NEW YORK, May 23, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- From United Airlines to Volkswagen and Target to Trump, what is the defining characteristic of any corporate or individual crisis making headlines locally, nationally or around the world?

A fumbled initial response, of course.

So says James F. (Jim) Haggerty, author of the new book Chief Crisis Officer: Structure and Leadership for Effective Communications Response (hardcover, ABA Publishing, June 2017), now available in bookstores, on Amazon and other e-tailers, and on the website of the American Bar Association.

"If you look at any crisis with 'staying power,' they all have one thing in common," Haggerty argues in Chief Crisis Officer. "The organization or individual in question couldn't get their act together quickly enough to respond. That fumbled response is like gasoline poured on the reputational fire."

"Most organizations and high-profile individuals are working from yesterday's playbook," Haggerty adds. "They don't have the structure, tools or leadership—the 'Chief Crisis Officer'—to respond at the speed of the modern crisis."

With a lively mixture of analysis and anecdote drawn from more than 25 years handling complex crisis and litigation communications matters, Chief Crisis Officer makes the case that organizations of all sizes need proper planning and leadership in the face of unexpected negative events, be it "exploding" crises like accidents or product recalls, or "unfolding" crises like litigation or regulatory action.

"It's not just name-brand companies like Apple, BP or General Motors that need to be ready," Haggerty says. "While your crisis may not land you wall-to-wall coverage on CNN, proper crisis communications techniques are essential to all organizations that want to minimize reputational risk before key stakeholders."

Chief Crisis Officer is designed to help business executives, lawyers, public relations professionals, and other advisors minimize the possibility that a public-facing crisis will have devastating consequences for an organization's success—even its very existence. With corporate crises making news nearly every day, this timely book breaks down crisis events into their component parts, providing both a strategic approach and the proper tools to enable a chief crisis officer to assemble his or her team and respond when an inevitable crisis occurs.

Some of the topics covered in Chief Crisis Officer include: selecting the right person to be your Chief Crisis Officer; building the crisis communications team; preparing a crisis plan that actually works; developing messages that resonate; using technology in a crisis; and managing the legal crisis.

A well-known attorney, communications consultant and software entrepreneur, Haggerty is the principal of PRCG | Haggerty LLC, a public relations firm, and the founder and CEO of CrisisResponsePro, cloud-based subscription software that brings the crisis team together and provides the tools and collaborative platform for efficient and effective crisis communications response.

Haggerty is the author of In The Court of Public Opinion: Winning Strategies for Litigation Communications, which was first published in 2003 by John Wiley & Sons and was published in a second edition in 2009 by the ABA Publishing. In The Court of Public Opinion was the first business trade book to examine the interplay of media, public relations and public perception during litigation. It was named one of the Top 10 PR Books of the Year by The Holmes Report, while Financial Times called it "the perfect handbook for this age of show trials..." In The Court of Public Opinion was positively featured in publications including The Wall Street Journal, the Boston Herald, PR Week, O'Dwyer's, PR Report, and the (New York) Daily News.

James F. Haggerty is available for interviews, speaking engagements and consulting  assignments involving all aspects of crisis communications planning, technology and execution.

For more information, visit jamesfhaggerty.com.

SOURCE PRCG/Haggerty LLC

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