Editor's note: This is the final installment in a Portfolio.com series on branding. Previously, we ranked the top 25 brands for small to midsize businesses; offered a design expert's take on branding and interactivity; looked at a new trend for hotel brands, profiled FUBU co-founder Daymond John, and explored the marketing of sensitive products. Also today, we look at the challenge Tiki Barber faces in launching a new fitness business while he's the topic of gossip columns.

If the last decade has taught us one thing, it is that every industry, every business, every organization, large or small, can face a crisis that rocks its very foundation—and can, if handled poorly, forever destroy its brand.

Because issues do arise that challenge us to our very core, be they from the outside or inside the organization: Products malfunction, employees misbehave, markets implode, natural disaster strikes, and strategy can fail.

But there are ways to handle crisis correctly. There are ways to protect and preserve your brand through the worst storms. There are ways to recover.

The problem is, most organizations lately have just not been doing what they need to do to face their crises squarely, admit to themselves and others what is going on, apologize if needed, put in fixes, change reality, and then move on. Take one of our most recent examples, Toyota. They fell into the easiest trap of all, thinking that if they did not acknowledge a problem bubbling up from their customers, if they denied an uncomfortable or inconvenient reality, then it would simply go away in time. And we all know what has happened there.

So what does it take to repair one’s public reputation after a misstep?

I think I can say, after 25 years as a crisis manager, and experience with almost every kind of corporate and individual scandal—most of which have been resolved favorably over time—that though there is not one universal equation, there are some general principles from which to start. Here, from my master list of 125 rules of crisis management, are 12 of the most important:

1. Just because you may have gotten away with something before—or know of others who have—do not assume that you will do so now. Assume that—eventually—all will be known, and design your actions accordingly.

It’s a more transparent world out there today. With new communications channels popping all the time—Twitter, Facebook, Ning, blogs, message boards—all completely searchable by Google and other search engines, almost anything can become public.

Even boardrooms—once the most private of places—are becoming porous. So, personal and business privacy is not something you can count on. Make sure that all of your actions and decisions will stand the test of public scrutiny, because at the very worst of times you may have to defend your every action to an angry public.

Similarly, do watch what you write in emails. You think, when you’re writing them, that they are private communications. But they are not. Emails are completely discoverable in a lawsuit, and I can not tell you how many of my clients have been caught with egg on their faces (or worse) when emails they have written themselves prove they have not been telling the truth in public.

2. Control your emotions. Just when your emotions will be going wild, you must conquer them and think strategically and smartly.

The world starts to unravel, and adrenalin rushes to our heads. We want to flee or fight, to hide or start to yell. But this is exactly the time for leaders to stay cool, calm, and to start to explore your options. Find the right advisers you can trust, those who have experienced your problem before, and listen to their advice (you don’t have to take it, though, if it feels wrong for your situation). This is often the time that we get called into a situation.

The mere fact that you can be calm in a crisis, and act against instinct, will give your employees and your customers confidence in your leadership.

3. Keep your eyes on the outside. You will be tempted to withdraw into your inner world, but keep focused on the exterior reaction. You’ll make better decisions, and it could help privately as well.

Reality can hurt, and the temptation to ignore it is huge when crisis hits. Let’s call that the Toyota Trap. It’s easy to go into endless internal meetings and forget that you need to address your problems publicly. But, again, it is time to go against your instincts and make sure your eyes are turned outward, as well as inward.

4. Move quickly to assess the situation and damage and to not only publicly strike the right note, but to start doing the right things.

Today, speed matters. As communications travel at the speed of light, you need to respond to brand-threatening crises almost immediately. Remember the Tylenol crisis that everyone quotes as an example of superb crisis management? Well, if a company today took the time that Tylenol did to respond, it would be seen to fail. Making the right decisions, and right moves, quickly, is the name of the game in today’s crises.

5. Figure out what the right note (or message, tone, words, delivery mechanism) is.

So many organizations choose the wrong way to respond to challenges! They fight when they should listen. They go on the offensive when they should make reparations. They are passive when they should push back. They listen to the wrong advisers, and instead of getting a good feel for the mood of the public and adjusting their responses accordingly, they take the public on. Perception trumps reality most of the time, especially in times of crisis. So, addressing the public’s perception of your crisis is always a good place to start.