richard.whitby

On 8 September 2026, the UK’s air traffic control system buckled again. A fault in NATS’ flight-data processing software at Swanwick grounded nearly 1,000 flights, disrupted around 330,000 passengers, and left travellers sleeping on terminal floors at Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted and Luton. Knock-on delays reached as far as Ibiza. Airlines warned it could take days […]

Back in June we wrote about Wowcher’s marketing email referencing a crocodile attack on a toddler, and the wider lesson it carried: speed without judgment is how brands end up apologising in public. A few months on, a much bigger and more damaging version of the same failure has played out — and it points

Every crisis manager knows the moment: a decision has to be made, the clock is running, and everyone in the room is looking to the most senior person for a cue. Anthony Maras’s 2026 film Pressure (adapted from David Haig’s 2014 play) puts that moment under a microscope, and the result is one of the

Anthropic recently said that its AI models hacked into the systems of three organisations during a cybersecurity test due to an error that gave them access to the internet. And it’s not the first time this has happened. Earlier in July, OpenAI disclosed that a combination of its models identified a vulnerability in the test

The infrastructure and data systems to manage a fully renewable grid are lagging behind the deployment of the technology itself.
UK companies that wait for a crisis before addressing their energy resilience may find themselves reacting too late.

Marketing teams often work at speed. Campaigns are planned, emails are scheduled, headlines are sharpened, and brands compete for attention in crowded inboxes. But speed must never come at the expense of judgement. The recent backlash faced by Wowcher, after a marketing email appeared to reference a serious crocodile attack at a UK zoo involving

Crisis exercises still need human oversight, sector knowledge and careful facilitation. The best results come when AI is used to accelerate design, challenge assumptions and generate options, while experienced practitioners refine the content and ensure it aligns with the organisation’s risks, plans and culture.

Resilience thinking must evolve from static contingency plans toward adaptive, layered strategies.

The last decade has seen a sharp rise in operational disruptions, cyber‑attacks, supply‑chain instability, and reputational events. But despite growing risk, many organisations still rely on outdated crisis plans, untested teams, and inconsistent processes.

In today’s unpredictable world, leaders face an unrelenting mix of operational, cyber, reputational, and geopolitical threats.