Business in the Age of Terror -Is your business prepared for a contingency?
Stabroek News
November 17, 2006
This week, I have decided to digress from writing on economic policies for our nation and to discuss a major global topic that many of my business colleagues in the private sector have asked me to shed some light on. In my book Thriving in the Age of Terror I have expanded on this topic as the key to survival for individuals, businesses or countries. Our company has developed many such plans for major companies. Terror can be caused both by man or nature. With the rise of terrorism and natural disasters, the question one must ask is, are our businesses ready to continue operation in such an environment? The fact that many of our businesses are trading partners and sell their products globally makes it more important that this planning is not ignored. A good example, if there was a major disaster with the shipping lines due to terrorism or natural disasters, would DDL be able to get their product to their markets or Precision Furniture products to their distributor chains. Probably not, then what are the consequences. Increased local inventory, loss of profits, jobs and eventual collapse of a major portion of your business. Doom and gloom yes. Are you prepared? Does DDL or any other company that exports major products overseas have a storage facility outside of Guyana in their main market in order to sustain operations for a specified period of time? This is just one example.
Should a business experience a calamity, it must have prepared a complete disaster business recovery and continuity plan, leading from an initial business impact analysis all the way back to normal business. The creation of this plan should utilize the input of all levels and aspects of the organization. All employees must be made aware of the plan and of their part in it. The plan must be kept up-to-date, reflecting the organization's ever-changing structure and needs. The plan must be rigorously tested. Ideally, those who would be involved in the emergency situation themselves should engage in test runs.
The plan itself must detail the processes to be put in place in the aftermath of the emergency. Next, a hierarchy must be established; noting which of the organization's activities are the most critical, and the order in which those activities are to be restarted. A reasonable disaster recovery and business continuity plan must include:
* Distribution of the plan to all organizational members.
* Regular updating.
* Recovery resources available (such as for computer backup).
* In case of a life-threatening emergency, shelter and evacuation plans put in place and posted.
Crisis Management
Training on when and where to meet following an incident if direct communication is not possible and succession plan for all key personnel
Communications
Colleague emergency information line not associated with your own phone system, laminated wallet card with brief instructions for colleague disaster response, including emergency number. A plan to get information to colleagues when no voice or data communication is available. Reroute procedures for mail, express mail, courier deliveries or pickups and vendor deliveries.
Critical Vendors -After-hours number for vendors listed in your continuity plans, verification of critical vendor continuity plans and review of their test results, back-up list of vendors for every critical supplier or business partner, testing critical vendor contact numbers. Note that the disaster can happen to your distribution chain, you need to make sure those vendors have a contingency plan.
Continuity Plans - Checklist of tasks to be completed after a declaration for various types of disasters: i.e. building unavailable, staff unavailable, systems unavailable, media crisis, critical supplier/partner outage, including offshore partners. Exercise plans based on greatest risks, hazards or threats. Ask internal teams to exercise by trading plans and recovering for another division based on documentation (You'll be amazed what's missing!)
Off-Site Storage - Extra copies of barcodes for critical offsite recovery materials stored away from your office and the storage facility. Multiple personnel trained, authorized, in and out of the local area designated to retrieve materials during an incident, a current copy of your plan offsite, a client list offsite on CD or in paper form.
Finances - Procedure to procure emergency check stock, Procedure to duplicate your electronic funds transfers (EFT) or banking connections if you have moved to your recovery facility, using an alternate network with different routing identification numbers. Test it.
Method for relocated staff to pay for hotels, rental cars, and meals.
Other Considerations - List of all network connections and routing configurations, test of disaster dial-up access including volume load tests, plan to allocate limited dial-up port access, plans to work around dial-up limitations. If offshore operations exist, develop plans to recover operations locally- without official notice and with immediate impact to normal operations.
Print recovery plan with test validating full capability, mail insert and mass mailing recovery plan, procedure to collect recovery plans from departing or terminated colleagues that may be stored at home. Cultivate relationships with local emergency management personnel, including fire, police, public health, county emergency managers, and government security liaisons.
Be prepared, we are living in the Age of Terror and Disasters.