When a corporate crisis hits, time becomes your most precious and least forgiving asset. The way a business responds in the first 24 hours can define whether the crisis is contained or spirals into a long-term reputational, operational, and financial disaster.
In that short period, the company either earns the trust of stakeholders and the media or cedes control of the story to others. For mid-tier businesses with turnover between £1 million and £100 million, this is often the point where survival is either secured or compromised.
At Arx Nova, we have built our entire model on the understanding that controlling the narrative in that critical first day is not a luxury. It is an operational necessity. The story will be told regardless; the only question is whether you tell it, or someone else does.
Why the First 24 Hours Matter More Than Any Other
Once a crisis surfaces publicly, momentum builds at speed. Journalists are already drafting headlines. Customers are talking. Competitors are watching. Social media channels can turn a single allegation or incident into a trending topic in less than an hour. In this environment, silence is rarely neutral. It often reads as confusion, denial, or incompetence.
The speed at which events move means that the first statement, the first internal communication, and the first leadership decision are disproportionately important. They set the tone and direction for the entire crisis response. A misstep at this point can be replayed endlessly in the press, cited in regulatory investigations, and embedded in public memory for years.
Global examples bear this out. When United Airlines mishandled the removal of a passenger in 2017, their slow, defensive response became as damaging as the incident itself. In the UK, the Post Office Horizon scandal saw years of reputational harm exacerbated by early failures to engage transparently. Both situations demonstrate that if you are not actively shaping the narrative from the outset, others will do it for you, often to your detriment.
The Pace and Psychology of Crisis Response
In the boardroom, crises are not just operational events; they are psychological shocks. Information is incomplete, the stakes are high, and the margin for error is small. It is natural for leadership teams to want to pause, gather every fact, and deliberate. Unfortunately, while that instinct is understandable, the outside world is not waiting.
Externally, stakeholders are primed to interpret your actions and inactions. A rapid, coordinated, fact-based communication signals competence and control. A delayed or fragmented one fuels speculation. Once negative perceptions take hold, they become difficult to reverse, even with later evidence.
This is why Arx Nova’s approach places experienced crisis leaders directly alongside the board within 24 hours. By cutting through the noise and emotion, we enable decision-makers to act quickly without sacrificing accuracy or coherence. Our integrated model ensures legal, operational, financial, and communications considerations are addressed together, preventing the internal friction that so often causes damaging delays.
Scenarios Where Delay is Damage
Not all crises are created equal, but some demand immediate public engagement if the business is to retain control of the narrative. For mid-tier companies, these commonly include:
Regulatory Investigations
When the Financial Conduct Authority launches an inquiry or a regulator makes an unannounced visit, the news can travel fast inside your industry. A swift statement confirming awareness and cooperation can prevent harmful speculation about non-compliance or concealment.
Media Exposés
Investigative journalism can be a force for good, but it can also be deeply damaging if allegations are presented without your input. UK corporates such as Sports Direct have learned the hard way that failing to engage with journalists early can lead to headlines that define public perception for years.
Cashflow Crises
If news leaks that payroll may be missed or creditors are pulling terms, suppliers and employees can lose confidence almost instantly. Without visible reassurance from the top, panic can spread faster than the underlying financial problem.
Cyber Breaches
The British Airways data breach in 2018 is a stark reminder that a breach is not just a technical problem; it is a communications crisis. Prompt acknowledgement and a clear plan for resolution are now legal requirements under GDPR, but they are also vital to preserve trust.
Operational Failures
Product recalls, safety incidents, or supply chain breakdowns can become public through customer complaints or whistleblowers. The Grenfell Tower tragedy showed how operational failures can quickly become reputational and political crises, with communication under intense scrutiny from the outset.
Whistleblower Allegations
When an employee or insider goes public, speed is essential. Without your side of the story, the narrative will form around the allegations alone. Transparency, coupled with a clear commitment to investigate, is essential to retain credibility.
In each of these examples, the business’s early communications set the trajectory for everything that followed. Delay rarely improves the outcome. In most cases, it makes it worse.
When the Narrative Slips Away
Once you lose control of the story, recovery becomes significantly harder. Media narratives harden, regulators may take a more aggressive stance, and stakeholders begin to doubt the integrity of leadership. Even if the operational problem is resolved, the reputational damage can endure for years, eroding customer loyalty and market position.
We have seen companies collapse not solely because of the triggering incident, but because they allowed the conversation to be dominated by speculation, misinformation, or one-sided reporting. By the time they engaged, their version of events was dismissed as defensive or dishonest.
