DRJ Blogs

One of the ongoing problems in business continuity is articulating the business case in a way that resonates with executives and others in our organizations and doesn't require a twenty slide PowerPoint presentation.  In an attempt to help, I will periodically post items under the title "BC Stories - Elevator Pitches and Object Lessons" as I find them in the news or wherever they turn up.  The idea is to give business continuity professionals ideas for informal conversations that highlight both the need for planning and some potential pitfalls.

A recent article posted on msnbc.com provides an object lesson on the need for proper planning and training in order to effectively respond in an emergency and another story to engage people in your organization on the need for formal continuity planning.  While the earthquake in Haiti may seem far removed from our daily activities and even the boundaries of most business continuity planning, the problems encountered in the relief effort mirror the difficulties encountered by organizations that fail to prepare. The article, which can be found at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34958965/ns/world_news-haiti_earthquake/, highlights the problem of individuals and organizations with the best of intentions trying to help without understanding either the realities of the situation or the need to act in a coordinated manner.

A couple items from the article, in particular, caught my attention.  First, Dr. Kristi L. Koenig of the University of California, Irvine states that, "Unless you're part of a team before the disaster happens with a formal mission, you're going to be part of the problem."  This is expanded upon with stories of well-meaning individuals and groups who rushed in to help only to need assistance or evacuation themselves because they were ill equipped or lacked ongoing support.  The second item involved the unsolicited donation of goods - from food to clothing or household items that are either inappropriate to the situation or a financially inefficient way of assisting.

Crisis Management Critical Success Factor:

Let’s start this discussion by painting a crisis scenario. An event has occurred; your building is partially destroyed; there are several employees dead; many more seriously injured; countless unaccounted for and for those who escaped the carnage, they have scattered in a hundred different directions, getting as far away from the site as possible. The event itself is unimportant at this point in time; whether it be a terrorist attack, bombing by a disgruntled employee, an earthquake or a gas main explosion.

Unfortunately, this is also the moment in time when far too often organizations start on their road to Crisis Management ‘hell’. Let’s first explore some real life experiences and some of the more common mistakes organizations make:

USAID and others are predicting as many as 600,000 Haitians will relocate to "camps" for life-saving services and shelter.  Camps can sometimes resemble tent cities.  If temporary sheltering is done with tents, Haitians will again face catastrophe when the hurricane season comes later in 2010.

A man I met in Toronto advocated retrofitting surplus ocean-going shipping containers to provide temporary housing following a disaster. I believe this idea needs serious consideration.  Since U.S. imports have exceeded exports for some years, there is a surplus of containers currently in the U.S. They are rugged and heavy. They can withstand violent storms - especially wind and rain. They can be shipped in mass on ocean-going freighters and air-lifted to specific sites by helicopters. No need for ports.

They are also somewhat rodent proof, more so than tents, and with proper renovation, can be ventilated and painted to repel extreme heat.  One more advantage - when they are no longer needed for shelter, they can be transformed into building material for buildings and bridges; no need to remove them from Haiti.

"Oh $#!+": The Importance of Mitigating Single Points of Failure (SPOF)

Almost everyone, at some point in their career, has experienced that sinking feeling in the pit of their stomach when a critical document is lost to a computer crash or malfunction.  There are few worse feelings than the sense of helplessness and frustration felt after losing something that cannot be easily replaced or recovered.  Unfortunately, the "out of my hands" excuse no longer works for bosses, just as an "Act of God" defense no longer satisfies customers when their products or services are no longer available as contracted or expected.

Organizational measures implemented to streamline processes, and thus reduce material waste and lost time, can often place all of an organization's "eggs in one basket" if consideration is not given to the potential risk that is being created.  This may include moving all production lines for a product to one location or contracting a sole-source provider to meet an organization's supply demand.  While these actions may save time and money in the short-term, they often create single points of failure.  As such, the long-term implications for an organization are typically significantly more costly if (or more accurately, when) an incident occurs that results in the loss of key facilities, equipment, personnel, technologies, or suppliers.

Just getting back into things. Let's start out with more Tips, Tricks and Traps!!

3.1    Developing and implementing a BCM response

3.1.1    General

Author: Dennis C. Hamilton, FBCI Hon
President, Crisis Response Planning Corporation

Crisis Management Critical Success Factor:

A Crisis Response Team (characterized in Part A), adopting a structured in-crisis process, can make effective decisions, however; if it cannot communicate those decisions and resulting actions to those who need to know, it will have the same impact as not making a decision to begin with. Whether providing information or instructions to employees, countering rumours or issuing proactive communications to external stakeholders (i.e. customers, the media, critical service providers) the need to issue time-sensitive communications at the outset, during and after a crisis situation is the operational foundation of Crisis Management. Every decision has a consequence and will always result in a response on the part of others. In the absence of vital information, internal and external stakeholders will apply their own assumptions and readily make decisions; usually with an unfavourable outcome.