byrne, Marketing Executive at YUDU Sentinel Does listening to music while working remotely increase productivity? Let’s take a look at the facts and figures. One study shows 90% of workers perform better when listening to music, with 88% of employees producing more accurate work when listening to tunes. Business owners seem to agree... Continue Reading →
By Jim Preen, Director of Crisis Management at YUDU Sentinel A document leaked to Austria’s ORF TV network indicates the EU may be taking a sledgehammer to end-to-end encryption used by WhatsApp and other comms systems. Encryption locks personal data, but governments and law enforcement agencies have long been concerned that terrorists and criminals are... Continue Reading →
Short Story By Emily Byrne Marketing Executive at YUDU Sentinel Header Image by Sandra Ahn-Mode “Really Archibald, you’re such a pain!” Mama Dotty shouted at her husband. Their only daughter, Jennifer was too lost in her excitement and apprehension to let this bickering annoy her as it usually would. So, she continued to tuck into... Continue Reading →
By Jim Preen Director of Crisis Management at YUDU Sentinel It’s a torrid time to be at college. Students are suffering and universities are struggling with their duty of care. Could crisis comms be the answer? For students, many of whom are away from home for the first time, university life has presented quite a... Continue Reading →
By Jim Preen, Director of Crisis Management at YUDU Sentinel It has emerged that police officers throughout the UK are being ordered not to download the NHS test-and-trace app on their work phones because of ‘security implications’. What does this mean for the rest of us and the government’s uphill struggle to tame coronavirus? The... Continue Reading →
By Jim Preen, Director of Crisis Management at YUDU Sentinel The NHS test-and-trace app, which is part of the government’s Rule of 6 legislation, is now up and running. The app features a QR code scanner to collect contact tracing data at venues. According to the government website ‘designated venues now have a legal requirement... Continue Reading →
By Jim Preen, Director of Crisis Management at YUDU Sentinel I like lists, there I said it. This means I’ll be branded immediately as: AnalWeirdly obsessiveAs interesting as Love Island Wales Some people hate lists because: They’re a tyranny; something brooding that looks at you like that mildly scary geography teacher from schoolThey increase my... Continue Reading →
By Jim Preen, Director of Crisis Management a YUDU Sentinel Two recent news stories vividly illustrate how there’s no such thing as internal and external comms. These days it’s all one, but consistent communication remains of critical importance to an organisation and its reputation. If anything, the pandemic is amplifying the mistakes. Virtually no communication,... Continue Reading →
By Jim Preen, Director of Crisis Management at YUDU Sentinel Header Image by John Matychuck A promoter at a Newcastle music venue sold tickets for gigs and at the point of sale harvested customer contact details to satisfy the NHS test-and-trace guidelines. Things got a whole lot more complicated when the guidelines became law. Ian... Continue Reading →
By Emily Byrne, Marketing Executive at YUDU Sentinel Header Image by Markus Winkler Fake news on social media is causing Covid confusion among parents many of whom are unsure whether it’s safe to send their children back to school. Parents are inevitably feeling extremely conflicted. They want to keep their children safe but also know... Continue Reading →
In an effort to crack down on the spread of coronavirus the government is making it mandatory for the hospitality industry to collect contact tracing data from their customers. From 18th September venues such as pubs and restaurants will be legally required to request and record contact details from all customers and staff. They face... Continue Reading →
By Emily Byrne, Marketing Executive at YUDU Sentinel Welcome to the weird world of Covid-19 where the new normal means wearing a mask to cover your face. As from 24th July 2020 it became mandatory in the UK to wear a face mask in all shops and on public transport. This blog explores how wearing... Continue Reading →
By Jim Preen, Director of Crisis Management at YUDU Sentinel There’s nothing like a new buzzword to get the media excited and ‘Covidiot’ gained immediate traction as soon as it was coined and was quickly splattered all over the front pages. So, who are the Covidiots? In the minds of newspaper editors in search of... Continue Reading →
Is it time the government forced them to do better? By Jim Preen, Director of Crisis Management at YUDU Sentinel Header Image by Ty Feague With reference to: https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/wetherspoons-staff-fail-record-drinkers-22491519 When the prime minster launched the UK’s test-and-trace scheme he promoted it as being a ‘world beating service’ seen as vital in the battle against Covid-19... Continue Reading →
By Jim Preen, Crisis Management Director at YUDU Sentinel ‘Get fit’ says the prime minister who would be proud of one of my colleagues at YUDU who used lockdown to get into a serious fitness regime. So serious in fact that he bought himself a pricey Garmin watch to log his runs, PBs and all... Continue Reading →
