Sunday
Apr172011
We Never Saw it Coming
Sunday, April 17, 2011 at 10:33AM
This is the time of year when I really begin to push my clients to knock the dust of their Disaster Plan and re-visit whether or not the document is still current. It may be hard to believe, but I still have clients who do not have a sufficient Disaster Plan. Some of these clients have asset exposure in the billions. While most of these clients do have a risk manager, they do not have a sufficient plan.
If you ask for a disaster plan in Florida, most companies will hand over a Hurricane Disaster Plan - period. That is understandable since that likelihood of a hurricane here (or other similar wind related events) is a much more probable event than other disaster. My concern though is that any company and its personnel is vunerable to other disasters, either natural or man-made, that have not been accounted for in the plan.
To fully understand a disaster plan, we need to understand that there are several components. A disaster plan consists of a Disaster Preparedness Plan, a Disaster Management Plan, a Disaster Reocovery Plan and a Business Continuity Plan.
The Disaster Plan should address every possible disaster profile type. Each profile type should have the associated and applied probability combined with a risk tolerance profile and a multiplier effect on those probabilities included. In correlation, each disaster profile should be accompanied by a disaster plan, management, and recovery profile to match.
When we talk about the risk tolerance and the multiplier effects on your business, one has to consider that your business can be impacted by disasters that occur to others within the supply chain. If your business is represented through sole source suppliers, it is important for you and your business to demand Disaster Plans from your supply chain - both up and down stream - to determine how the affects of disasters may affect your company.
There is another perspective on the risk dynamic of a proper Disaster Plan that you may not think of in the planning process. If your business operates in a multi-tenant building, awareness of other tenants and their disaster plans, the management company's or owner's plan or lack of, could impact your business. A disaster in a mulit-tenant building which is vertical could have devastating effects on your business, but not just because of collateral damage. There is the possibility that your business could be closed, even if for a short time, in order to cure the damaged areas of your building.
Lastly, the human threats of violence, terrorist activity, chemical and biological contamination from either accidental or human targeted actions could impact your business. Although each of these may only carry a small likelihood of actual occurance, each should be addressed.
Like every sales forecast, every budget and every other disaster plan, the minute you finish...it will be wrong. Don't worry. The planning process itself is worth its weight in gold.
Now that you have read this...do what I do each and every time I'm handed a plan to review. Call all the phone numbers contained it the plan and see who...if anybody...answers the phone.
Tomorrow we will address issues in Business Continuity.
If you ask for a disaster plan in Florida, most companies will hand over a Hurricane Disaster Plan - period. That is understandable since that likelihood of a hurricane here (or other similar wind related events) is a much more probable event than other disaster. My concern though is that any company and its personnel is vunerable to other disasters, either natural or man-made, that have not been accounted for in the plan.
To fully understand a disaster plan, we need to understand that there are several components. A disaster plan consists of a Disaster Preparedness Plan, a Disaster Management Plan, a Disaster Reocovery Plan and a Business Continuity Plan.
The Disaster Plan should address every possible disaster profile type. Each profile type should have the associated and applied probability combined with a risk tolerance profile and a multiplier effect on those probabilities included. In correlation, each disaster profile should be accompanied by a disaster plan, management, and recovery profile to match.
When we talk about the risk tolerance and the multiplier effects on your business, one has to consider that your business can be impacted by disasters that occur to others within the supply chain. If your business is represented through sole source suppliers, it is important for you and your business to demand Disaster Plans from your supply chain - both up and down stream - to determine how the affects of disasters may affect your company.
There is another perspective on the risk dynamic of a proper Disaster Plan that you may not think of in the planning process. If your business operates in a multi-tenant building, awareness of other tenants and their disaster plans, the management company's or owner's plan or lack of, could impact your business. A disaster in a mulit-tenant building which is vertical could have devastating effects on your business, but not just because of collateral damage. There is the possibility that your business could be closed, even if for a short time, in order to cure the damaged areas of your building.
Lastly, the human threats of violence, terrorist activity, chemical and biological contamination from either accidental or human targeted actions could impact your business. Although each of these may only carry a small likelihood of actual occurance, each should be addressed.
Like every sales forecast, every budget and every other disaster plan, the minute you finish...it will be wrong. Don't worry. The planning process itself is worth its weight in gold.
Now that you have read this...do what I do each and every time I'm handed a plan to review. Call all the phone numbers contained it the plan and see who...if anybody...answers the phone.
Tomorrow we will address issues in Business Continuity.
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