Manager's Guide to Crisis Management

Chapter 1The Importance of Crisis Management

What is Crisis Management? It’s the art of avoiding trouble when you can, and reacting appropriately when you can’t.

That’s about as simple as it gets. From that definition you can see that crisis management could apply to business situations, to psychological issues, even to problems at home. But the type of crisis management we’re talking about in this book has its closest correlation to firefighting.

Every year, tens of thousands of brave firefighters earn headlines for their efforts at fighting fires, as well they should—they save lives, homes, and businesses whenever they can. But the guys rolling on the fire engines are not, in fact, the ones who save us the most money every year. It’s the fire ...