The Binomial Bookstore

MANAGING CRISES BEFORE THEY HAPPEN:
WHAT EVERY EXECUTIVE AND MANAGER NEEDS TO KNOW ABOUT CRISIS
MANAGEMENT
By Ian I. Mitroff with Gus Anagnos

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"This important book can keep nation-states, corporations - in fact, ALL organizations
and people out of trouble. It's also enormously helpful for all who get into trouble (and who
doesn't these days?), showing how to get out of it quickly and cleanly. This is Ian Mitroff's
arena, and nobody does a better job of writing about crisis management than he." - Warren
Bennis, Distinguished Professor of Business, University of Southern California, and author of
Managing the Dream and On Becoming a Leader.

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"MANAGING CRISES BEFORE THEY HAPPEN distills decades of Ian Mitroff's
celebrated wisdom and experience in the field of crisis management, a field indelibly
stamped with his name. This is essential reading for everyone who works in the volatile world
of contemporary organizations, where myriad crises will inevitably strike. It is an incredibly
wise and helpful book that outlines a systematic, pragmatic, philosophical, and ethical
approach to avoiding, preparing for, and dealing with crises. What more could you want?" -
Jean Lipman-Blumen, Bradshaw Professor of Public Policy and Management, Peter F.
Drucker Graduate School of Management, Claremont Graduate University, and author of
Connective Leadership: Managing in a Changing World.

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"Those of us who have the great privilege of leading organizations in this complex age
face enormous challenges, obstacles, and inevitable detractors. When to this mix we add an
organizational crisis, the path ahead seems to lead us into a cul de sac. Recognizing the
likelihood of the crisis, anticipating its arrival, building tools for its containment, and
preparing
to learn and grow from it leads us out of the quagmire and toward a strategic future. In my
view, MANAGING CRISES BEFORE THEY HAPPEN is an outstanding addition to the tool
kit of the leader of the twenty-first century." MARK A. KROEKER, Chief of Police, Portland
Police Bureau, Portland, Oregon

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"The Challenger explosion, Exxon Valdez, glass in Gerber baby foods, five USAir
crashes in five years, the bankruptcy of Orange County. These were not natural disasters, but
human-caused crises, and each day the list grows longer ....

"Today, any complex organization is susceptible to tragic accidents, human errors, and
outright criminal acts. And each one can escalate exponentially, destroying lives and
property, damaging reputations - even overturning market dominance - and infiltrating and
undermining the well-being of the organization as a whole. The issue is not if your
organization will suffer a major crisis, but rather how, when, and why your vulnerability will be
exposed... and whether you will be victim or villain.

"How does one manage in such a world? In Managing Crises Before They Happen, Ian
Mitroff, widely regarded as the founder of crisis management and one of the world's leading
authorities on its theory and practice, reveals the specific features of corporate culture that
enable crises to erupt and flourish. In this fascinating book, he probes the psyche of the
organization, pointing out how a mindset of "it can't happen here" eventually leads to a
breakdown of the entire system. He takes on the critical issue of truth-telling ...offers
practical
advice and philosophical insights... and provides a framework for controlling and containing
the damage.

"Mitroff's "Best Practice Model" demonstrates how managing crises effectively begins
with mechanisms in place long before crises occur, and that only continuous proactive
measures can prevent one or limit its impact. This powerful model explains:
- how to detect the trail of early warning signals and recognize what precedes all crises
- why five factors (types/risks, mechanisms, systems, stakeholders, and scenarios) are
the
key elements in managing before, during, and after crises
- how to determine risk factors outside your known and anticipated experiences
- how to prepare a robust "crisis portfolio" containing advance preparations
- how to construct a best "worst case" scenario.

'Managing Crises Before They Happen makes it clear that crisis management is not a
separate program, but an integral part of the entire management system. An important book,
based on decades of experience, it promotes the kind of big picture thinking and practical
knowledge you need to sidestep the pitfalls of an increasingly crisis-ridden environment."

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EXCERPT FROM THE PREFACE TO MANAGING CRISES BEFORE THEY HAPPEN:

"For most of my adult life, I have studied people working in and around organizations. I
have studied them primarily for the purpose of helping them improve so that they could serve
themselves, their customers, the environment, and their surrounding communities more
responsibly.

"I have witnessed firsthand the behavior of individuals and organizations in good and in
bad times. I have seen how they function both in normal and in abnormal situations. I have
especially studied how they behave in extreme crisis situations.

"Nothing better reveals the mettle and the character of a person and an organization
than
how they respond to a major crisis. Also, nothing better reveals the basic beliefs that
individuals and organizations have about human nature than a major crisis.

