Services > Risk & Crisis Management Solutions

Risk Management and Business Resilience:
Business resilience refers to the processes, systems and culture that enable a company to withstand significant changes and events in their business environment. While traditional risk management focuses on preventing and managing events that are foreseeable, the most likely and most impactful, resilience also looks at those that are less likely but often lead to crises. While traditional business continuity focuses on restoring a company to where it was before an event, resilience also recognizes that where the company was may no longer be appropriate.

Well designed and implemented risk and resilience systems and processes ensure that key risks are identified, assessed and managed. They add value to a business rather than just being a drain on income. They help a company become resilient. RQA helps clients assess the key risks to their business—today as well as tomorrows, and designs risk solutions that will enable them to manage risk more effectively.

Crisis Management:
Crises are not inevitable. While all consumer goods companies will have incidents and some of those incidents may lead to a recall, they don’t have to become a crisis. There are many definitions of a crisis but we define it as an escalating event or series of events that have significant negative impact on a business and over which the company has little or no control.

Companies that manage serious incidents well appear to take prompt, decisive and appropriate actions and effectively communicate both what went wrong and the actions they are taking to resolve it. They appear to be responsible as well as responsive. They appear to be in control.

RQA’s crisis management experts will help your company develop these processes and capabilities through:

• Development of an effective crisis management plan
• Training your people so they are able to use that plan
• Conducting exercises so you people are able to practice the processes and enhance their capabilities to manage incidents and prevent crises.

Incident Response:
Incidents are an inevitable part of doing business. When the time comes you need to act quickly and effectively to maintain the confidence of your customers and consumers and, when the time is right, get back into business. RQA is a global leader in incident response for consumer goods companies. Our support services include:

• Consumer and Retail Retrievals—a recent Australian study¹ has shown that 85% of consumer complaints can lead to a loss of brand loyalty. However, 73% of consumers that complain will feel more loyal to an organisation if that complaint is handled to their satisfaction. To help you maintain brand loyalty, RQA’s trained, global network of representatives can quickly retrieve products from a consumer’s home or workplace or from retail outlets and have it delivered to you or to an independent party for testing whether the product is shelf-stable, refrigerated or frozen.
• Product Withdrawal/Recall—ensuring only the right products are returned, that the withdrawn/recalled products are actually taken off the shelf and handled appropriately and accurate, constantly updated information is available to monitor progress is critical. In a withdrawal situation, discretion is key. RQA has extensive processes, resources and infrastructure to help you manage this critical event.
• Recall/Crisis Management Advice—RQA are the global specialists in product withdrawals and recalls. It is critical when incidents occur that companies conduct fast, accurate analysis and investigation to make informed decisions, effective relationships are established with appropriate internal and external stakeholders and if a recall is necessary it is carried out effectively and in compliance with regulatory requirements. RQA’s unsurpassed expertise in advising clients has been recognized by Chartis Insurance who have retained RQA globally to provide advice to their clients with Product Recall and Contaminated Products Insurance.

¹ “How Consumers are Feeling Now – a National Study of Sentiment, Emotions and Advocacy”, page 8, Consumer Directions (the journal of the Society of Consumer Affairs Professionals (SOCAP) Australia, September, 2009.

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