The ICM Content Analysis Approach to Crisis Management

ICM uses basically the same content analysis techniques developed by Allied intelligence during World War II by carefully examining newspaper reports in Germany to assess what impact the Allied bombings and other activities were having on the Axis. A similar approach of examining the news media to determine significant trends has since been popularized in the series of Megatrends books authored by John Naismith. As a matter of fact, ICM has provided data on business crisis trends to Mr. Naismith's organization.

The only major difference in the approach that ICM takes is that the only focus is on business crisis events that impact companies, non-profit organizations and government agencies. ICM also restricts its data collection to large electronic databases of news coverage that can be analyzed by computers.

How the ICM Crisis Database is Used

The ICM Crisis Database is used in crisis consulting by the ICM staff and its strategic partners and clients to define the types of problems an organization is most likely to face based on what their peers have experienced in recent years. Just like lawyers, who base their advice and counsel on legal precedent, ICM utilizes the database to show clients what others have done and what worked and didn't.

The ICM Crisis Database also is a unique resource for developing realistic crisis response plans that anticipate the most likely sudden and smoldering crisis events in the client’s business, based on analyzing the crises of their competitors and similar types of business. The ICM database is used by other clients to focus on the trends in crisis events that should be addressed in their strategic planning activities.

Another frequent use of the ICM Crisis Database is in developing realistic scenarios for management training workshops that will give managers and employees practice in responding to crisis events. Records of crisis situations which competitors and similar businesses have had are used to develop the initial crisis and subsequent aftershocks that the workshop participants have to work through. The fact that the scenario is based on actual crisis events gives the exercise more credibility with the participants, as well as the basis for discussing afterward how is was managed and mismanaged.

The third use of the ICM Crisis Database is for the Institute's empirical research activities. ICM analyzes the trends in business crisis events on a quarterly basis and publishes reports that focus on important changes in crisis events for business in general and for specific industries. These reports, as well as the papers that ICM staff members and senior consultants present at meetings, are included under the Publications on the following pages.

The ICM Database

The 100,000+ records in the ICM Crisis Database are compiled electronically from more than 1,500 business news organizations worldwide, including syndicated newspapers, business and financial wire services, national and regional business newspapers and magazines and industry trade publications and newsletters. Their news stories are screened by our proprietary crisis search logic program and those that qualify as crisis news are downloaded to the ICM computers.

Each of the database records are individually coded by computer with one or more crisis categories, based on the type of crisis defined in the headline and/or descriptor. The crisis categories include:

It is important to understand that the ICM Crisis Database does not pick up all of the crisis news coverage worldwide. What we have developed is an index of business crisis trends going back to 1990 in a database that now has more than 100,000 records. From the crisis management experts we've talked to in North America, South America and Europe, nothing else like it exists in the world.

To discuss your specific needs or request a proposal, contact ICM