Book excerpt: Anywhere, anytime, a crisis can strike. Every organisation is vulnerable to a range of threats which can strike without warning and rapidly escalate to a point where they just won't go away. Maintaining control of an organisation is about deflecting threats and planning for the future. The purpose of this book is to give managers tried and tested solutions for better crisis management. Crisis Control is aimed at anticipating and controlling crisis situations. It shows how to develop contingency plans in line with organisational policies and identifies methods of developing checklists and systems. Training, testing and maintenance of such a program is outlined as a strategic process. This book offers a wide range of responses for those managers who have to create a crisis actin plan for a large number of stakeholders including employees, victims, financial markets, political leaders, bureaucrats, international affiliates, shareholders and, of course, the media.