By Jim Preen (Crisis management director at YUDU Sentinel) Header Image by Ami Johnson Pubs are struggling with the government request to keep customer records to help the NHS test-and-trace scheme. A Norwich Wetherspoon pub, The Queen of Iceni, has been criticised for not collecting any data from customers at all. Norwich resident Julia Lester... Continue Reading →
By Jim Preen, Director of Crisis Management, YUDU Sentinel As lockdown in the UK begins to ease, HR departments have to be ready to help staff through the next stage of COVID-19. Some employees will be returning to their offices but many will remain working from home - HR has to look after both groups.... Continue Reading →
By Emily Byrne and James O'Brien With reference to: https://www.wired.co.uk/article/pubs-opening-rules-contact-tracing By Matt Burgess Super Saturday saw the easing of lockdown restrictions and the reopening of pubs across the UK. With thousands of thirsty punters who’d been locked up for months unleashed, did wifi and app-based Track and Trace solutions see things running as smoothly as... Continue Reading →
By Chris Phillips GCGI FSyI FCIISCM In my experience one of the best ways to learn about crisis management, is by looking at mistakes that have been made; even better if those mistakes have been made by someone else. After examining a number of crises and how businesses managed to overcome them it has become... Continue Reading →
By Jim Preen, Director of Crisis Management at YUDU Sentinel Header image by iMattSmart (@imattsmart) | Unsplash Photo Community NikeTown and Primark stores were mobbed yesterday as non-essential shops began opening their doors to customers. With lockdown restrictions easing in the UK, there’s inevitably talk about a spike in cases or perhaps a second wave... Continue Reading →
By Jim Preen, Director of Crisis Management at YUDU Header Image by Gemma Smith, Graphic Designer at YUDU and Jim Preen Our admittedly rather jokey flowchart hopefully makes the point that while WhatsApp is a fantastic app for chatting with friends and family it falls short of being a secure business communication channel, particularly during... Continue Reading →
Dr Liz Royle Samling is Swedish for a gathering and every Monday morning and Friday lunchtime the staff at YUDU gather for a virtual huddle. Zoom is fired up and the Samling is kicked off by CEO Richard Stephenson. As the unusual name might suggest this isn’t a typical business conference call, it’s not about... Continue Reading →
By Emily Byrne, Marketing Executive at YUDU Sentinel Header Image by Gemma Smith, Graphic Designer at YUDU Sentinel Here at YUDU we’re promoting a proactive and productive lockdown. Reading has definitely benefited my own well-being and given me the opportunity to be mindful and find a little safe space away from the chaos of Covid-19.... Continue Reading →
By Emily Byrne, Marketing Executive at YUDU Header Image by Simon Rae What can parents do to make sure their children aren’t anxious and overwhelmed about the Coronavirus crisis? YUDU’s Creative Director and father of two, Charlie Stephenson gave gleaming advice on how parents can help their child to deal with Covid-19 woes. Look out... Continue Reading →
By Jim Preen Crisis Management Director, YUDU Sentinel Header image by Juliana Kozoski What is the world going to look like post-Covid-19? Are we in for big changes or will we snap back to the way we were? Polling giant, Ipsos Mori, has been doing a little digging into our thoughts, dreams and nightmares as... Continue Reading →
Jim Preen Crisis Management Director, YUDU Sentinel Header Image by Jeremy Bishop Governments across the world are starting to take some very tricky decisions on easing the Covid-19 lockdown. With this happening will the virus stage a vicious comeback? The UK government talks relentlessly about taking decisions ‘based on the science’. This is one decision... Continue Reading →
By Emily Byrne, Marketing Executive at YUDU Header Image by Gemma Smith, Graphic Designer at YUDU WFH, what’s not to like? No more business dress. Bye-bye long commutes and stupidly early rises for many (well, me actually). Hair tongs dumped. Makeup discarded. It’s a messy bun and PJs all day long. (Note to self: don’t... Continue Reading →
By Emily Byrne, Marketing Executive at YUDU Header Image by Gemma Smith, Graphic Designer at YUDU Storms Ciara, Dennis and Jorge are nature’s reminder of the impending threat posed by climate change. They highlight the need to accommodate for flood resilience in our buildings’ architecture and design and through emergency planning as we as we... Continue Reading →
By Jim Preen crisis management director at YUDU Sentinel. When Marshall McLuhan coined the phrase the ‘medium is the message’ in the early sixties his point was that a particular medium affects the society in which it’s used and not just because of the content or message it delivers. His contention was that the medium... Continue Reading →
By Emily Byrne The media love to sensationalise reporting of emergencies to sell newspapers, while social gets in a flop sweat at a moment’s notice to generate clicks and comment. That’s the world we live in, but it can cause a world of pain for crisis managers trying to overcome an emergency and is why... Continue Reading →
As everyone puts away the glitter and cuts off their festival wristbands until next summer, there are some crisis management lessons to take away. Adverse weather might be a Glastonbury tradition and festivals have been fighting the war against drugs since the 60s, but every year seems to bring new challenges for those organising major events.
