The public primarily encounters the corporate communications function during a crisis. General rules are a good starting place for dealing with a crisis and handy to know, but a historical perspective is a critical supplement. Understanding the kind of crisis your organization faces or is attempting to avoid?indeed, managing a crisis successfully to the extent possible?involves precedents encompassing connections among corporate identity and culture, brand, reputation, business model, and business type, as well as the changing nature of media and crises themselves.