Rex Tillerson Quotes

Don't wait until you're in a crisis to come up with a crisis plan.

We know we cannot underestimate the importance of emergency planning in our region, nor can we assume we'll have ample warning time. If an earthquake or terrorist attack hits, we won't necessarily have advance alerts or opportunities to double- and triple-check our plans.

The modern era of continuity planning began under President Ronald Reagan.

I have noticed a marked improvement in FEMA and with the coordination of FEMA and the State agencies.

In any aircraft you fly, you always think about what can go wrong, and you plan for it in advance. You always have back-up plans.

Essentially, you have to be aware of a crisis happening: 'Can the company go on if I get hit by a bus?' That's, I think, how you build a great company and something that can scale.

Sometimes we have to think very clearly about the unthinkable because the unthinkable sometimes happens.

The actions you plan to take and the actions you actually decide to take [in a crisis] are not always the same.

I’ve worked as a leader for many years and I’ve always trained myself to be prepared for the worst.

The military has to think in terms of worst case scenarios. In a sense, they have to play the pessimist.

You can’t prepare for the best case; you have to prepare for the worst case.

I've always said manage in good times so that you're ready for the bad times.

Security and safety are very important for us.

I think the hardest thing that, historically, the industry may have relied upon is that we can't control weather, we can't control air traffic control, and use that at the end of the day as an excuse. Things do happen - we know they happen. We don't exactly know when they are going to happen, but we should definitely be prepped.

The danger is different from the fear. ... [practice] what to do if things go wrong, as well as right.

A company's ability to respond to an unplanned event, good or bad is a prime indicator of its ability to compete.

Imagine if your business burned down and you had to walk across the street and start again, what would you do differently?

The challenge of our times is to leave nothing to chance.

Don’t ignore planning for unlikely events. Over long periods of time the highly improbable gets more probable to occur at least once.

Crisis management … is the worst type of policy because you will miss things.

We must solve problems before they occur, rather than scrambling to deal with crises after they erupt..

We necessarily operate in an environment in which there's a great deal of uncertainty. In such an environment, it makes sense to use a risk-management approach to identify and avoid the big mistakes. That's one reason I favor a cautious approach.

When I worry about risks, I worry about the biggest ones, particularly those that are difficult to predict - the ones I call small but deep holes. While odds are you will avoid them, if you do fall in one, it's a long way down and nearly impossible to claw your way out.

Back to Microsoft days, I'm always looking for, 'OK, that's great, but what can go wrong?'

In the '70s, you didn't know who was going to survive in a disaster film.