Crisis Management: Master the Skills to Prevent Disasters

This product has brought great insight and knowledge to me. I love it, i love it. I know it will help me make in making right decisions for my business.

This quick introduction to crisis management is suitable for senior managers, for business continuity management or disaster recovery practitioners (BCM/DR), and for information technology (IT) managers as they are often the ones given the chore of implementing DR plans. If you are a CEO or a senior manager in a firm of any size, this will convince you to prepare now for unforeseen problems that could endanger your business tomorrow. If you are a BCM/DR professional, this book will give you material and ideas for developing a pro-active crisis management culture within your organization, right up to convincing the the board to give the program full support. IT managers tasked with developing DR program will also benefit this way, but will also gain precious insight in how to communicate effectively with the media, in fact how to communicate with all stakeholders to get the organization's message across as it wants it understood. This guide makes an excellent case that unexpected emergencies are best handled a long time before anything goes wrong. My only criticism is that it focuses too much on planning for specific scenarios, such as a fire, and not enough on more abstract impact scenarios, such as loss of premises whatever the reason. However, since it also strongly advocates the need to prepare for unforeseeable contingencies, this isn't a problem. Vincent Poirier, Tokyo

Be prepared. One day the company you own or help manage may face a severe crisis. Inexplicably, one of your most popular products suddenly proves lethally hazardous. Your accountant is frog-marched in handcuffs to the nearest slammer for embezzlement. Your plant in Malaysia blows up, injuring scores of locals. A tornado flattens your major warehouse complex and the surrounding town. Quick: What do you do? The best time to handle a corporate crisis is before it begins. First, assess the primary risks your company faces, then develop comprehensive contingency plans to face these potential crises. This superb book from the expert, lucid Harvard Business Essentials series provides a proven, step-by-step approach your company can use to plan for and deal with any corporate crisis. We strongly recommend this important guide to crisis planning and management. Its insightful analysis is well organized, clearly written and firmly supported with compelling case histories.

This is one of the volumes in the Harvard Business Essentials Series. Each offers authoritative answers to the most important questions concerning its specific subject. The material in this book is drawn from a variety of sources which include the Harvard Business School Press and the Harvard Business Review as well as Harvard ManageMentor®, an online service. I strongly recommend the official Harvard Business Essentials Web site (www.elearning.hbsp.org/businesstools) that offers free interactive versions of tools, checklists, and worksheets cited in this book and other books in the Essentials series. Each volume is indeed "a highly practical resource for readers with all levels of experience." And each is by intent and in execution solution-oriented. Although I think those who have only recently embarked on a business career will derive the greatest benefit, the material is well worth a periodic review by senior-level executives. Credit Richard Luecke with pulling together a wealth of information and counsel from various sources. He is also the author of several other books in the Essentials series. In this instance, he was assisted by a subject advisor, Larry Barton, who is president of the American College. Together, they have carefully organized the material as follows. First, they explain why power is necessary in organizations "even though our society distrusts power and those who seek it." Next, they examine the sources of power. Then they explain why power is realized only through some form of expression. In Chapter 4, they examine influence in sharper focus, illustrating three specific tactics that any manager can use. Then in the next two chapters, Luecke and Reardon shift their attention to the concept of persuasion. They identify the four elements of persuasion and discuss how various audiences and people with diverse decision-making styles are receptive ("susceptible") to different forms of persuasion. Then in Chapter 6, they explain how to appeal both to the mind (with logic and/or evidence) and the to heart (by anchoring the given proposition in a human context). Hence the importance of compelling details, vivid images, similes, metaphors, analogies, and especially stories achieve resonance with an audience. In Chapter 7, Luecke and Reardon provide some excellent suggestions to increase and enhance the impact of a formal presentation. "It suggests a presentation structure and a number of rhetorical devices perfected by the ancient Greeks. It also explains the various learning styles used by people and explains the importance of adapting each formal presentation to the needs, interests, and temperament of the given audience. I also appreciate the three appendices provided. "In Leading When You're Not the Boss," Luecke and Reardon offer useful tips on how to be productive and effective in situations in which (usually lower-level managers) are expected to lead but have no formal power or authority to do so. Appendix B includes t