DISASTER RECOVERY 
JOURNAL

P. O. Box 510110
St. Louis, MO 63151
(314) 894-0276 
Fax: (314) 894-7474
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PUBLISHER &
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Richard L. Arnold, CBCP
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SENIOR EDITOR
Janette Ballman
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MANAGING EDITOR
Jon Seals
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COPY EDITORS
Richard Sandhofer
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Pamela Clifton
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ADVERTISING 
Robert Arnold
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_____________

Corporate

President/CEO
Richard L. Arnold, CBCP
richard@drj.com

Vice President 
Robert Arnold
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CONFERENCE COORDINATOR
Patti Fitzgerald, CBCP
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CONFERENCE REGISTRAR
Merce Knese
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CIRCULATION
Laura Baugh
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INTERNATIONAL
CONTACTS
England: Thom Hetherington
Business Continuity 
Phone: 0161-237-1007
thomh@tempus.demon.co.uk

Australia: Anthony J. Harvey
Journal of Business Continuity
Phone: 0011-613-953-0055-8
fax: 0011-613-953-0528
sector@notability.com.au

Japan: Shinji Hosotsubo
Quake Japan Co., Ltd.
Phone: 03-3215-2880
fax: 03-3215-2881

Brazil: Jose Carlos Ferreira
Disaster Recovery Mercosul
Phone: 55 11 3666-9506
conc2000@uol.com.br
www.drms.com.br

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Welcome, Rudy; Time Flies Between Disasters

By ED DEVLIN, CBCP

You may have noticed that many of my recent columns have revolved around the theme “Crisis Management.” In those columns, I have suggested business continuity planning professionals get more involved in the organization’s crisis management plan. Apparently my advice has not fallen on deaf ears.
In reading a recent issue of Newsweek magazine (April 22, 2002), I came across an article about Rudy Giuliani. After leaving office in January, the nation’s most famous mayor has gone into business. Giuliani has formed a consulting company – Giuliani Partners. An excerpt from the article states, “Giuliani Partners … specializes in replicating some of Giuliani’s proudest achievements – computerized-based tracking systems, security, fiscal reform.” Giuliani says corporations can benefit from systems he put in place, like Compstat, which created accountability in police precincts by computerizing their records, and Jobstat, which did the same for the city’s welfare-to-work placements. Not surprisingly, he hopes to find a niche with companies that want to be ready for unexpected crises – the mayor’s specialty.
At city hall, Giuliani said, “We would hold drills in order to prepare ourselves for any crises we might have to face. It helped a lot, obviously, through a lot of different emergencies – West Nile virus, building collapses, fires, and certainly in 9-11.”
Now Rudy is doing the same thing with clients, running through scenarios for both physical and financial disasters. Giuliani won’t say who his clients are or how much he charges, but he does say that one or two troubled companies recently in the news has come calling. Predictably, Giuliani says he wasn’t able to take the client because he needed more control over its operation than the company was willing to give. “They have to be in a situation where they really want us to help them,” said Giuliani.
I’d like to be one of the first to welcome Mr. Giuliani into the “crisis management” consulting industry.

Disaster/Crises Reprise
Recently, I was talking with a friend who is also a consultant in the business continuity planning industry. We began talking about some of the recent disasters and crises, and their impact on BCP professionals. As we talked, it became apparent to me that “time was flying.” I’ve always heard that as you get older, time moves faster. I never paid any much attention before, but as we discussed the timeframe the disasters/crises occurred, I realized that it does fly. I thought about this and thought it would be beneficial to periodically reprise these incidents in my column.

For example, has it really been five years ago that Grand Forks, N.D. disaster occurred? That the United Parcel crisis occurred? It seems like yesterday.

Grand Forks Flood – April 1997
I remember reading about the Red River swelling to 34 feet above flood level. Business continuity planners learned some lessons from that disaster. We were reminded that you could lose your building in a fire even with a fire station nearby. The downtown area was struck with a fire on Saturday. Firefighters were unable to get into the area with their regular fire trucks, because of the six feet of water that flooded the area. The Grand Forks Herald, a local newspaper located in one of the buildings, arranged to print the paper at presses 300 miles away in St. Paul, Minn. The headline on that special edition read, “Come Hell And High Water.” Later in the year, the Grand Forks Herald newspaper won a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the disaster.

United Parcel Employee Strike – August 1997
The 15-day strike by Teamsters crippled the company and had a definite impact on United Parcel’s customer base. Many of the normal customers of UPS went to competitors for service, i.e. Federal Express Corp., RPS and the U.S. Postal Service. Some of the customers continued to give all or a portion of their shipping business to the competitors. The result for UPS? Loss of market share and future business. Lesson learned? Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket. Spread your business around. Open an account with the other shippers. Give them a small percentage of your shipping business. Remember, shippers had so much business during the strike, they didn’t take any new customers.

Let’s look at a disaster and a crisis from 10 years ago – Hurricane Andrew and the NBC-General Motors crisis.

Hurricane Andrew – August 1992
The most devastating storm ever to strike the U.S., this category-4 hurricane had wind gusts up to 165 mph. Authorities said more than 75,000 houses were destroyed and about 250,000 people rendered homeless. Insurance claims were estimated to total $10.7 billion. Power outages lasted for weeks. Damages were estimated at $20 billion, including insured losses of $7.3 billion.

NBC – GM Truck – November 1992
On Nov. 17, 1992, the “Dateline NBC” program showed a fiery crash involving a General Motors truck. Unfortunately, NBC misrepresented key details in the crash staged for the cameras. NBC employees attached model rocket engines to the truck to ensure the crash would result in a fire. General Motors accused NBC of misrepresentation. Michael Gartner, NBC News president, called the Nov. 17 broadcast “fair and accurate.”
After GM filed a lawsuit, NBC admitted that it had misrepresented key details in the crash. The network was forced into an apology Feb. 9 to settle a defamation lawsuit. A couple months after the apology, Michael Gartner resigned. On March 21, 1993, NBC fired three top staff members on its Dateline NBC program over the staging of the fiery crash involving a General Motors truck. Lesson learned? Executives are held accountable for their ability to manage a crisis.

Ed Devlin, CBCP, has provided business recovery planning consulting services since 1973 when he co-founded Devlin Associates. Since then, Devlin has assisted more than 300 companies in the writing of their business recovery plans and has made more than 800 seminars and presentations worldwide.

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