Crisis Proof: How to prepare for the worst day of your business life
Jonathan Hemus, Rethink Press, 2020

We’re all looking for a good night’s sleep, and here’s a book that promises to provide that by making sure you’re always prepared for “the worst day of your business life” – always ready to protect your business and reputation, whatever the world may throw at it.

This book, published just before the end of one of the most tumultuous years in recent history, is an extremely accessible guide to crisis management for professionals that are completely new to the practice.

Presented in a thoughtfully sequenced series of chapters, covering foundational considerations, beginning a crisis management programme and building resilience through scenario planning, Crisis Proof offers a ‘crisis 101’ for beginners – complete with quotes and tips from industry practitioners, many of whom are well known names in the field, and indeed a good number are respected CIR Business Continuity Award winners.

Crisis Proof promises to instil confidence and clarity around the requirements that will help your business deal with a crisis, to teach you how to create and embed a crisis-resistant culture, to convey the real purpose of crisis management plans and critical content, and to help you create a high performing crisis management team. Ultimately, it aims to communicate the essential characteristics of successful crisis response – whatever the situation.

Author Jonathan Hemus – a crisis management consultant with some 25 years’ experience – uses a range of example crises through which to convey his learning – from Gerald Ratner’s now infamous gaffe at that fateful 1991 Institute of Director’s Annual Conference, via the 2015 football scandal to billionaire Richard Branson’s dubious decision-making during the coronavirus crisis.

“Crises don’t destroy businesses. It is the organisation’s response to the crisis which does that,” Hemus writes. Mishandled crises can devastate businesses, lives and livelihoods. If you’re looking to succeed in a new role as your organisation’s crisis management champion (or you’re hiring into the role or training a new recruit), this might just be the book for you.

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