Building Crisis Readiness Into HBKU
How HBKU replaced fragmented crisis response with a practical operating framework for faster decisions, coordinated communications and stronger institutional trust.
HBKU operates within a complex institutional environment. Its community includes students, staff, faculty, researchers, national research institutes, Education City partners, Qatar Foundation and an international network of collaborators.
That interconnected model creates a wide range of potential risks. Some incidents may remain within one university entity. Others may affect the whole university, Qatar Foundation or Qatar's wider reputation.
HBKU already had communications processes in place, but they needed to be reviewed, tested and developed into a formal crisis communications framework. The goal was to ensure that a serious issue could be assessed quickly, communicated accurately and managed without confusion or unnecessary exposure.
Crisis communications can fail when teams begin working before they agree on what has happened, who has decision authority, who needs to be informed and what can be said.
HBKU needed to protect people, assess reputational risk, coordinate Communications with leadership and Qatar Foundation, respect confidentiality and legal obligations, and maintain consistency across internal, external, media, web and social channels.
The framework also needed to preserve a clear record of decisions, actions and approvals so that the university could learn from each response.
The system had to be robust enough for a major institutional crisis and practical enough for the Communications team to use under pressure.
Fragmentation: separate teams could act on different facts or priorities
Authority: decision rights and approval routes needed to be clear before a crisis
Consistency: internal, external, media, web and social responses had to remain aligned
Judgment: confidentiality, transparency and stakeholder needs had to be balanced
Learning: every response needed to strengthen future readiness
The risk was not only the crisis itself. It was fragmentation.
Without a shared process, a fast-moving event could produce delayed decisions, inconsistent messages, duplicated effort, unclear accountability and greater stakeholder anxiety. Within a university connected to Qatar Foundation and Education City, poor coordination could also create wider institutional risk.
Crisis communications therefore had to become an operational capability, not a collection of statements or a media plan.
Leadership decisions, verified information, stakeholder needs, messaging, monitoring and recovery needed to work through one shared process.
We developed HBKU's Crisis Communications Guidance, a step-by-step framework for preparing for, mobilising and managing communications during a crisis.
The work began with a review of existing communications documents, processes and structures. Teneo facilitated gap-analysis discussions with HBKU Communications colleagues to identify strengths, weaknesses and development needs. I led HBKU's project workstream, defined the practical requirements of the framework and worked directly with Teneo through review, feedback and final delivery.
The resulting system connected risk classification, leadership escalation, verified information, stakeholder mapping, message development, channel coordination, monitoring, decision logging and recovery.
- Review of existing crisis communications documents, processes and governance
- Gap analysis across escalation, decision-making and stakeholder communications
- Crisis, emergency and incident classification model
- Crisis Communications Team structure, roles and alternates
- Escalation, notification, approval and mobilisation procedures
- Message frameworks, holding statements and channel guidance
- Monitoring, decision logging, recovery and post-crisis learning
- Training and live scenario exercise
- Established a dedicated Crisis Communications Team connecting Communications with the HBKU Crisis Leadership Taskforce and Qatar Foundation's Crisis Management Team
- Defined three response levels with clear triggers and requirements for a crisis, emergency and incident
- Mapped responsibilities across internal communications, external communications, media relations, social media, web updates, stakeholder engagement and spokesperson support
- Built a response checklist covering fact-finding, risk assessment, stakeholder mapping, resource planning, message development, approvals and monitoring
- Prepared holding statements and response guidance for foreseeable high-risk scenarios
- Introduced meeting structures, decision logs, action ownership and post-crisis review
- Used training and live scenario practice to test how the framework would operate under pressure
The work made crisis readiness operational rather than theoretical. The guidance was designed as a working system that teams could use, review and improve, not as a document that would sit unused until an emergency.
HBKU moved from a collection of communications processes to one formal crisis communications framework.
The guidance created a shared language built around three response levels: crisis, emergency and incident. It clarified who should be involved at each stage and established a practical route from notification to response, recovery and learning.
Every message was organized around four principles: concern for people affected, control of the immediate situation, commitment to long-term resolution and context where it helped stakeholders understand the wider picture.
The final guidance was delivered through a ten-week process of document review, internal gap analysis, drafting, HBKU review and revision.
The result was a live framework intended for regular review as institutional priorities, risks and operating conditions evolve. It gave Communications a more disciplined basis for escalation, verified information, stakeholder-specific communication, monitoring and approval.
Defined response levels
Message principles
Weeks from review to final guidance
I led the development of HBKU's crisis communications capability from initial review through final delivery and implementation planning. My role covered the assessment of existing communications processes, gap analysis, framework development, crisis-response design and stakeholder communications requirements. I led HBKU's project workstream and worked directly with Teneo to ensure that the guidance reflected the operational reality of HBKU, its colleges, research institutes, Education City relationships and Qatar Foundation governance.
- Client: Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Qatar Foundation
- Project leadership and crisis communications strategy: Houssam El Zein
- Crisis communications advisory: Teneo
- Project period: 2022 to 2023