Business & Industry

Any business can find itself in a seemingly routine situation that deteriorates, unexpectedly, into a catastrophic situation. The need to protect a business from the risk of fire, burglary and basic safety requirements is usually obvious, due to the nature of the business or enterprise.

Most businesses today, however, are not properly equipped to cope with unusual scenarios which, even if they lack a disaster dimension, can endanger the very existence of the business.

This lack of preparedness is reflected in both in the organizational behavior in these situations and in the lack of basic organizational readiness, both of which can easily be avoided with proper training and practice.

Proper training in readiness can significantly contribute to day-to day operations and can also significantly improve business performance in general.  This preparation does not require a major investment, acquisition or special technology.  The main factors that can make a difference are the following: leadership and management methods, identification of problematic gaps in preparedness, practice of skills and behavior in various scenarios and putting available resources to good use.

Business and Industry - major challenges of unforeseen extreme situations, disasters and minor emergencies:

• Transition from management to Dynamic Leadership
• By focusing on its mission and goals, a business has not developed competency to deal with diverse challenges (eg. usually, the same manager responsible for the business also handles crisis management; as a result, there can be a lack of readiness to address challenges beyond the normal business scope and the event is perceived by the organization as a surprise)
• Ensuring basic security for employees
• Maintaining business continuity of operations
• Containing the "flames" of the crisis to prevent a loss of control
• Guarding the core business*
• Prevention of paralysis of critical business units - physical harm / injury to essential employees / injury to employees’ families
• Protection of the business’ brand and image
• Industry
• The continued operation of the production line
• Protection of infrastructure and resources
• Preparation for scenarios in which there are chemical / mechanical / structural / complex safety issues
• Rapid management shut-down processes in an emergency
• Safeguarding of human life - higher level risk exposure scenarios or life-threatening injury

* The core business varies from business to business. In the event of extreme events and emergencies, protecting the core business requires completely different actions than those taken to improve core performance, which characterize normal business practices.  A lack of preparedness and resilience can hurt the business core to such an extent that economic recovery might not be possible during or even after the crisis event.