When thinking of business continuity in relation to a tornado, one must refer to it as the pre-planned processes developed, implemented, and tested to sustain business process functions after the disaster. Crisis management fills the voids. For example, in your business continuity planning you outsourced data redundancy to a data facility in another state, you planned and established a secondary workplace in case your office building is destroyed, and you developed a HAZMAT plan in case the anhydrous ammonia tanks behind the business are damaged and leak.
However, when the EF-5 tornado strikes, it hits during a seminar you are hosting with employees, clients, and vendor representatives present at your facility. The EF-5 tornado destroys your town leaving the emergency operations center, fire departments, police department - and your business - in rubbles. What do you do; how do you react? This is when a crisis management plan is critical. As ironic as it sounds, as mentioned earlier, a crisis management plan is planning for the unexpected, such as having employees, clients, and vendor representatives onsite. Focusing mostly on human life, crisis management could be the deciding factor in whether your business continuity plan is even going to matter.
Why is Crisis Management a Crucial Component for Business Survival? I have found countless business owners rely upon their business continuity plan, believing it will save their businesses. This could not be further from the truth. The fact is, no plan is an absolute guarantee; but without having a plan to get employees
out of harm’s way and then utilizing a streamlined process to ensure employees are at the right place at the right time (crisis management plan), a business continuity plan is useless.
A crisis communication plan cannot be initiated without staff present to call customers, vendors, and partners. A disaster recovery plan cannot be initiated without management present to identify what is lost or recoverable from its department. Business owners forget their staff ensures the continuity of their business. In a corporation of three hundred employees, it would be literally impossible for the CEO to handle every aspect needed to rapidly meet company, customer, and partner demands. If customer contracts are lost due to a company failing to meet customers’ needs, income to meet overhead demands will drive the business into the ground. In a period of recession, there is no margin for error. Competition is fierce and customers’ demands are high, but their willingness to spend is low and budgeting is crucial.
No matter how committed a client is to a business, if the business is unprepared for a critical incident and forced to temporarily shut its doors, even the most devout of clients will turn to the next provider. It is a vicious cycle and one from which a company must be prepared to combat, survive and recover.
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