Trainwrecks

Every year North American companies and individuals stumble into crises that damage, and often destroy, their reputations. What triggers these disasters? How can a company minimize the risk that it will be hit with a crisis? If you land in a crisis, what's the best way to practice damage control? In the event that your reputation implodes, what's the path back to public acceptance? John Barr reaches into his thirty year career as one of North America's leading crisis managers to answer the toughest questions about 'the day every good executive worries about, or should.' He analyzes executive behavior and misbehavior in corporate crises that impacted major food processors, mining companies, a famous sport team owner (Peter Pocklington) and Canada's once-largest forest company (MacMillan Bloedel). Viewed up close, Barr warns, 'crisis management is not a pretty picture.' Successful executives, he argues, need to learn the rules of engagement in what he calls 'The Mind Field' -- the dangerous and fast changing world of investigative journalism, NGO politics and the minefield of the Internet. Ignorance of these rules can be fatal, not just to corporate reputations but corporations' very survival. TRAINWRECKS is one of the first books on crisis management written from 'inside the storm', by an expert who was there. Barr's tough-love prescriptions will become required reading for executives of companies large and small who care about their reputations, and for students of business management everywhere.