Most small businesses know who handles communication. It’s usually the founder, a senior manager or one trusted person who knows the passwords, approves the wording and understands which customers, journalists and partners need to be contacted.
That works until the person isn’t available.
They may be travelling, unwell, dealing with a family emergency or simply unreachable at the moment a problem develops. The business is still operating, but nobody is quite sure who can approve a response, access the website or speak on its behalf.
Could your team manage for 48 hours without you?
The gap between awareness and preparedness
Rod Cartwright’s 2026 Reputation, Risk and Resilience report highlights a persistent gap between recognising risk and being prepared to manage it.
Many organisations have plans, policies and systems. What they often lack is the human infrastructure needed to put those plans into action.
For a small business, that weakness can be particularly significant. Information and authority are often concentrated around one or two people. The founder may hold important customer relationships, media contacts, supplier information and access to key communication channels.
The business may understand the risk. That doesn’t mean it could respond effectively.
Run the 48-hour test
Imagine that the founder or person responsible for communication becomes completely unavailable at 9am tomorrow. They can’t answer calls, approve messages or provide passwords.
Could the business continue communicating clearly until 9am two days later?
Test these seven areas.
1. Authority and approvals
Is there a named deputy who can approve customer updates, staff messages, website notices and media responses? “Check with the founder” isn’t a process if the founder can’t be reached. The deputy needs clear authority, including an understanding of what they can approve independently and what must wait.
2. Website and social media access
Can at least two authorised people access the website, social media accounts, business email platform and other public channels? Passwords shouldn’t be sitting in someone’s notebook, personal email or private WhatsApp chat. They should be stored securely, with two-factor authentication and recovery details that don’t depend on one person’s phone.
3. Staff communication
Does the team know where verified information will come from? Choose a primary internal channel and a backup. Make it clear who will provide updates and what staff should say if customers, suppliers or journalists contact them directly.
4. Customer responses
Could the team quickly identify customers who need to be contacted? Prepare short templates for common situations such as a service interruption, delivery delay, data issue or unexpected closure. Templates shouldn’t replace judgement, but they give the team a reliable starting point when time is tight.
5 Media enquiries.
Is there a current list of media contacts and a simple process for handling enquiries? The person answering the phone or monitoring the inbox should know who may speak for the business and how to record the journalist’s name, publication, question and deadline. A brief holding response can create time to confirm the facts without ignoring the enquiry.
6. Supplier and partner information.
Could someone find the right contact details for critical suppliers, advisers, landlords, technology providers or government authorities? This matters in the GCC, where businesses may be managing relationships across several countries, time zones and languages. Contact information should be current, shared and easy to retrieve.
7. One source of truth
Where would the deputy find the latest approved company information? Create a simple continuity folder containing company details, leadership biographies, customer and supplier contacts, key policies, approved messages and escalation procedures. Review it regularly.
Preparedness has to extend beyond the founder
Good leadership remains important in difficult situations. But strong leadership also means ensuring the business isn’t entirely dependent on one leader.
A written plan helps. Access to the right systems matters. The real test, however, is whether another person can step in, understand what is happening and communicate with confidence.
Block out 30 minutes this week and run the test. Remove yourself from the communication chain for a hypothetical 48 hours and ask the team what they would do.
The gaps you discover in that conversation are the areas to fix before the business faces a real disruption.
