1. Natural disasters-Asset preservation and business continuity 11 Mar 09
Word count-944
Natural Disasters-Asset preservation and business continuity
Disruptions due to natural phenomena are far more prevalent than many individuals and
certainly companies are aware. For some inexplicable reason people appear to be unable
to retain the frequency, probability, damage, disruption and location of natural disasters
in comparison to other events such as terrorism or political unrest. Ask yourself, do you
remember more details around the Union Carbide leak, the Exxon Valdez spill,
World Trade Center attack or the Sichuan Quake, Myanmar Typhoon or PNG
Tsunami which all singularly killed more people than the 3 prior events in total? It
is perhaps due to the fact that many individuals and more concerning companies, relies
on living memory to determine the planning requirements and probability of natural
events. The impact and frequency however is far greater than that of most other business
disruption events and catastrophic incidents.
Over the past few decades increasing numbers of the world’s population have migrated to
the long-term cities and developing mega cities across the globe. It is in part the reason
why in recent years the impact and devastation from natural disasters has become greater
than that of years gone by. Additionally, one of the few consensuses by experts is that the
predictability and probability of natural disasters is still an inexact science with far more
research or study required. This has led to locations thought to be free of Mother
Nature’s fierce reprisals suffering surprising events with often catastrophic
outcomes. Further amplifying the affects of such unpredicted incidents has been the
diverse and inconsistent building or development standards engaged as cities and
communities increase their economic and infrastructure development. Tragically, the
worst natural calamities in recent history has been where poor preparation and standards
have met with moderate to extreme natural disasters that most likely would have had less
impact had it hit those locations with the higher level of development and standards due
to their acknowledgement that they are within the accepted area of natural disaster events.
The adoption of the term natural disaster is perhaps more applicable to man’s response
and preparation to natural events. While a flood, fire, quake, eruption, wave and wind
is not indicative of a disaster, it is often the inability of governments and companies
to protect their assets in the wake of such events that determines the true scale of a
disaster. The concentration of population, insufficient infrastructure, limited emergency
procedures, poor emergency services provision, the potential for loss of life and suffering
of affected communities along with extended duration of loss of acceptable living
standards following the event all contribute to the overall formula for determining if a
natural phenomena is indeed a disaster or calamity.
Planning and preparation for natural disasters is relatively simple when compared to other
business disruption events. By using a threat-based approach and determining as many of
the plausible outcomes (such as power failure, denied access to premises, stranded
commuters, etc) planners discover that many of these events are similar if not common
with other business disruption events albeit not occurring simultaneously. Identifying
existing resources and required resources to mitigate or prevent negative outcomes is also
a straightforward process. While the training and preparation of personnel is not that
Tony Ridley
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2. Natural disasters-Asset preservation and business continuity 11 Mar 09
Word count-944
demanding it is important to ensure travelers and expats receive a more targeted and
frequent training curriculum. The reason for this is that due to their business mobility
requirements they may be exposed to a wider variety of natural phenomena than
that of the fixed office location, therefore requiring a wider range of information
and response knowledge. Furthermore, the level of support or footprint of disaster could
be significantly wider in locations of their travel than that of their location of origin. They
should also assume that a higher degree of self-assistance or vendor support will be
required when traveling, especially in developing countries as the government response is
often generic in application, non-commercially aligned, minimalistic in design and
hampered by inter-agency communications and language barriers.
It is becoming increasingly paramount that businesses maintain and monitor a higher
level crisis management system such as at the country or regional level as many local
offices are the first affected in such calamities and potentially unable to notify corporate
support due to the failure of communication infrastructure. Similar planning
consideration should be applied to travelers. This monitoring and surveillance should
have both predictive and preventative intervention capabilities coupled with continuous
activation and notification capacity. Businesses will also find that such systems result in
business and operational efficiencies due to the elimination of false activations and
failures in activation due to ill-perceived assumptions on whether or not the company had
people, facilities, equipment or processes exposed. Moreover, such systems will be the
governing factor for the time taken from identification to response and the ability to
preserve assets or prevent loss of life, damage to other company assets or continuity
of operations.
In the wake of the global economic challenges that are resulting in many governments
even less capable of large scale emergency response, diminished safety and quality
standards as well as a decrease in internal company resilience at a time when we continue
to see an unprecedented change in climate, environmental hazards, fierce natural
phenomena and multiple large scale incidents it is possibly more hazardous to people
and property now than it has been in the past decade. Individuals should be reviewing
their immediate action plans for such events, specific to each location of travel and
companies should be reviewing or implementing consistent applicable training programs
for those affected personnel and assets. All of these tactile preparedness measures are
underpinned by a wider business resilience plan and allocation of resources.
Tony Ridley
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