I was impressed with Ian I. Mitroff’s book, Why Some Companies Emerge Stronger and Better from a Crisis, that I decided to feature it in the March issue of Shavlik’s The Remediator Security Digest. I think many don’t realize there’s more to crisis prep than technology and ensuring your IT systems are in order.

Also in the issue: Many folks wrote in to give advice on how to speed a computer and keep it healthy. The suggestions are applicable to home and small business computers.

Intel Solution Services’ The Connected Digest explores the data center of the future. While working on the article, I was fascinated by the concept and think building or modifying an IT infrastructure that takes advantage of resources when things are slow and share them with those that are computing like crazy.

The March issue of eNewsletter Journal just came out today. We feature a guest writer. I’m thankful to him as he took a little pressure off me.

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.
• 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.

Title: Why Some Companies Emerge Stronger and Better from a Crisis
Author: Ian I. Mitroff
Publisher: AMACOM
ISBN: 0814408508
Date: January 2005
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 238
Cover Price: USD: $27.95 Amazon: $17.61

The Internet may have opened worlds for businesses and consumers, but it has also created a public relations nightmare for businesses. Forums, opinion Web sites, blogs, and anything that is publishable can smear a company’s name in moments.

Remember, “Yours Is a Very Bad Hotel” presentation that described one customer’s bad experience with a hotel chain? Hotels are run by humans. Humans make mistakes. It’s how you handle the mistakes that can make the difference in customer service. Since the hotel’s employees didn’t try to help the customer overcome a bad situation, the customer lashed back and bloggers blogged it.

If the hotel is on top of its game, it would unleash its crisis management (also known as reputation management) team to salvage its reputation while it can. It’s possible for a company to overcome bad PR and come out ahead as in the case of PG&E (California’s Pacific Gas and Electric company).

Another strategy is to use Internet monitoring to monitor online articles regarding a company’s activities to prepare for negative publicity. Some go further and monitor chat rooms, newsgroups, and online discussion forums.

It’s like the story of the town gossip who spread false stories about its people. One day, he felt terrible and went to the chaplain [Rabbi, pastor, priest, or other &mdash take your pick] to ask for forgiveness. The chaplain said,”I will forgive you, but you must do something first.”

“Take a feather pillow, cut it open, and scatter the feathers to the winds.” The man thought this was a strange request, but it was a simple enough task, and he did it gladly. When he returned to tell the chaplain that he had done it, the chaplain said, “Now, go and gather the feathers. Because you can no more make amends for the damage your words have done than you can recollect the feathers.”

The same can happen to a company without a crisis management plan in place. It’s possible to survive the crisis and thrive as PG&E did. Don’t expect Worldcom to pull out of its Enron-like mess. Fraud is not excusable. And Martha Stewart? She has hired a public relations strategist firm in an effort to do damage control. It’ll be worth watching to see what happens in her case and how the PR firm attempts to save her reputation. Did you know there is a recall on one of her products? Adds fuel to the fire, doesn’t it?

Jonathan Bernstein publishes an excellent newsletter on this topic called Crisis Manager. Here’s an interview with Jonathan.

Discussion: Has your company dealt with a crisis? How did your company handle it?