Hello!
I have a professional assignment to present "Disasters" to fellow business executives. The initial order was to cover: what kinds of disasters are there, what are their probabilities and what should companies do to protect themselves against each. I only have an hour to present, so I didn't want to go into a dry technical outline of top-of-list disasters that every 5 year old could come up with. After further discussion with our CEO he mentioned that the core job of this is to sensitize people to what's possible since most live in a bubble (dare i say sheep). Other suggestions he had were, what can occur that we haven't seen (strange disaster like meteor or volcano in area that folks aren't expecting it, etc). We also agreed that it doesn't matter if it's a natural disaster or man-made.
I've brain stormed ideas about the presentation content and flow. Note, a point I plan to make early is that business continuity is based on the building block of the individual, the employee.
So far in my studies, I feel it's less important to focus on the root cause, ie disaster itself, but the outcome effect. After all, it doesn't matter if it's a tornado or computer hack of power grid sources, both share a need for being prepared for loss of power. Loss of power will affect business operations, but this goes deeper than simply having business grade diesel generators. The individual contributors (staff) ability to care for self and family will come before their work duties, and if a business has a need for those individuals, the business has an important stake in meeting the individual's needs (providing gas to get to work, extra safety measures, plenty of food/water for emergencies at work place, etc)
Additionally, some disasters have geographic dependency (ex: no hurricane threat to North Dakota), while others pose a universal threat (natural or man-made EMP). So understanding the disaster's geographic ties will help predictability, and understanding disaster outcome will help preparedness needs!
My question here is, I'm looking for samples/stories/links of business who have successfully survived a disaster, in addition to ones who have not (or suffered devastating loss of revenue). From this, I'd like to learn why they did, or didn't, survive and integrate as supporting data how small 'preparations' can have a large positive impact to individuals AND business. I've heard of stories of companies that were up and running the day after 911 and in parallel were supporting their NY staff with individual level needs (food, fuel, counseling, etc), but haven't been able to find actual references. Also, if you've experienced something first hand and wish to share, please do!
Thanks in advance for any information. Also, any general thoughts on my topic is both welcome and appreciated.
PB
I have a professional assignment to present "Disasters" to fellow business executives. The initial order was to cover: what kinds of disasters are there, what are their probabilities and what should companies do to protect themselves against each. I only have an hour to present, so I didn't want to go into a dry technical outline of top-of-list disasters that every 5 year old could come up with. After further discussion with our CEO he mentioned that the core job of this is to sensitize people to what's possible since most live in a bubble (dare i say sheep). Other suggestions he had were, what can occur that we haven't seen (strange disaster like meteor or volcano in area that folks aren't expecting it, etc). We also agreed that it doesn't matter if it's a natural disaster or man-made.
I've brain stormed ideas about the presentation content and flow. Note, a point I plan to make early is that business continuity is based on the building block of the individual, the employee.
So far in my studies, I feel it's less important to focus on the root cause, ie disaster itself, but the outcome effect. After all, it doesn't matter if it's a tornado or computer hack of power grid sources, both share a need for being prepared for loss of power. Loss of power will affect business operations, but this goes deeper than simply having business grade diesel generators. The individual contributors (staff) ability to care for self and family will come before their work duties, and if a business has a need for those individuals, the business has an important stake in meeting the individual's needs (providing gas to get to work, extra safety measures, plenty of food/water for emergencies at work place, etc)
Additionally, some disasters have geographic dependency (ex: no hurricane threat to North Dakota), while others pose a universal threat (natural or man-made EMP). So understanding the disaster's geographic ties will help predictability, and understanding disaster outcome will help preparedness needs!
My question here is, I'm looking for samples/stories/links of business who have successfully survived a disaster, in addition to ones who have not (or suffered devastating loss of revenue). From this, I'd like to learn why they did, or didn't, survive and integrate as supporting data how small 'preparations' can have a large positive impact to individuals AND business. I've heard of stories of companies that were up and running the day after 911 and in parallel were supporting their NY staff with individual level needs (food, fuel, counseling, etc), but haven't been able to find actual references. Also, if you've experienced something first hand and wish to share, please do!
Thanks in advance for any information. Also, any general thoughts on my topic is both welcome and appreciated.
PB
