Crisis Management for Managers and Executives - Case Study Example

Crisis Management – A Report. Introduction Home to Blackburn Rovers Football club (one of the founders of the football league), Ewood Park, is a Blackburn, Lancashire based football stadium. Inaugurated in 1882, as an all seater multi-sports facility, the stadium at Blackburn has a capacity of 31,367. Four stands form the stadium namely, Darwen End, Riverside Stand (on the banks of the River Darwen), Blackburn End and Jack Walker Stand named after erstwhile club supporter and Blackburn based industrialist Jack Walker. The pitch inside the stadium measures about 115 yards (105m) by 76 yards (69m). Ewood Park is the oldest home to a Premier League club. During 1880s Ewood Park used to stage athletics and greyhound racing besides football. In 1890 Rovers club moved in to play their first match against Accrington Stanley in September. In 1891 the ground was bestowed with the honor of hosting an international match between England and Scotland. Blackburn Rovers bought the stadium for 2500 pounds in 1893 but soon met with a disaster when a stand collapsed due to overcrowding (numbering more than 20,000) owing to the visit of Everton. Subsequently a roof was built at the Darwen End of the ground in 1903 at a cost of 1680 pounds. Ewood Park is the 14th largest facility in capacity in the Premiership. The population of Blackburn itself if 105,085 and Ewood Park attracts the maximum of this population when comparing to the proportion of town / city size, an attendance accounting for almost quarter of the town’s population. The Jack Walker stand contains the home / away dressing rooms and media / conferencing facilities. It is also home to the Premier Suite and Pennants Lounge, part of the club’s hospitality packages. The higher tier of the Blackburn stand houses the family enclosure meant as a safe and comfortable environment for under 16s and their families. Outside the stand is the club shop “Roverstore”, revamped in 2008. The lower reaches of the stand houses the home supporters ticket office and the “Blues” café bar. At the corner of the Riverside Stand is a giant TV screen showing features, team sheets and other live games on a particular match day. Legislative controls – Intent and its use on the venue. The current legislative controls existing on the venue though addresses large scale crowd management does not include adequate health and safety measures which is appropriate here. Even Fire Safety and Occupational Health & Safety requirements are not that much elaborate enough for the type of events conducted at the venue. Thereby the management of the venue is forced to act in a budget restricted manner and compounded with inexperience will lead to the situation of deploying minimal and ill-equipped staffing and equipment. Moreover these days there is an earnest requirement for training personnel and registering them as Security Officers before being deployed in security related tasks at large public entertainment events. Further another legislation known as the Disaster Management Bill propounds to address the major issues of overall responsibility, emergency plans and procedures which will ultimately benefit the advance planning of stadium management enormously. It will impart the requisite authority to personnel from the National Disaster Management to audit and halt major public entertainment events, if necessary, should they lack in proper or adequate planning, preparation, security or staffing for crowd management. Despite all these legislative controls in place to deal with any arising emergency or disaster there is still need for a well defined and regulated national standard towards crowd safety measures and security staffing, deployed at large public gatherings, irrespective of the nature of event, entertainment or sporting. The Crisis Plan outline The successful delivery of objectives set forth by any crisis plan depends on the identification of the potential cause for it, maybe learnt from a past occurrence. Here for the sake of this plan the identified cause is unambiguously assumed as “mismanagement” and the main objective of the crisis plan being drawn up is to prevent a recurrence in future. However some of the major likely reasons associated with a crisis of the envisaged nature for which a concrete workable plan is being outlined are listed below for useful reference and reckoning: Inaccurate and ill conceived forecast of the match attendance. Abject failure to learn lessons out of past experiences Absolute failure by those in lead to identify and clearly delineate areas of responsibility. The absence of overall command control center. Untimely announcements indicating tickets having sold out. Negligence in dedication to duty. Unruly and unexpected spectator behavior. Ticket sale at the venue and seating without any reservation. Corruption by a handful of security personnel themselves. The use of tear gas or similar substance for deterrence. Failure in adhering to guidelines stipulated by FIFA / SAFA. Underlying Implications for the basis of Crisis Plan The impending need for provision in the statutory regulations which proscribes the deployment of off-duty police as security staff. There should be a uniform application of the plan recommendations to all sporting events and entertainment events. As far as possible if not completely avoid instilling stringent measures which could hamper the enjoyment of the game by the viewing public. Evacuation Plan The Safety officer of the Blackburn Stadium representing the club is to decide whether to evacuate the stadium in full or in part while responding to an emergency. However sometimes considering overall public safety as the foremost deciding factor the decision to evacuate may also come from the Police Commander, if present in the stadium. Under such circumstances the terms of statement of intent arrived at between the police department and the club management should be referred to suitably. The moment it is evident that the developing emergency