ATLANTA— Duffey Communications, one of the nation’s largest independent public relations firms and The Inocon Group, known for its specialization in risk mitigation simulation, have launched HindSight, a crisis management simulation and evaluation program allows organizations to evaluate in real-time the ability of different departments to work together in a crisis scenario.

According to the two firms, HindSight is one of the first programs to offer a crisis management and simulation exercise that joins operations and communications departments into integrated real-time scenarios. By focusing on strategic response simulation exercises, the product enables organizations to identify and manage incidents early to prevent them from developing into full-blown crisis situations.

Says Duffey president Lee Duffey, “With the economy in a tailspin, and public perception of corporate America at an all-time low, foolproof crisis management and risk mitigation plans are essential to business health, investor relations and reputation management. Unfortunately, many organizations pay large amounts of money for a written crisis plan, but often overlook the importance of testing the stability of the plan through simulation exercises.”

Dan Donovan, president and CEO of The Inocon Group says simulation is crucial and applicable in any business model, including industries as diverse as consumer products, manufacturing, financial services, telecommunications, biotechnology, utilities and special event management. “HindSight provides the full team the opportunity to practice crisis response plans before they are forced to go live,” Donovan explains.  

Crisis scenarios are customized to meet an organization’s areas of greatest concerns. That can include environmental contamination, intellectual or confidential property theft, supply chain failures, product recalls, technology systems tampering or failure and loss of major assets such as a train derailment or aircraft crash.
 
“The success of any crisis plan is the ability of different personalities and departments to develop a synergy and sense of cooperation prior to and in the midst of a crisis,” says Duffey. “Through HindSight, organizations can take the artificiality out of crisis management plans and determine their level of readiness and ability to prevent or weather a crisis situation.”