Why Some Companies Emerge Stronger and Better from a Crisis: 7 Essential Lessons for Surviving Disaster [Hardcover]

Ian I. Mitroff (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 11, 2005

There is a fundamental difference between business continuity planning and crisis management. Even a complete operational plan does little to prepare a company to come through a crisis with strength and confidence. According to Ian Mitroff, crises can (and will) now arise with unprecedented frequency, complexity, and destructive power, as what was once rare is now the norm: terrorism, cyberattacks, large-scale fraud, and kidnappings. This all-too-timely book presents 7 competencies that companies must develop in order to deal with what is now a virtual certainty. Mitroff outlines how to foster different "IQs," ranging from emotional resiliency and creative problem-solving to crucial political and social skills and more. Equally important is a blueprint for integrating these far-reaching ideals into daily practice, and finally moving beyond the crisis to embrace the world, however changed it may be. Filled with examples drawn from scores of interviews conducted both after 9/11 and during Mitroff's 25-year career in crisis management, this is a passionate, wise, and practical book that will indeed help organizations become stronger and better.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Public Relations Review: "...a very readable, well thought out, and competently organized ‘plan’ for organizational crisis management."

Review

"""Excellent! This is Mitroff's best in crisis management. A careful reading of this book will cause you to ask important questions of yourself and your colleagues regarding the vulnerability of your enterprise to a crisis. By asking these questions now you will avoid the embarrassment of having to explain why you did not ask and answer them, and minimize the chances of the crisis occurring in the first place.""

-- Vince Barabba, former Director of Business Intelligence, General Motors; former Director of the U.S. Census Bureau.

""Agreement with the author is not the issue; thinking about the issues he raises is. You can't read this and avoid such thinking, and you can't avoid being better off if you do.""

-- Russ Ackoff, Professor Emeritus, The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

""Mitroff is the most eloquent voice we have writing about crises. This book is a timely masterpiece about our age of vulnerability and how, against all odds, we can best cope with this 21st century danger. The ‘we’ I am referring to includes all of us.""

-- Warren Bennis, Distinguished Professor of Business, University of Southern California; best-selling author of On Becoming a Leader"

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: AMACOM; 1 edition (March 11, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814408508
• ISBN-13: 978-0814408506
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,054,234 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Convincing Argument for Making Crisis Mgmt Part of Business, April 12, 2006

By 

Meryl K. Evans "Content Maven behind meryl.net" (Plano, TX) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Why Some Companies Emerge Stronger and Better from a Crisis: 7 Essential Lessons for Surviving Disaster (Hardcover)

Crises aren't limited to computer breaches, hurricanes, and tsunamis. Unfortunately, more crises have occurred in the past few years than in the 20 years before that. Too many organizations react to crisis instead of making crisis management a part of its organization like human resources and finance.

The unusual way of doing business in the past has become the normal way of doing business today. Crisis doesn't have boundaries, so it can affect a company across the board rather than in silos.

Mitroff works to change attitudes and philosophy required to ensure a company correctly implements crisis management rather than addressing the basics of crisis management. The basics won't matter if companies have the wrong attitude.

According to Mitroff, organizations that adopt the seven challenges improve their chances of riding out any crisis that occurs. Organizations also include public, government, and non-profits. Before 9/11, people thought the idea of a "flying bomb" was unbelievable. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case and it taught organizations a valuable lesson: be prepared for anything even far-fetched scenarios.

You'd think 9/11 would encourage organizations to take a proactive stance on crisis management, but just two years after 9/11 - companies returned to their old ways and prepared to handle only few crises: natural disasters and fire. Crises have changed as they're not just "normal systems accidents," which are accidental breakdowns as a result of very complicated technology.

Seven competencies help an organization survive a crisis and maybe come out of it better than before the crisis. They are:

Right Heart: Emotional IQ - Learn how to get a better handle on emotions and how to deal with defense mechanisms that expectedly appear when crises occur.

Right Thinking: Creative IQ - Bigger picture thinking that requires thinking outside of outside the box.</li>

Right Social and Political Skills: Social and Political IQ - Organizations look at themselves as one big entity instead of departments and that they're only in one business. All businesses are in all businesses. For example, a university is also in the food business (cafeteria) and facilities business (dorms).

Right Integration: Integrative IQ - Crisis management can't be reduced to tools and techniques. Instead it's based on assumptions as there endless solutions.

Right Technical Skills: Technical IQ - Must "think like a controlled paranoid," which means exploring every scenario without tossing it out as preposterous.

Right Transfer: Aesthetic IQ - Included crisis management as part of an organization rather than as its own department or put in a silo.

Right Soul: Spiritual IQ - Organization accept the spiritual, physical, and mental areas exist together not separately. It lets organizations deal with problems that result from unnaturally splitting up these areas.

The book influences the reader to look at crisis management differently and to convince the organization of the importance of getting on board. Mitroff shares chilling stories about crises and how companies handled them, which clearly illustrate the points the reader needs to understand about crisis management.

At times, Mitroff's writing sounds like a college textbook and loses the reader. However, considering the complex topic, Mitroff does a fine job as many parts of the book absorb the reader. The book targets executives and managers who buy-in to the philosophy and can make a difference in their companies.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Future success requires planning today for tomorrow's crises., April 29, 2009

By 

Rebecca Clement "Publisher, Soundview Executi... (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Why Some Companies Emerge Stronger and Better from a Crisis: 7 Essential Lessons for Surviving Disaster (Paperback)

The first lesson that you're taught in any type of crisis training is that it's not a question IF your organization will face a crisis, but it's a question of WHEN your organization will face a crisis - simply stated, every organization will face some type of crisis during its existence. However, not all companies successfully emerge from the aftermath. Companies such as Enron, Arthur Anderson, American Peanut Company, Union Carbide never recovered after their respective crises, while others such as Johnson & Johnson (Tylenol), Firestone, Exxon and MCI (WorldCom) continue to survive. Crisis management expert, Ian Mitroff lists seven essential competencies in his book that companies and individuals need to possess to endure through a crisis scenario. Soundview recommends "Why Some Companies Emerge Stronger" because its message and strategies are timeless advice that are just as relevant today as when the original work was published nearly five years ago. For example, one of the most important competencies the Mitroff lists is the need for preparation and scenario planning. While you can't necessarily predict or plan for every possibility, this simple exercise is an invaluable tool that helps debug your contingency plans and stress test your crisis model during a "dress rehearsal" rather than during an emergency situation. That's sound advice for any rainy day, especially when you consider that Noah didn't build the ark while it was pouring.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars IMPRESSIVE IN SCOPE, PENETRATING THOUGHT, & INSIGHTS., July 11, 2005

By 

Gerry Stern "Stern's Management Review Online" (Culver City, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Why Some Companies Emerge Stronger and Better from a Crisis: 7 Essential Lessons for Surviving Disaster (Hardcover)

The book presents seven essential challenges all organizations face in today's environment, along with seven essential lessons that are key to successfully facing and overcoming them. The lessons concern: emotional preparedness; creative thinking; spiritual strength; political and social skills; technical skills; integration of areas of knowledge and emotions; and innovation. Mitroff closes his discussion by expanding his thinking to the societal level. The book is filled with penetrating and challenging thought encompassing many perspectives and providing numerous insights. Mitroff approaches crisis management in a highly innovative way and takes it to a new level.