Welcome to 2000. Your Y2K disaster
planning worked. Now you are ready to plan for disasters like
frozen water pipes, gas line explosions, lightening strikes,
looting, collapsing roofs, and loss of key personnel. Maybe the
disaster happens to your main supplier or key customer. Statistics
indicate one in five organizations will suffer a major disaster
every five years.
When disaster strikes, having
critical items identified and assigned means informed decisions
sooner. Research shows that only 43 percent of businesses suffering
a disaster ever recover sufficiently to resume business. Among
those that do reopen, only 26 percent are doing business two
years later. If their data is lost, 50 percent file for bankruptcy
immediately.
The elements of a disaster plan
are: assessment of critical areas, contingency planning, crisis
management, and disaster recovery.
1. Critical Areas. If you did not have it, could you continue
in business? Do you rely heavily on telecommunications? Carry
a large inventory? Have one major supplier or customer? Run critical
manufacturing processes? Are your important documents and key
data safely stored?
Once the key areas are identified,
what is required to keep them running? Since telephone and data
lines are critical to a travel agency, an uninterrupted, reliable
power supply, current data and people are important. Client records
and research material are critical to law firms. If you are a
manufacturer, your inventories require secure and dry buildings.
Each type of disaster impacts critical areas differently.
2. Contingency
Planning. Here you determine
who does what when the effect of Saturday night's 28-degree temperature
on PVC water pipes is discovered Monday morning. Because you
pictured the worst case scenario, you first call your insurance
agent to report water damage. Since your customer service reps
cannot sit in water, you activate your alternate site plans.
Suppose this was a major disaster
that effected many square miles. Do you have a backup site at
a branch office, with an industry associate across the country,
a key customer or supplier? Uninterrupted service is key to retaining
your customer base.
There are three classes of customers:
those who can order from anyone at anytime; those who could order
elsewhere but would probably wait three days because of relationships
or commissions; and those who would have a difficult time finding
the product elsewhere. Knowing your customer types tells you
how quickly you have to be up and running.
Offsite storage, redundant computer
and telephone systems all cost money. Knowing the cost of a two,
three or even four-day delay helps to allocate critical dollars
to disasters. If the risk is high and the cost low, just do it!
If the risk is low and the cost high, then ignoring it works.
The areas requiring attention show medium risk and medium cost.
Some of these risks can be minimized
through insurance. Others require the purchase of generators,
duplicate equipment stored elsewhere, or offsite storage of critical
records. Natural disasters require offsite locations hundreds
of miles away.
3. Crisis Management. The disaster hits. Who does what? As
head honcho, you need to be visible and accessible. You want
to protect assets, assess the damage, and activate the plan.
If your IT person is in charge of the computers, then trust the
decisions. You rehearsed it, studied it, and planned for it.
Keep your focus on the big picture and do not sweat the details.
Be very open and up front with
everyone. Call the presidents of your key suppliers and customers.
Tell them what you are doing. Ask if they can adjust shipments
or deliveries, pay their bills sooner, or accept late payments.
Provide them with temporary phone numbers and addresses. Do the
same for your key creditors.
Use email, a telephone calling
chain, radio or TV announcements to let all employees know their
assignments.
4. Disaster Recovery. You have survived the first few hours
of the disaster. This section describes the steps for getting
the critical processes on-line. It is important to stay focused
and address those issues directly affecting customer service.
Have your attorney deal with the insurance carriers and your
accountant the lending sources. Focus on your customers, suppliers
and employees.
Use your daily, pre-arranged
conference call to report progress, discuss changing conditions,
and keep everyone in the loop. Keep notes on what happened when
and your response to update the plan.
As recovery kicks in and customer
service is restored, the adrenaline starts to fade. Plan some
stress relievers and fun for yourself and everyone else. Recognize
the hard work, extra effort, and sacrifices your employees, families,
suppliers and customers contributed to this disaster recovery.
You, too, can be part of that
26 percent who survive a disaster when you plan ahead.
Back
to "Features" Menu
By Jan
Smith
(916) 332-7247
email: JSmith@Bennington-
Group.com
Topic: Change
Visit Jan
Smith's web site for more ideas to successfully manage your business.
Jan coaches business owners and managers how to balance working
on their business with solving day-to-day issues.
Make Your Advertising
Message Stand Out With Original Stock
Photography -- Only $30 per single image -- $95 for panoramas.
Back
to "Features" Menu
|
