ABSTRACT
Preparedness might help to mitigate the consequences of a crisis when it hits. Good preparedness and its individual components are seen as the continuous building of consequence-reducing barriers, and hence the sharp demarcation between prevention and mitigation efforts and preparedness disappears. The chapter discusses preparedness domains: planning; organisation and procedures; capacity-building; redundancy; agreements and pre-arrangements; capability-building; and early warning. Planning is the core of preparedness, be it a question of organisations dealing with financial crises, disaster management, hospital readiness or any other types of organisations, and even at the household and individual level. Capability-building refers to the skills and knowledge required for a particular task. An organisation may have the capacity to manage crises, but lack certain key capabilities. A crisis situation differs so radically from normal organisational management processes that in order to be successful in a real crisis; an organisation should be trained both in terms of individual skills and knowledge as well as organisational capabilities.
