11 painful moments CEOs and founders thought their business was sunk — and how they turned it around

In business, as in any other aspect of life, there is never any such thing as being inured from a crisis. Indeed, the more one has the more one has to lose. Such is the case with business titans, many of whom have experienced scary moments when it all seemed about to tumble into the abyss. Money may have been disappearing like water over a fall, or some scandal may have erupted, potentially flattening their business in its wake.

Tact and communication are key. One company was tweeted about before it was entirely up and running, leading to angry potential customers who couldn’t understand why they were not getting served. A polite request to give the company a little more time to get its legs under it was enough in this instance. Communication also proved key in the instance of a business man who’s plans to rebuild a largely African-American region began with largely Caucasian-centered ads. A miffed public was alerted that more ads and more diverse ads were on their way. One company found that they needed to hire more staff to quench a public outcry for more content. One savvy business woman leveraged her assets to shore up a lack of funds. Another company was alerted that their packaging was too similar to another company’s and had to redesign post-haste. Being nimble on their mental feet and quick to improve and improvise seem to be key as to how many titans faced with a crisis have not just survived, but also thrived.

Key Takeaways:

• Being a titan of industry doesn’t inure one from the possibility of a crisis turning it all to dust.
• Scandal can rock a business, as can a lack of funds, which is why good business stewards learn to leverage their assets and communicate effectively.
• One would-be city renovator quelled a miffed public, irate over ads that did not do justice to an area’s diverse ethnicity, by assuring them more ads and more diverse ads were forthcoming.

“Mi told Jacobs that the message conveyed to customers that the company was professional instead of sleazy and wasn’t simply trying to get money out of them before the product was ready.”

Read more: https://www.businessinsider.com/business-crises-successful-companies-2018-7?nr_email_referer=1&pt=385758&ct=Sailthru_BI_Newsletters&mt=8