Firms do smart things to help them become resilient. They create business continuity plans, cyber playbooks, terror playbooks, they employ mass notification and document sharing technology and then they take all this good stuff and do something really dumb. They put it in a real or metaphorical box marked ‘Crisis Use Only’.
The Alaris app aims to not only help save lives in the event of another act of terror, but also provide practical and straight-forward advice to help religious communities of any faith feel both more secure and prepared.
Victoria is the first Business Improvement District (BIDs) in the UK to use a cloud-based crisis management software, YUDU Sentinel, to empower its member businesses.
No matter what side you are on when it comes to this awkward, “let’s-stay-friends-maybe-even-with-benefits” break up with the European Union, it would be very short-sighted indeed to not think about the potential for disruption.
In the main, business have only considered the fire evacuation. What they need to do in a terrorist incident has not been part of their planning. This needs to change
If Shutterstock are to be believed, then hackers are men in their early twenties wearing hoodies, sometimes paired with some supervillain leather gloves and a balaclava.
I’m joining a call, not opening a bank account in the Channel Islands. Please don’t make me recite the numerical value of Pi to the 50th digit just to have a chat to (gasp) 2 people at the same time.
It’s easy to feel like supply chains are getting simpler or shorter, but the onward march of globalisation and international trade has created an interconnected supply chain that is, although rich with opportunity, vulnerable to disruptions.
The idea of children being murdered in the one place we send them every day to learn and grow is sickening to us. Sadly, planning and preparing for this most horrifying of worst-case scenarios is a moral and legal obligation of every school, and the horror must be faced.
With the lens of the media fixed firmly on Facebook these past few weeks, the public have never been more aware of their digital footprint and how it can be exploited.
Managing the fall out of a data breach is a team effort, making communication vital. Every employee with an email address can be targeted by increasingly sophisticated phishing scammers - making the protection of an organisation’s data the responsibility of everyone, not just the IT department.
The lack of effective business continuity planning by water companies like Thames Water, South Water and South East Water was not just an oversight, but a lack of forethought that left people without the most vital of amenities: water.
No organisation can function without its people. During and after a crisis, it is the resilience of the people that make up an organisation’s community that get it back on its feet and working again.
The gas leak on the Strand on the 23rd of January tested the business continuity of many London organisations. The Strand, one of London’s busiest districts for both business and pleasure, was emptied all the way from Waterloo Bridge to Charing Cross station due to the dangerous levels of gas.
WannaCry was the breach that catapulted cyber security into the headlines last year. The NHS, an organisation close to our hearts and an integral part of our country’s infrastructure, experienced a cyber attack that brought it to its knees. However, the most significant impact of the breach was on public confidence in UK institutions’ ability to defend themselves against hackers.
Authorities in Abu Dhabi have found a means to benefit from their huge network of CCTV cameras through Falcon Eye - a surveillance system that processes live video to track the movements of individuals all over the emirate.
Watching the Panama Papers spectacle unfold on the world stage made it evident to every shocked onlooker: law firms’ files hold the juiciest secrets.
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