Disaster Recovery Journal

Well, we are now several weeks into the new year and, as crisis management and business continuity professionals, we are happy to see 2012 in our rear view mirrors. Maybe it is just the relative recentness of Hurricane Sandy, or the fact that she devastated such a wide and highly populated area in the United States, but 2012 seemed to have been a very busy year for business continuity planners. And, this is not just in terms of responses to a number of disasters, but also in terms of preparing for high-risk events such as the London Olympics, the US Presidential Party Conventions and several Political Summits throughout the region.

I guess some of the reasons we were so busy are good reasons. I am witnessing a much higher level of awareness for the potential of business interruptions occurring from mass gathering events. I have been somewhat impressed with the levels of preparedness from both the public and private domain for events such as the Olympics and the Conventions. It seems people are starting to realize the benefits of the private and public sectors working together in preparation for these events. Coordinating work schedules and being aware of commuting challenges and potential mass gatherings, coupled with work from home solutions and proactive strategies for shifting work-flows and employees away from the congestion during the most active event times, seem to all have helped businesses and communities cope with the challenges of hosting such events.

Well, it is flu season again in the United States and in Corporate America that means it is Pandemic Flu Preparedness Planning Season again. However, please do not confuse the Seasonal Flu with a Pandemic Flu. This website from Flu.gov includes a terrific table at the bottom of its page, defining the difference between the two.

Over the past few months, Safe Harbor Consulting has been active with a number of clients in updating their Pandemic Plans and conducting Pandemic Response Simulated Exercises. One common opportunity for improvements in these programs is with regards to the inclusion of Threat Level Tables within their Plans.

I was first given responsibility for disaster recovery planning in 1985 while working at, what was then known as, Bank of Virginia in Richmond, VA. We were a UNISYS shop and had a mainframe recovery subscription with a company whose name I no longer remember that had a UNISYS recovery facility in Warminster, PA. I have been working in the fields of disaster recovery, business continuity, emergency response and crisis management, in a corporate management or consulting capacity ever since. You do the math to determine how many years’ experience that equates to – I am not sure I want to!

But, even after all those years, I am still learning new things, new techniques, better solutions, better methodologies, etc., each and every day. And, through conferences such as the just completed 2012 DRJ Fall World, I accelerate that learning process and I meet more and more people that help me grow and learn along the way.

I wish I could tell you that my summer was spent vacationing in some exotic location without internet access; or I was deep in remote third world countries performing humanitarian work for international charities; or that I won the lottery and was out spending my new found fortunes ­ ­­- but, I can’t.  Instead, being a consultant who has to work when the work is available, I spent my summer busy with delivering client projects.

For me, that is a hopeful sign.  This bares hope of a sign that the economy is picking up and companies are now able to support projects, such as business continuity planning, that are often deemed deferrable during down-times.  This bares hope that budgets are starting to allow for monies to invest in consulting assistance for projects, such as disaster recovery planning, where the in-house expertise is lacking.  And, this bares hope that companies are starting to put more emphasis on and giving more attention to business continuity planning and related topics.

At a conference I recently attended there was a lot of conversation around PS-Prep which bled into the discussion of “Why get certified” or, the more generic question of, “Why perform business continuity planning?” An oft repeated answer to this question, echoed by business continuity planners around the world is, “Because without a plan you will not survive as a company.”

I think this is a disingenuous answer without any history to support it. Where exactly is the evidence of this fact? What historical data can you share with me, or the CEO you are trying to convince, that this is the case? I am confident that you can dig up cases of small companies that did not survive a disaster, but where is that story about the big guy who did not survive the disaster?