FOCUS
Come back stronger Russ Timpson offers his advice, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, to help businesses bounce back once the emergency has passed
I
N THE eyes of crisis command experts – Crisisboardroom – the state’s organisational response to the COVID-19 pandemic was
unexpected, to say the least. As the head of that company, I’m surprised at the level of organisational shock this has caused. If you recall, the UK government has produced
a risk register for the past 20 years, which details all the strategic hazards to this country, and a pandemic has been at the top of that tree in terms of potential impact – so it has been absolutely clear that this was anticipated. Then, to see that we have run out of masks
and we don’t have enough ventilators is another shock. One of the terms used post Grenfell is ‘wilful blindness’. In my view, the government has paid lip service to its risk register: it has produced it faithfully – and then ignored it. I suppose it is basic human nature to not pay attention to the unthinkable, but if we had done, we would have warehouses full of ventilators and personal protective equipment (PPE). For businesses reassessing where they stand once the emergency stage of the pandemic is over, a series of useful tips follows.
24 MAY 2020
www.frmjournal.com
Do you have a business continuity plan and have you tested it?
Businesses will be entering a very tough phase as we come out of the lockdown. Supply chains are going to undergo major restructuring and some of this will be forced upon them, as their suppliers will not survive. This will lead to simplification. For example, from a business continuity point of view, no company is going to rely on China for one component any more, because what do you do when they can’t supply what you need? Business continuity plans will become highly scrutinised, and businesses will fi nd this out in their insurance. The insurance market has had a soft market for 15 years, with more capacity than the market needs. Now that the market has hardened, you will see insurers looking at companies very carefully and asking whether they are going to go bust. This could seriously impact on their payments. Many stakeholders will want companies to prove they are more resilient than ever. In the previous world of sublime complacency,
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