The prologue begins with the illustrative example of a single soldier whose attempts to rationalise the war in letters to his son reflect the broader themes of the book. This man’s child, Bentley Bridgewater, donated a sequence of letters written to him by his father to the National Army Museum. In these, the reader is confronted by a man looking to maintain his relationship with his distant son whilst also crafting a meaningful narrative around his war experiences. In short, it helps to expose the ways in which men sought to create or imagine agency. The preface moves on to explicate the central importance of narrative (and agency) in human cognition and sensemaking, exploring its role in psychology but also in its broader historical context.

In this chapter, we discuss how to prepare for and respond to crises. Crises are inevitable, and preparing for crises is an important aspect of risk management. Effective preparation requires the firm to understand best practice in crisis response. We present some examples, good and bad, of corporate and government responses to crises. We discuss the key steps in crisis preparation, followed by the key steps in crisis response. Finally, we consider the impact of corporate structure and ethics.