"This book is about the general philosophy or the "bigger picture" of crisis management
(CM). It is also about the details of CM. It differs from the vast majority of existing books on
CM in that it presents the details within the context of "the larger or bigger picture." This is
because, as my colleagues and I have observed again and again, the details of CM are
relatively easy to master and even to implement. But this is so if and only if one first
understands the general, overall philosophy of CM. For example, the fact that many
organizations have developed extensive plans and procedures only increases their
frustration
when they find that they are still not adequately prepared for many crises.

"It is absolutely necessary to understand the larger picture because if CM is anything, it
is
systemic. In other words, crises do not happen merely because a single part of a complex
system fails. Rather, they occur because a significant amount of the overall system fails.
Thus, CM is inherently the process of seeing and dealing with larger, whole systems.

"The real, underlying source of the difficulties in implementing a comprehensive program
of CM is that it goes sharply against the grain of current management thought and practice.
The basic or the most central problem is that it requires cultural acceptance, and
unfortunately, in the vast majority of cases, major cultural transformation.

"This does not mean that installing a comprehensive program of CM is impossible.
Indeed, this entire book argues that the task is imminently doable. The task may be difficult
and it may demand enormous commitment, but it is not impossible."

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EXCERPT: WHAT TO DO BEFORE AND DURING A CRISIS

BEFORE A CRISIS

"Do an extensive crisis audit of your entire organization. The goal should be to know in
advance every major crisis waiting to happen.

"Expose as many secrets about your organization as possible. The goal is to know the
worst about yourself before others do. In a major crisis, everything about your organization
will
be exposed.

"It is not enough to know the worst about oneself unless one is willing to do something
serious to correct it as soon as possible. The media will not only want to know what you
knew
when, but what you did, and did not do, about it and why.

"Get media training for all of your top executives before a major crisis occurs. During a
crisis is the worst possible place and time to learn the skills one needs to know.

"Get crisis management team training for all of your top executives before a major crisis
occurs. Your top executives will have to function as a tight-knit, coordinated, and integrated
team if it is to respond quickly and properly during a major crisis.

"Do not confuse crisis communications with crisis management. Unless crisis
communications is part of a larger program of crisis management, it will fail miserably.
Unlike
crisis communications, which is mainly reactive and focuses on one aspect of the system,
crisis management is proactive and focuses on the whole system.

"Put in systems that will pick up the early warning signals, which forewarn all crises.
There is always somebody in the system and organization who knows and sees a potential
crisis waiting to happen. Reward and do not kill the messengers of bad news.

"Train and simulate for the worst. Understand that it is not what you are prepared for that
will occur, but it is also what you have not thought about and are not prepared for, that will
occur.

DURING A CRISIS

"Fire the "spin doctors!" Get rid of communication professionals that are only interested
in reacting to a crisis with "spin," rather than finding and preparing for potential crises.

"Tell the worst about yourself as soon and as completely as possible. The truth will come
out anyway and will only prolong and worsen the crisis. Often, the only control you have over
a
crisis is what to release and when. But you will quickly lose this if you do not release
everything you know.

"Do not blame others, it will only worsen the crisis.

"Do not give statistics as to why you acted or did not act the way you did. Statistics are
not only meaningless to most people, but they are cold and, therefore, an indication of guilt
and callowness, especially if there were deaths and serious injuries.

"Remember that above all you will be judged on your moral character."

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CONTENTS

Preface

Acknowledgments

1. Why Crises Are an Inevitable and Permanent Feature of Modern Societies

2. The Failure of Success: The Tylenol Poisonings, Crisis Management's "Ancient History"

3. A Best Practice Model: A General Framework for Crisis Management

4. Should We Tell the Truth? The Varieties of Truth and Telling the Truth

5. Assuming Responsibility: Victim or Villain?

6. Detecting Weak Signals: Making Sure That You Are the First to Get the Worst News!

7. Thinking Far Outside of the Boxes

8. Treating the Big Picture

9. Crisis Management 2002: The Challenges Ahead

Additional Readings

Notes

About the Authors

Acknowledgments for Previously Published Materials

Index

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ABOUT THE AUTHORS

"IAN I. MITROFF is Harold Quinton Distinguished Professor of Business Policy at the
Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California, and president of the
consulting firm Comprehensive Crisis Management. He is regarded as the founder of the
discipline of crisis management and was founder and director of the USC Center for Crisis
Management. Known for his thinking and writing on a wide range of business and societal
issues, Dr. Mitroff is the author or coauthor of 20 previous books, including A Spiritual Audit
of Corporate America, Smart Thinking for Crazy Times, The Essential Guide to Managing
Corporate Crises, and The Unbounded Mind. He lives in Manhattan Beach, California.

"GUS ANAGNOS is Vice President of Comprehensive Crisis Management. He lives in
Hermosa Beach, California."

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2000, 172 pages Order #DR513, $25.00.

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Crisis Management, Crisis Communication

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