crisis requires a multi-agency response the senior officer, representing the emergency services, present in the stadium will report immediately to the control room. Also the Senior Ambulance officer will be present on the radio in the stadium and the fire service will be called for via the 999 system by the Control Room staff. In the absence of such a senior officer, any other senior officer on the scene will report to the control room immediately on arrival. It should also be kept in mind that an evacuation need not necessarily be the result of an incident inside the stadium but could also result from an outside activity external to the stadium. A case in example is the chemical incident affected largely by wind direction. The way the evacuation is effected will be determined by the nature, severity and location of the emergency. The Safety officer on the scene, together will all other officers of the emergency services, if present, will determine the method and means of evacuation after conducting a dynamic risk assessment taking into account all the circumstances and risks to public safety resulting from the incident. And in the event of a major catastrophic failure of the stadium control room the match day operation will be transferred to the Security office in the Blackburn End Stand where there is a limited facility for CCTV monitoring facilitating any kind of evacuation requirements that may be necessary. It also has the back up system for controlling the final exit doors of the stadium. The emergency services will initiate their own fallback arrangements. An evacuation would certainly be required in the case of the failure of the stadium control room to function, which will then not allow any designated event to continue further. S.No Possible risks that could occur in the stadium 1) Stampede resulting from overcrowding in stands 2) Emergency crisis arising from a Chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear breakout. 3) Police firing due to unruly / unexpected crowd behavior and the ensuing melee Chart of Possible Risks in the stadium Facility Management The number and readiness of robust public address systems both inside and outside the stadium should be effectively planned for and rigorously tested well before the event to preclude their operational failures or guffaws at critical junctures. Adequately equipped CCTVs (closed circuit televisions) around the stadium should be hooked up with the overall command center for efficient management of the crowd and other activities taking place in the stadium. Entry / Exit of visitors to the stadium Taking into account the tendencies of rival supporters adequate planning has to be made for provision of separate entry and exit points for rival supporters to enter and exit the stadium. The sale of tickets should well precede the commencement of the event. But since the supporters are highly likely to wait till the day of occurrence of the event, provision with separately located ticket counters should be made for sale of tickets at the venue on the day of the event. This should be such that the visiting crowd does not get obstructed by that section of crowd which is heading for buying tickets. Instead of using scaffoldings for regulating the inflow of spectators into the stadium, temporary collapsible free fencing which can be dismantled easily should be used and once the spectators have been channeled into the stadium properly they must be dismantled and cast away from obstructing the path of the exiting crowd flow. Mechanisms including automated turnstiles to count the number of spectators entering the stadium must be put in place so that at any point in time it is possible to accurately estimate and project the stadium capacity and spectator occupancy. The onus of ticket distribution has to be entrusted to a single agency rather than multiple agencies dispensing the ticket like sponsor organizations, sale of tickets at the venue and another separate agency for the distribution of tickets. The latter practice has to be avoided completely to preclude dangerous consequences. Entrance capacity of the Stadium As per the regulated criteria in the United Kingdom the stadium must be able to admit the capacity crowd within a maximum of one hour’s time for which enough turnstiles at the entrances proportional in measure to the capacity of the stadium is to be ensured. Car Parking & Related Facility Management Since during an emergency ambulance and defence forces vehicle might ply hectically around the stadium the traffic regulatory authority must plan and enforce effective regulations so that free flow of traffic in and around the stadium is not unduly affected resulting in a chaotic situation. Also adequate parking facilities is to be provided for the visiting crowd and an area free enough to regulate the clearance of traffic during emergencies have to be planned and provided for, although admittedly the space available is invariably less around the stadium. Role of Security Personnel / Club Stewards in a Crisis The security personnel should have rehearsed the salient parts of the crisis plan thoroughly and well in advance of the event to meet any eventuality. And their dress or uniform especially should be distinct, easily distinguishable and readily identifiable amongst any large crowd at the venue. Also it is better that only a few selected number of security agencies play the role of managing the crowd since there could be a loss of co-ordination and control if too many disparate agencies are working together. During times of crisis a clear distinction has to be acknowledge between the role being played by the security personnel and the club stewards, the latter being controlled by the club and cannot handle all the stiffer security tasks as rigorously and professionally as the security personnel. Media & Public Relations Management The media such as television, radio and the newspaper have to be handled very professionally and kept informed up to date on the actual happenings at the venue during a