As Hurricane Irene battered the East Coast over the weekend, many businesses had to deal with the effects of a natural disaster in real time. And while her ferocious winds blew out windows and hurled debris through offices and residential areas alike, companies and citizens had to mobilize.

Irene reminded us that at any time, crisis can strike anywhere on the globe. Whether it be a worldwide recession, a natural disasters, political upheaval like the Arab spring that we've been seeing in countries like Libya, or industrial accidents, just to name a few examples.

While business owners are in the eye of the storm, it’s easy to go into panic mode and throw their thoughtfully crafted long-term strategy to the wind.

As an international tour operator, my company is no stranger to trying times, having faced more than 300 crises in the past 26 years and nearly a dozen in the last year alone. Volcanic eruptions may not affect your business, and you may not have thousands of customers stranded around the world for days at a time, but I guarantee at some point in time you will have to deal with a crisis.

Developing a culture where associates are expected to lead–in good times and bad–is your company’s best defense. And it doesn't have to be a long, arduous process. Below are five ways that can help virtually any business, in nearly any industry, gear up to deal with adversity.

1. Mobilize Your Team

To be truly flexible and adaptive, you must instill in your employees the ability to respond from anywhere and make decisions in the moment, without depending on a chain of command. Successful crisis response is not closing your senior level staff in a conference room; you have to trust your entire team. The first course of action in a crisis is to get on the phone with someone close to the problem. Seek advice from the team members on the ground level – whether it’s your sales manager, web developer or even a safari guide. Confer with your senior leadership team, communicate to your employees and move into action.

2. Take Care of Anyone Affected

Your first priority should always be to take care of the customers, employees and partners needed to keep your business running. This might mean establishing direct communication with your distributor. It might mean arranging for alternative shipping methods. It might even mean issuing a recall.

3. Communicate

Companies typically freeze communication until a crisis is fully assessed, but that is the last thing you want to do. Don’t panic. Don’t believe everything you read or hear in the news. Get as many facts as you can and communicate them. Then, when you have more information, communicate again….and again. Instead of sending out a blanket news release, communicate directly to each of your constituents–employees, customers and business partners–giving each group specific, relevant information. Transparency is key. If you are a small business that makes children’s toys and you find out one of your products is defective and potentially harmful, your customers will be more forgiving if they hear the news from you.

4. Let Your Company’s Mission and Goals Guide You

It’s easy to get distracted during a crisis. Without focus, people tend to flail around or retreat into unimportant details out of fear. Effective crisis management requires a sharp focus on the few things that can be controlled. Refer back to your company’s mission to guide you. With that as your roadmap, you should quickly be able to identify goals, assign roles and determine the best practice for getting the job done. After you determine your best response, react and reassess. Change course if your plan isn’t working or the situation changes.

5. Keep Business Up and Running

Determine what makes your business successful, and amp up that feature. For example, the small business manufacturing children’s toys could put the spotlight on its most popular toy, or begin marketing a new product. By continuing to operate even in the thick of a crisis, you’ll maintain the trust and loyalty of your vendors and customers, and those relationships will pay big dividends over time.

Crisis forces you to live in vivid Technicolor. While everything is fresh in your mind, take note of what went well and what didn’t. As you learn from your mistakes, begin to put together a structured response plan. Every crisis is different, but whether it’s a financial collapse, natural disaster or some other calamity you haven’t imagined yet, you can be ready to handle it quickly if you are prepared. Focus on your mission and core values, because that’s what has gotten your business where it is today. If you remember your

long-term goals, your company will not only survive crises, it stands a good chance of coming out stronger. Where others duck and cover, your company will find new opportunities for growth.

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Alan Lewis is owner and chairman of Grand Circle Corporation and co-author of "Driving With No Brakes: How a Bunch of Hooligans Built the Best Travel Company in the World." He is a serial entrepreneur with a social purpose who specializes in corporate strategy and management innovation by integrating philanthropic purpose into the business model.