Managing a crisis

In times of severe unrest, the safety and wellbeing of employees and contractors is of paramount importance. In recent years ABB has built up a network of company security experts, and carried out global training exercises to ensure employees and contractors know how to act and react in the event of a crisis.

Considerable training had taken place before the political unrest in Egypt in mid-2013. As the crisis unfolded, local managers and security specialists implemented established processes to assess rapidly-changing risks and developments, plan for the potential movement or evacuation of people, and review existing security requirements around ABB offices and production sites.

The aims: To safeguard our people, ensure the security of company assets, and where feasible help the business continue functioning amid the turmoil.

As the unrest began, ABB security and crisis management teams - at national, regional and Group levels - held regular briefing sessions with the first priority to locate and ensure the safety of all personnel including those at remote project sites. All Egyptian staff members were accounted for immediately and an internal online travel management tool pinpointed the locations of all expatriate staff.

The company’s national security manager in Egypt took the lead at all meetings and coordinated different activities, providing insights on political developments, likely flashpoints, the logistics and advisability of personnel movement, and advice to expatriates. In a few cases, expatriates were helped to leave the country briefly or deferred visits.

After taking security advice, managers halted night shifts for a short period at one ABB manufacturing site near Cairo to ensure all personnel could travel in safety to and from the complex in company buses. Disruption to production was minimal.

Every crisis is different in nature and constantly evolving. In this case, ABB experts were able to support our people – and ensure business continuity – in a difficult period.