Business Operations: Emergency Preparations

Yesterday's moderate earthquake in Northern Virginia fortunately produced no injuries and little damage, although apparently the National Cathedral and the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C. sustained some small amounts of structural damage.  The quake measured in at about 5.8 on the Richter scale, and was felt over a huge area from Ontario, Canada in the north to Alabama in the south.

Probably a small number of unfortunate individuals and small businesses suffered some loss from this earthquake.  On a national scale, though, the economic impact of this event is nil.

Which causes a recollection of the massive earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan earlier this year.  Thousands perished at that time, many additional thousands had their personal lives upended in ways that will be felt for years yet to come, and the world's economy suffered greatly from the ripple effects that reached out to touch businesses in all corners of the world.

Businesses of all sizes in all locations would be doing themselves a favor if they were to look at this event as a catalyst to update their emergency preparedness plans.  Many organizations, especially the larger ones, will already be doing this; probably so, too, will large numbers of smaller ones.  However, far too many small and mid-size companies are not able to devote time and resources to activities that do not directly contribute to the growth or profitability of the business.  So, this writing is directed primarily at those business leaders of smaller companies who realize that making preparations to keep themselves in business in the aftermath of an emergency is important to the long-term success of the company, but who do not have time or staff to make a quick and comprehensive job of it.

Here is a list of design points that can be helpful in making business plans for actions that could be taken either prior to an emergency event or as a result of such an event:

• Personal safety in and around the workplace -- fire suppression; emergency lighting; restraint of dangerous objects; safety training; emergency provisions; and others.
• Communications with and for employees -- backups for normal telephone and Internet services; documented contact lists; identification of responsibilities; family contact considerations; and others.
• Coordination and communications with local emergency support -- instructions to reach police and fire departments, utility providers and others as needed; what to say and what to do under different environments.
• Communications with other businesses -- contacting customers and clients with status of the business; contacting vendors for needed supplies or services.
• Media notifications -- prepared and current press releases on effects of the event, status and upcoming actions.
• Information technology protection -- off site backup of critical data/information, and alternate site operational capabilities; design communications infrastructure to support requirements for needed communications services for IT and other critical parts of the business plan.
• Business operations restart -- how and where to restart critical business operations that are shut down by the emergency event. 
• Insurance coverages -- as needed coverages for liability, medical, business interruption, etc.

A typical process that a business could follow to make or update these preparations could look like this:

1. Analyze current business risks and vulnerabilities, and its needs for preparations.
2. Assess current capabilities to mitigate those risks and provide for those needs.
3. Discover the impacts on the business operations of the risks and vulnerabilities.
4. Understand the operational linkages within and outside of the business that could be impacted by the emergency.
5. Determine options and costs for acquiring services and capabilities needed to support the business.
6. Plan for appropriate funding timeline for acquisition and implementation.
7. Develop and implement business-wide program to coordinate use and maintenance of all elements of the emergency preparations.

An organization gains the most possible from this type of emergency preparation when the process outlined above becomes an integral part of business operations.  This means that it must have consistent and ever-lasting senior management support and endorsement.

The guidance highlights presented here are the result of my more than 20 years of professional activities in various aspects of contingency planning, disaster recovery and emergency preparations.  There are many consultants, companies and other organizations with great skills and experience in expanding on what you have just read.  Many of them will be happy to provide a business leader with some type of preliminary assessment of an organization's needs, and of options for additional useful capabilities.

If you are not currently working with such a professional and want to find one, or just want to have a different view on existing requirements and/or preparations, please contact me and I will be happy to help.