Like many companies over the last few years, yours has probably done a great deal to reassess its physical, strategic, and financial vulnerabilities. But there is a huge difference between business continuity planning and true crisis management. Ian Mitroff has created a plan that goes well beyond ''disaster preparedness'' to help your company get accustomed to working in the face of some unsettling facts.

Ian I. Mitroff is often called the father of modern crisis management. He is a professor in both the Marshall School of Business and the Annenberg School for Communications at the University of Southern California, and is the author of several landmark books, including Managing Crises Before They Happen, The Essential Guide to Managing Corporate Crises, and A Spiritual Audt of Corporate America. He lives in Manhattan Beach, California.