Line one  A major investor
Line two  CNN

The next ten minutes decide the rest of your career.

Social media is exploding. Your board chair is texting. And every instinct you have right now is the wrong one.

Get the book What's inside
Jeff Chatterton & Conway Fraser
Leaders Under Fire: The CEO's Survival Guide to Navigating Corporate Crisis, by Jeff Chatterton and Conway Fraser
The uncomfortable part

Companies survive crises. CEOs often don't.

Think about the last big corporate scandal you can name. The company is almost certainly still trading. The brand endured, the stock recovered, the lawyers did their job.

The executive whose name got attached to the headline is a different story. They were offered up so the board could signal a turning of the page.

Your company has legal counsel, insurance and operational resilience protecting it. This book is about protecting you.

How the book works

Two CEOs. One bad week.

Rather than a textbook, Leaders Under Fire follows Bill and Raj: two friends who started their careers together, both landed CEO roles, and both got the phone call nobody wants. One of them still has his job.

Same starting point
Bill
CEO, blue-chip mining company
BeforeBuys a crisis communications plan because the governance committee wants a box ticked. Puts the binder on a shelf.
Hour oneWaits for the facts. Says nothing. Lets everyone else write the first draft of the story.
AfterLearns that a plan written for a crisis you did not have is worth roughly what the paper cost.
Raj
CEO, medical technology company
BeforeSkips the binder. Lines up a trusted outside advisor and a short set of protocols his team can actually execute.
Hour oneSays what he knows, what he does not know, and what he is doing about it. Then keeps saying it.
AfterComes out of the worst week of his career with more credibility than he went in with.
Contents

Nine chapters. One flight.

01CEOs on the Rise
02Speed Kills Careers
03Hope Is Not a Strategy
04Do Sweat the Small Stuff
05Check Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself
06The Danger of DIY Crisis Communications
07Buckle Up and Lead
08The Power of a Mob
09The Aftermath

140 pages, written to be finished on a return flight. Because the executives who need this most are not going to read four hundred.

"This book is required reading for all CEOs. It may very well save your reputation and your job one day."

Peter Evans, CEO and Founder, ExpertFile

"A field guide for the bare-knuckle brawl that is crisis communications in the 21st century. Arm yourself with the wisdom in this book."

Amazon verified reader, 30-year newspaper journalist

"You won't find a banal package of one-size-fits-all solutions here. What impresses me most is their emphasis on openness, honesty and empathy, especially when that seems like a huge risk."

Michael Pereira, Amazon verified reader

"Finished over two flights. Packed with hard-hitting stories and need-to-know guidance. The format is brilliant for learning and retention."

Amazon verified reader
The authors

They left the newsroom to change the story.

Jeff Chatterton

Checkmate Public Affairs

Started in crisis work as an award-winning journalist, detoured through politics, and has spent three decades in the room when it goes wrong. An Ebola outbreak in Africa, a privacy breach in Canada, a volcanic eruption in Ecuador, a fatal balloon accident. He was 26 and working for the Ontario Minister of the Environment when Walkerton taught him that facts do not calm fears.

Conway Fraser

Fraser Torosay

Also a former award-winning journalist, and for years Jeff's competitor before he became his co-author. Since 2009 he has run Fraser Torosay, helping companies and corporate leaders tell their stories when the stakes are highest. He grew up in Sudbury, the son of a nickel miner, which is a reasonable preparation for telling CEOs things they do not want to hear.

6Continents served
30Years in crisis
200+Keynotes delivered
100+Media appearances

Read it before you need it.

Nobody buys a crisis book on a good Tuesday. That is exactly why the executives who own one are the ones who come through it with a career intact.

Get the book on Amazon
In Canada? Order from Amazon.ca  ·  Bulk copies for your board or conference: get in touch
Speaking

Put Jeff in front of your room.

Jeff has delivered more than 200 keynotes and executive workshops on four continents, to conferences, boards and leadership retreats. The talks do what the book does: real incidents, plain language, and an audience that leaves knowing what they would actually do on the worst morning of their career.

Check availability
  • Companies survive crises. CEOs often don't.
  • Speed kills careers
  • What Walkerton taught me about telling the truth