Crisis Management is the process of preparing for and responding to an unpredictable negative event to prevent it from escalating into an even bigger problem, or worse, exploding into a full-blown, widespread, life-threatening disaster.  Crisis management involves the execution of well-coordinated actions to control the damage and preserve or restore public confidence in the system under crisis.

In the context of corporate governance, excellent crisis management is a 'must' whenever a crisis occurs because of the crisis' enormous potential impact on the company's reputation and financial standing.  Poor handling of a crisis situation can ruin the confidence of the customers or the public in a company and jeopardize its survival, a situation that normally takes a long time to correct, if it still is reparable at all. Such is the importance of public perception of a company's handling of a crisis situation that media coverage management has become an important ingredient of crisis management.

In fact, the definition given by the American Institute for Crisis Management (ICM) for the word 'crisis' underscores the association of a crisis with media coverage by default.  ICM defines 'crisis' as "a significant business disruption which stimulates extensive news media coverage. The resulting public scrutiny will affect the organization's normal operations and also could have a political, legal, financial, and governmental impact on its business."