8. Individualization of Approaches in Scenarios of Survival and Development for Companies in the Digital Environment

The effects of digital transformation not only have a positive impact on many aspects of society but can also threaten a companies’ stability. The chapter examines the impact of digital transformation on the business environment and shows that the solutions being developed to prevent crises require a rethinking of the theoretical assumptions of crisis management.

To achieve the goal of the study, it was necessary to distinguish three types of companies: (1) industrial companies that arose in the previous era of public relations, (2) companies completing their digital transformation, and (3) new types of companies created as a response to digital challenges. The chapter shows that one of the main techniques of crisis management—diagnostics of the financial condition—begins to give false results when comparing the identified types of companies. This is because today, digital companies can show significant losses with the growth of capitalization, which leads to a break in the historically formed causal “financial condition–crisis” relationship. It is shown that the well-known crisis management tools do not work fully, either with companies of the recent past, or with companies that have undergone digital transformation, or with digital companies. It is argued that the mass non-personalized approach of the state is controversial and business is both supported and inhibited in terms of economic development. It is concluded that the most appropriate tool for ensuring the survival and development of companies is individualizing crisis-management scenarios.