Nonetheless, as will naturally be the case, crisis management (as offered by security practitioners) will entail a multi-facetted approach to crises, encompassing measures taken before, during, and after such an event. It is nevertheless useful to highlight the variation in the framing of the concept, not just between different organisations, but within organisations themselves. This is interesting to point out due to its problematization of conceptual clarity, alluding to something Antoine Meillet refers to as “semantic bleaching” (as cited in Richter & Richter, 2006, p. 353). This is to say, the distinctive marker that ‘should’ be in place to differentiate crisis management from, say, risk management could be said to be lacking. 

Contrastingly, Aon’s approach to the concept of crisis is, quite explicitly, more in line with traditional notions of crises. Take the following quotation, from their Crisis Management Brochure, as an example: “[The Aon team is responsible for] Identifying and understanding these unfamiliar risks and impacts to make better risk vs. reward decisions” (Aon, 2014, p. 33). The use of the adjective ‘unfamiliar’ is congruent with Weick’s definition of crisis, insinuating unpredictability, surprise, and a lack of avenue for systematic quantification of such unfamiliar risks. To further this more nuanced approach to crises, Aon (2014) also makes two more interesting statements: 1) “A crisis may be unpredictable, but it should not be unforeseeable” (p. 3) and 2) “Not all crisis events can be prevented” (p. 31). 

DRC adopts a similar approach to Aon in the sense that there is a clear mix between a reactive and proactive stance towards crises. This stance is reflected in the student reports produced for the DRC case, as can be seen in the following example from Team Alpha: “In a situation of a hostile environment and possibly compromised communication channels, the CMT requires reliable ways for crisis communication”. This clearly represents an approach to crises premised on reacting in the present, as opposed to prior such a critical incident occurs. 

When one looks from the angle of the student reports produced for Control Risks and Aon, interestingly, there is no mention of crisis management, or mention of crisis in the light of something that can be commodified. Take for example Team Echo’s Control Risks analysis; in this report, the concept of crisis is merely associated with national crises, such as “the ongoing economic crisis in Lebanon”. Of course, this report was tasked to specifically identify threats that might impede organisational operations. Nonetheless, the lack of reference to management of crises stands in stark contrast to Control Risks’s stance themselves. 

Similarly, in Team Charlie’s Aon report, the only reference to “crisis” arises in reference to COVID-19. Thus, there is a clear discrepancy between the way the concept of crisis is utilized by security practitioners, on the one hand, and the student reports, on the other. 

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