Will Your Business Survive the Next Disaster?
Although every business owner hopes that a disaster will not happen in their area, sometimes the worst does happen. Disasters can be natural occurrences, such as earthquakes, hurricanes, or fires; human-caused, such as transportation strikes, riots, or acts of terrorism; or technology-related, such as computer viruses or a shutdown of the power grid. Sometimes disasters can trigger other disasters, as was the case in Japan in 2011, when an earthquake and tsunami caused a meltdown of nuclear reactors.
Disasters are often unexpected, and how well a company deals with post-disaster recovery is pivotal to its survival. According to estimates by the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety, 25 percent of companies are unable to resume operations after a major disaster. As Karen Mills, former head of the Small Business Administration, says, “There is a tendency to think that a large-scale disaster is not going to happen ‘where I live.’ The reality is that storms, floods, earthquakes, fires, and man-made disasters can strike anytime and anywhere. Planning ahead for your own post-disaster recovery is a good step toward protecting your family, your business, and your community.”
Planning and preparing for a disaster before one happens is essential to your community or business surviving a disaster. “There are only so many times you can watch people on your TV screens reeling from the devastating effects of hurricanes, tornadoes, snowstorms, floods, droughts, and wildfires before you sit up and say, ‘Wow, I need to do something so that I can take care of myself and my family when disaster strikes in my town,’” says Allen Baler, owner of 4Patriots, a company that specializes in long-term food survival solutions for disasters. “Preparing for a disaster is nothing more than using common sense.”
Maintaining Business Continuity
The type and severity of the disaster deeply influences what your business needs to do to maintain its continuity. Optimally, you would like the operations of your business to continue to flow in a way that causes zero or little disruption or inconvenience to clients and customers.
Business Continuity Plans (BCP) explain in detail how employees will communicate with one another and keep doing their jobs in the event of a disaster or emergency. Business Continuity Plans sometimes come under the heading of Disaster Recovery Plans (DRP), although their purpose is not exactly the same. Disaster recovery involves the process of resuming business after a disruptive event such as a disaster of some type. Business continuity planning is a more comprehensive approach that ensures your company continues its operations, not only after a disaster but also in the face of smaller disruptions that challenge your business, such as supply chain problems or personal illnesses.
Despite their differences in purpose, the two terms often come under the heading BC/DR due to their many common considerations. When developing a plan to help your business survive disaster, both business continuity and disaster recovery need to be addressed in order to protect your business in the event of a catastrophic emergency.
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Developing a Disaster Plan for Your Business
During a disaster, the safety of your employees is of key importance. Your business’s continuity and disaster recovery plan needs to inform employees of the proper evacuation routes, and this information should be posted throughout the workplace along with emergency phone numbers.
Employees should be instructed what to do and where to go in case of an emergency. A team of people, along with alternates, should be designated and put in charge of overseeing an evacuation and leading employees to a safe place during a disaster. All this information is part of your emergency response plan and should be communicated to all employees on a regular basis.
In terms of business continuity, you must perform an assessment of what tasks and operations are essential to the running of the business. Identify which individuals are in charge of these key tasks, and which people can back up these individuals if they are not available. A directory of business contacts, such as vendors, suppliers, and distributors, needs to be compiled and housed in a safe place that is easily accessed. A secondary business location needs to be available in case your company’s primary one is knocked out or inaccessible. Draw up a contingency plan, detailing which employees can work from home if possible during the period of disaster recovery.
Once you create a business continuity and disaster recovery plan, you need to communicate the plan to everyone who is affected by it. Plans are only as successful as the people implementing them. Michael Rosello, SVP and CIO of Alliance Data, says, “As a mid-market company, we have established many partnerships and our partners have their own business continuity and disaster recovery processes, so we are continually revamping our plans to work with theirs. Our partners are just as critical to our continuity processes as our own business units. Ultimately, a plan is only as good as all the people who go along with it.”
Staying Prepared Ensures Your Business Survives Disaster
After you have drawn up a solid plan, it is important to review it with everyone involved on a regular basis, and to update it as your business situation changes. The plan needs to be practiced much like a fire drill so that everyone knows exactly what to do if and when it is needed.
Another important way to stay prepared is to assemble a Disaster Survival Kit for your place of business. The kit should include basic medical supplies, blankets, flashlights, matches and candles, drinking water, and a supply of food in case the effects of the disaster continue for any length of time.
In today’s post-Katrina world, the disaster prep industry is growing rapidly as people become increasingly concerned about the government’s ability to protect them, and realize that readiness and self-reliance are essential to protecting both their businesses and their families.
Allen Baler of 4Patriots sums it up when he says, “With incidents of extreme weather increasing each year, our country’s deteriorating electrical infrastructure showing its vulnerability, and with the threats of sabotage and terrorism, it has become more and more obvious to many people that they need to be prepared for a very uncertain future. The disaster prep industry is important because it responds to the legitimate concerns of people who want to survive emergency situations.”
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