[CM] [TS] [C4] Crisis Versus Business Continuity Management

Chapter 4:

Crisis Management vs. Business Continuity Management – Understanding the Distinctions at TANGS Singapore

CM Versus BCM

TANGS Singapore is more than just a department store—it is a retail institution on Orchard Road, with a legacy spanning decades in Singapore’s retail landscape.

Like all resilient businesses, TANGS must prepare for a wide range of disruptions that threaten its operations, reputation, stakeholders, and customers.

However, navigating uncertainty requires clear frameworks and distinct capabilities. Two critical pillars of organisational resilience are Crisis Management and Business Continuity Management (BCM).

This chapter outlines the key differences between Crisis Management and Business Continuity Management (BCM), and clarifies how “disasters” and “crisis scenarios” are managed within TANGS' resilience framework.

Understanding these distinctions is crucial for ensuring that both operational disruptions and reputational threats are addressed holistically.

Crisis Management focuses on immediate response, decision-making, and leadership during a disruptive event. It involves crisis communication, stakeholder coordination, and strategic decision-making to protect lives, assets, and reputation.
Business Continuity Management ensures the continuity of critical operations and services in the event of a crisis or disruption. It involves business impact analysis, business continuity management (BCM) strategies, and BCM Planning.

Key Distinction: Crisis management responds to a sudden, high-impact event, whereas business continuity management ensures long-term recovery and operational sustainability.

Crisis Management vs. Business Continuity Management: Key Differences

Aspect	Crisis Management (CM)	Business Continuity Management (BCM)
Definition	Crisis Management is a holistic management process that identifies potential impacts that threaten an organisation and provides a framework for building resilience and an effective response that safeguards stakeholders, reputation, brand, and value-creating activities.	BCM is a holistic management process that identifies potential threats to an organisation and the impacts on business operations that those threats might cause. It provides a framework for building resilience and the capability for an effective response.
Focus Area	Strategic and reputational impacts	Operational impacts and service continuity
Triggers	Unexpected events that escalate into reputational or strategic threats (e.g., viral scandal, leadership misconduct, terrorism incident)	Operational disruptions (e.g., fire, IT failure, supply chain disruption)
Primary Objective	Preserve reputation, stakeholder trust, and strategic direction	Restore critical business functions within acceptable timeframes
Leadership Involvement	Executive leadership and crisis management team	Operations and business continuity teams
Time Sensitivity	Often, immediate, high-pressure decisions are needed	Planned, with pre-defined recovery strategies and timeframes
Examples at TANGS	A viral social media backlash due to discriminatory staff behaviour, a cybersecurity breach involving customer data, or protest or unrest near Orchard Road affecting customer safety	A power outage at the Orchard store, a disruption in the POS system, and a supply chain breakdown affecting merchandise delivery

In practice, both CM and BCM operate hand-in-hand. While BCM ensures continuity of key operations, CM manages the broader consequences, particularly where public confidence, media attention, and brand integrity are at stake.

Disaster vs. Crisis Scenario: What TANGS Needs to Prepare For

The ability to distinguish between a disaster and a crisis scenario is essential for activating the right plan and team.

Concept	Definition	Who Handles It	Example at TANGS Singapore
Disaster	as a sudden, unplanned, calamitous event causing significant damage or loss to an organisation. Disasters may disrupt critical functions, requiring business continuity measures.	Business Continuity Team	Fire in the warehouse, system-wide IT outage, or water leakage in retail space requiring store closure.
Crisis Scenario	as a hypothetical situation or incident that has the potential to damage the organisation's reputation, financial position, or ability to operate. May include political, legal, cyber, or media crises.	Crisis Management Team	Accusations of unethical business practices, influencer-led boycott, and mass customer data leak were exposed online.

Understanding this distinction enables TANGS to escalate incidents to the appropriate team. A disaster can escalate into a crisis if not well-managed—e.g., a data centre fire becomes a crisis if customer data is lost and the media gets involved.

Aligning with ISO 22361: Types of Crises Relevant to TANGS

ISO 22361:2022 outlines the guidelines for crisis management, helping organisations develop and implement effective crisis response mechanisms. For TANGS Singapore, the following types of crises under ISO 22361 are especially relevant:

Type of Crisis	Potential TANGS Scenario
Cybersecurity Crisis	Ransomware attack affecting e-commerce site (tangs.com), exposing customer personal data.
Reputational Crisis	Viral customer complaint about discriminatory or unfair treatment; boycott by influencer community.
Public Safety Crisis	Terrorist threat, active shooter incident, or fire during a weekend sale, causing mass panic.
Legal/Regulatory Crisis	Regulatory breach regarding consumer data protection or labour law non-compliance.
Supply Chain Crisis	Major supplier failure impacting festive or seasonal inventory delivery.
Social Media Crisis	Misinformation about a product or management decision spreads quickly, gaining traction.

To manage such scenarios, TANGS requires a multi-layered response framework—Crisis Management for strategic oversight and external engagement, and Business Continuity Management (BCM) for internal operational restoration.

Integration: The Dual Response Approach

TANGS' approach to resilience must be integrated, recognising that some incidents begin as operational disruptions (disasters) but can escalate into crises. For instance:

A POS system failure is a disaster—it affects transaction processing and can be handled via IT recovery protocols (BCM).
If this happens during the Lunar New Year sale, goes unresolved for hours, and customers flood social media with complaints, it becomes a crisis scenario. The CM team must step in to manage public perception, engage stakeholders, and issue communications.

Thus, BCM is tactical, focused on continuity and recovery. CM is strategic, focused on preserving the brand and trust.

Summing Up ... Building the Right Capability for Tangs

For TANGS Singapore to maintain its status as a retail icon, it must adopt both Crisis Management and Business Continuity Management as essential components of its resilience architecture.

ISO 22361 provides the strategic blueprint, while Business Continuity Management (BCM) standards ensure operational continuity.

By distinguishing between disasters and crisis scenarios and assigning responsibility to the appropriate teams, TANGS can respond with agility and strength, preserving both its operations and its reputation.

In the next chapter, we will explore how to design the Crisis Management Structure and Roles within TANGS, including the composition of the Crisis Management Team and its activation protocols.

More Information About Crisis Management Courses

To learn more about the course and schedule, click the buttons below for the CM-300 Crisis Management Implementer [CM-3] and the CM-5000 Crisis Management Expert Implementer [CM-5].