Most leaders think they know what their next crisis will look like. A cyber breach. A PR issue. A supply-chain hiccup. Yet statistically, the crises that inflict the greatest damage are the ones executive teams never see coming. According to PwC, 95% of companies will experience a crisis within 5 years—and more than half say the “unexpected” ones were the most devastating.

 

Imagine this: Your team is trained for a system outage, but the real crisis hits when a key vendor suddenly collapses. Or a mid-level employee posts sensitive data publicly. Or misinformation spreads online faster than your team can react. These are the “edge-case” failures that expose the real vulnerabilities: unclear communication channels, misaligned teams, and a lack of practiced decision-making under pressure.

 

The truth is simple: crises punish organizations that only prepare for the obvious.

 

A modern crisis-readiness strategy isn’t built around predicting every scenario—it's built to be scenario-proof. It ensures your people know how to communicate, leaders know how to decide, and the organization moves as one, even when the threat is unfamiliar.

 

Because in a world where volatility is rising, the greatest risk isn’t the crisis you expect—it’s the one you’re not prepared to navigate.

 

Reflection for leaders:
If your team faced a crisis tomorrow that wasn’t on your radar, would you still be ready?