At 9pm on Tuesday evening, we had a power failure. This is very unusual, and we did all the usual things from checking our supply and trip-switches to ringing EDF. The fault was traced to a damaged underground cable and was fixed by about 11am the next morning.
As a consultant in, amongst other things, Risk Management I'm pleased to say that I had already considered the scenario of a power failure. Being in the centre of London, I have many options available to me. I have, however, made some effort into ensuring that I can continue to work in difficult circumstances. My backups are available remotely and incoming mail is scanned into my filing system - so I am in a position to take my laptop, find a new space with power and an internet connection, and start work.
Power failure, however irritating, is one of the easiest incidents to deal with. With my interest in risk, I have considered fire, theft, flood, regulatory problems, PR issues, professional problems, client issues etc etc etc
If you haven't done all of this - and done it in a systematic manner - you really must. If you are a partner in a firm and don't know for certain that your firm has all of this in place - ask now. Sadly I suspect that many firms would have a somewhat embarrassed reply to that question. It is never too late to sort your risk management out.
Mar-aon Consulting can help with your risk management - and provide a pragmatic, workable system fit for your firm. See www.mar-aon.co.uk for more details.
Never too late - until it is too late! ;-)
ReplyDelete...but until it's too late, you have time to make a change!
ReplyDeleteGreat post Peter. I couldn't agree more that businesses often fail to plan for basic failures. A power failure may seem relatively simple but can actually cost a company a lot of money when dealing internationally.
ReplyDeleteBusiness Continuity Planning can really give your organization the competitive edge during basic outages (power, storms, etc.) and during unforeseen crisis (fire, natural disaster, etc.)