For the first Scholars’ Masterclass of the Summer Term, we were delighted to welcome back an Old Viking to the College for the Monday 28 April instalment. Harry Conibear-Griffiths (12B) is a Senior Manager in Business Resilience at Virgin Atlantic and in his Masterclass, he talked about crisis management.
A pupil at the College from 2007 to 2012, Harry studied business studies, theology and philosophy, and public services. Following this, he went on to study Disaster Management and Emergency Planning at Coventry University before taking up an Account Manager position at Kenyon Emergency Services in 2015. In 2017, he joined Sky as a Crisis & Emergency Response Lead before taking up his current role with Virgin Atlantic in 2023.
After giving a brief overview of Virgin Atlantic including its origin and history, Harry went into detail about what business resilience entails and what this means specifically for an airline such as Virgin Atlantic. In essence, business resilience is the ability to prepare for, withstand, and bounce back from threats and shocks to Virgin Atlantic’s people (staff and customers), operations, and reputation. This addresses the linked disciplines of:
- Business Continuity: the ability to continue delivering during disruptive events
- Crisis Management: the response to major threats to Virgin Atlantic
- Incident Management: the response to impactful events
- Emergency Response: the ability to respond to worst case, mass fatality events
Before looking at a couple of case studies, Harry talked about the different types of crises that an airline could face including industrial action, geo-politics, supply chain failures, protests and more. When delving into a case study – specifically the Virgin Atlantic flight VS24 1997 crash, Harry talked about how the airline responded to the incident from crew and passenger care to press management.
Harry finished his Masterclass by talking about how the airline prepares for and responds to crises. This includes having structures and frameworks, having plans in place, training all teams across the entire business and, of course, exercising and testing teams in simulated conditions.
And after taking questions from our pupils at the end of his Masterclass, there was even a chance for Deputy Head (Academic) Mr Jones to present Harry his Grade 5 Theory of Music certificate from 2011!
Thank you, Harry, for returning to the College to speak to our pupils about your fascinating line of work!
