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Abstract
How can you prepare for the day when an unexpected event morphs into a crisis, with all the potential negative repercussions for your companys reputation and financial standing?
At some point in your companys lifetime, you will encounter a problem that turns
into a crisis. The extensive news coverage that such events garner often results in public scrutiny that can affect business, operations and financials and subject a company to political, governmental and legal consequences. Several recent crises at large corporations, including data security breaches, corruption investigations and product safety issues, have brought greater attention to risks and raised the potential for boards to be held legally responsible for failing to account for and address these risks. A developing crisis might not kill a major corporation, but the resulting legal liability and reputational damage may compromise the ability of many smaller biotech companies to survive.Indeed, it is not uncommon for companies in the biotech sector to lack the corporate staffing and capital resources to plan for or weather the storm that a crisis can bring. As a result, biotech companies are at a heightened risk of events that could spin out of control and be memorialized and disseminated through the Internet.