And extensive research from the Reputation Institute, among others, shows that companies with strong reputations can charge more for products and services, pay less to suppliers, hire the best recruits, enjoy more stable revenues, and be given the benefit of the doubt by constituents when things go wrong. The three are related, after all. MORE >>

At the National Preparedness Leadership Initiative at Harvard, we study crisis leadership in many settings. The expert advice was unanimous: in times of crisis, civic duty trumps private interests. Every crisis is potentially two crises: the original event and the response to the incident. Use their names. MORE >>

"From Tylenol's textbook handling of product tampering to Toyota's troublesome automobile recalls, how a company recovers from crisis can mean continued business success or bankruptcy," explains author Jim Moorhead. Stay in constant contact to gauge how they're doing and make adjustments as the crisis unfolds. MORE >>

And if your product has close substitutes, your customers can abandon you at low cost. Crisis management Customers Internet SOPAGoDaddy (a web hosting company) announced its support of the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in late October 2011. Even Ashton Kutcher joined in. How can you avoid a customer revolt? MORE >>

Leaders need to be productively paranoid. The successful CEOs in our study displayed an odd behavior that we labeled " productive paranoia." Prior to the Oslo terrorist attack, we saw the exact opposite of productive paranoia — a leisurely attitude. Crisis management GovernmentWe have seen this happen before. MORE >>