crisis. A clear channel of communication managed by well trained and skilled professionals should be made available for this to protect the business interests of the management of the stadium during the post crisis period. Also dear and near ones of the visiting crowd should be well informed and communicated in time on their status and well being in the event of an outbreak of a crisis situation. Since the impressions in the minds of general public is everlasting, especially the events that happen when they are in a crisis and about to panic, a lot of reassurance has to be done by the club stewards at the stadium to retain their faith in the management in future well beyond the time when the crisis has completely abated. The above crisis plan addresses the crisis or an emergency arising out of overcrowding and the resulting chaos in the crowd or the response of local authorities managing the crowd which might result in panic in the crowd and the ensuing melee. It however does not address any escalation to major crisis or emergencies like a fire-breakout, bomb threat or chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear disasters affecting the crowd in the stadium. The crisis plans for such major emergencies or disasters are very involved and a rigorous mechanism of handling the situation arising out of such disasters will render a very elaborate explanation and treatment of the subject matter. Also there are lot of post crisis measures that have to be taken care of especially in the case of Chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear emergencies are concerned since the contamination impact on the crowd has to be suitably dealt with by isolation of the affected sections of the crowd, then bring about total decontamination to avoid spreading to other parts of the region. Also the response strategies and liaison complexities with the emergency services personnel has made the task of outlining an effective crisis plan for such emergencies or major disasters an onerous task and hence out of the purview of the above outlined crisis plan. Conclusion Clearly the crisis plan outlined above has evolved from the harsh realities of the experiences in the past. Though the cause was rightly identified as “mismanagement” but still there were other factors attributed to the total mess up of the situation by the people which were generally denied. It was implied that the personnel deployed at the stadium on the disastrous evening were inadequately trained or lacked adequate skills to handle the task of effective crowd management in a developing crisis situation. While it is also to be debated that this being the attributed fact still it cannot be ignored that the overall responsibility lies with the senior personnel and the management of the stadium. It becomes an issue of accountability for the police management to supervise and regulate the crowd outside the stadium and be on the watch out for and control any unbecoming or disruptive crowd behavior especially with the burgeoning crowds. No private personnel will be able to handle this kind of crowd behavior and neither would he have been trained, equipped or employed for such purposes prior to the crisis especially in regulating disruptive behavior of large crowds in public areas. Also the lapse of the senior s personnel and its mismanagement of the situation is evident from the fact that the stadium management as such was still being carried out quite efficiently, noticeable from the fact that the crowd which departed the stadium after the crisis did so without causing further problems. But still the stadium management did have to provide for all the facilities in channeling the crowd towards its destinations and dispensing cash for the tickets after the match was cancelled. These cannot be carried out either by the Officer on the ground or the personnel even if they wished to do it. Another point in relation to the distinction between the club stewards and security personnel is well taken and understandable. The club stewards due to the nature of their role, which starts from allowing entry of spectators to the stadium, guiding them to their respective seats and updating them on the various facilities available and their locations within the stadium, will be obviously be the first person to be summoned or contacted for guidance during an impending or developing crisis. So even the club stewards have an important role to play and should be present in the stadium in reasonably large numbers alongside the deployed security personnel and should also be well trained, distinguishably uniformed and geared up by the management of the stadium to face and overcome any eventual crisis situation. Therefore it is highly imperative that a senior Officer be deputed for the purpose of overseeing the crowd management responsibility in the stadium. At the same time the officer in charge has to be comprehensively briefed about the layout of the stadium including all entry and exit points, facilities and other nitty gritty details of the stadium. References Crisis Management, 2004, Harvard Business School, Harvard Business Press, ISBN 1591394376, 9781591394372. Ewood Park Stadium, from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, , Viewed on February 4, 2009. Fire Service Inspectorate, 2002, Fire Service Operations: incident command (Fire Service Manual 2), London, Stationery Office Books. Gustin, J.F., 2007, Disaster and Recovery Planning: A guide for Facility Managers; 4th ed., Lilbum (Georgia), Fairmont Press Inc. Haddow, G.D., Bullock, J, 2007, Introduction to Emergency Management 3rd ed., London, Butterworth Heinemann. Heath, R., 1996, Crisis Management for managers and executives, Financial Times / Prentice Hall. Levitt, Alan M., 1997, Disaster Planning and Recovery: A Guide for Facility Professionals, John Wiley and Sons, ISBN 0471142050, 9780471142058 Moore, T., Lakha, R., (eds) 2006, Tolley’s Handbook of Disaster and Emergency Management: Principles and Practice, 3rd ed., London, Butterworth-Heinemann. Read More