Or another lesson on why anticipating the unexpected is a matter of LIFE and DEATH for YOUR business.

Many times in this blog I have belted on about having in place tried and tested disaster recovery and business continuity plans. I have presented to business groups the need to not only plan for the unexpected, but more importantly to REHEARSE and PRACTICE the said plan. Over the past two years we had national and local examples of WHY this is such an important part of business planning.

Let us refresh our memories with just a few of the well known incidents:
• The financial downturn
• The serious fire in 2009 at Campbells Prime Meat Ltd’s Livingston premises
• Heston Blumenthal’s food poisoning scare at the Fat Duck
• Industrial disputes with Royal Mail and BA
• The Volcanic ash cloud

Currently BP are wrestling with solving the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. (It is even more ironic for BP as they have produced a series of good quality publications for their staff which analysed historical accidents and using ‘modern’ techniques suggested what their management teams should learn and implement for the future.)

Yes, they keep on coming.

Not all of the above have been badly handled by any means. However, BP’s press over their incident has been less than glorious and this we have seen has impacted severely on their financial performance with several financial commentators suggesting their long term survivability may be in doubt.

The crux is how you deal with the crisis whilst minimising the impact on your day to day operation thus ensuring that your business does survive and can recover in the longer term. This is when the lack of planning and preparation shows up. Don’t believe me? Well let’s take the Gulf of Mexico oil spill as the example.

The Times reported that ‘Congressmen tore into the chairmen of all five of the biggest oil companies operating in the US over their Gulf of Mexico disaster response plans. Each plan lists the same dead oil spill expert to be contacted in emergencies. Each lists Walruses as among the sea mammals an oil spill would threaten even though, as one Democrat observed, “There are no walruses in the Gulf of Mexico”.’ The article went on to point out that all the response plans were basically identical, only differing in some instances in their colour schemes.

Heston Blumenthal on the other hand was very proactive with dealing with the food poisoning scare at the Fat Duck and as a consequence the press reporting was generally positive.

So what am I suggesting (again)?
• Read the preceding blog about the Ash Cloud and at the very least follow those steps.
• Get an outsider with experience to review your plan and to organise realistic rehearsals. (Oh, the dreadful consultant!)
• Give business continuity planning and rehearsals a high priority whilst you are not under pressure.
• Revisit the plans regularly to ensure the information is still current and the responses valid.

Still think it’s not worth bothering with? Well, I suppose it is like any insurance policy. If you never have to claim off it then there is the view that it is a waste of money.

In BP’s case the financial impact so far has been the dramatic drop in share price, the provision of billions of dollars to a cleanup fund, ongoing litigation costs for years hence and possible litigations against the individual Directors.

No doubt any contingency plan rejected by BP prior to the disaster as ‘too expensive’ looks remarkably good value for money now!

If it can happen to BP……

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010 at 10:43 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.