The Board’s Responsibility in the First Day
The board’s role in the first 24 hours is singular and critical: to set a clear course of action and ensure it is executed without delay or contradiction. That means agreeing the core message, aligning legal and operational priorities, and empowering a designated spokesperson to represent the organisation.
Boards that fail to achieve early alignment risk creating a vacuum that others will fill. Worse, they can end up undermining their own position through mixed messages. We have worked with organisations where the legal adviser advised complete silence, the PR team was pushing for immediate public statements, and operational leaders were briefing staff off-script. The result was confusion, both internally and externally, and a story that quickly escaped their control.
Why Fragmented Advice Undermines Control
The traditional approach in many organisations is to appoint different advisers for different aspects of a crisis: a law firm for legal exposure, a PR agency for communications, and a consultancy for operational issues. While each adviser may be skilled in their own field, without integration their work can conflict or create bottlenecks.
Separate advisers often produce advice that is technically correct but practically incompatible. The PR firm recommends a statement that the legal team vetoes. The operational team makes changes that contradict the public message. The finance team focuses on stabilising cash without considering reputational impact. Each is working in good faith, but the absence of coordination delays action and erodes consistency.
For a board already under pressure, acting as the hub between these spokes is a recipe for decision paralysis. Time is lost, opportunities to control the narrative vanish, and the costs, both financial and reputational, rise.
The Integrated Model Advantage
An integrated crisis management approach solves these problems by uniting all the essential disciplines under one coordinated leadership structure from the outset. This is not a theoretical model; it is the foundation of Arx Nova’s service.
By placing legal, financial, operational, and communications experts in the same room, decisions are made in real-time with all relevant perspectives in play. The board receives a single, coherent plan that balances regulatory compliance, operational realities, stakeholder expectations, and reputational protection.
The benefits are immediate: faster execution, consistent messaging, and a leadership team freed from the burden of coordinating disparate advisers. In practice, this means that the first public statement, the first internal communication, and the first operational interventions are all aligned, and they happen within the crucial 24-hour window.
The Arx Nova Approach
Arx Nova was built to respond when mid-tier organisations face high-pressure crises. Our promise is simple: within 24 hours of engagement, we embed with your leadership team and take control across the critical dimensions of the crisis.
Legal Risk Management
Our legal specialists work to limit exposure, ensure compliance with reporting obligations, and guide leadership on communications that protect both reputation and legal standing.
Financial Triage
We identify immediate threats to cashflow, secure emergency funding if required, and create stability to prevent operational breakdown.
Operational Control
From stabilising supply chains to ensuring safety compliance, we address urgent threats that could worsen the crisis if left unchecked.
Reputation and Communications
We manage the message across all audiences, media, regulators, investors, employees, and customers, ensuring that every stakeholder hears a consistent, credible account from the company itself.
Our senior-only team works without silos. Decisions are made quickly, based on a complete picture, and implemented without the delays and contradictions that plague fragmented models.
Steps to Take in the First 24 Hours
From our experience, the companies that control the narrative in the first 24 hours do five things consistently:
Acknowledge the issue immediately, even if the full facts are not yet known.
Assign a single, credible spokesperson to speak on behalf of the organisation.
Base every statement on confirmed facts to avoid future retractions.
Integrate all advice into one plan so that legal, operational, and communications strategies support each other.
Monitor and address misinformation in real time before it gains traction.
These are not abstract principles. They are actions that can be taken in any crisis, and they are far easier to execute with an integrated team in place from the outset.
Control the Narrative, Control the Outcome
In a crisis, every hour counts. The first 24 hours set the trajectory for everything that follows. For mid-tier companies, the difference between survival and failure often lies in whether the leadership team can seize control of the story before it slips away.
Controlling the narrative is not about spin. It is about being the definitive, credible source of information, demonstrating leadership, and showing stakeholders that you are in control of both the facts and the future. At Arx Nova, we give boards the tools, expertise, and capacity to do exactly that, starting from the moment we arrive.
When the stakes are high and time is short, the story will be told. Make sure it is yours.
Who’s behind this post?
Simon Larkin
Director & Co-Founder
Simon Larkin is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and a Chartered Marketer. As Co-Founder of Arx Nova, he brings over 20 years of experience in crisis communications and marketing. Simon works with leadership teams to manage reputational risk, control the narrative, and restore stakeholder confidence during periods of uncertainty.
