Contingency planning

There are four main types of crisis;

Financial crisis - short term liquidity or cash flow problems; and long term bankruptcy problems,

Public relations crisis - negative publicity that could adversely affect the success of the company including effects of industrial espionage

Strategic crisis - changes in the business environment that call the viability of the company into question - for example Western Union closing its telegram business due to the telegram being superseded by technology or hostile takeovers

External effects- Fire, power-cut, building damage/collapse earthquake, terrorist activity-bombing, kidnapping, key-personnel targeting, civil unrest-mobs, military action, police intervention, friendly fire, tsunami.

This article will focus on external effects. If a crisis does occur companies should have contingency plans in place that have been communicated to the workforce. Understanding should be ensured by enacted drills to familiarise staff with procedure, but how many companies here even have simple fire drills? In the Dubai power-cut of June 2005 the majority of companies had no contingency plan and staff were left bewildered and wondering what to do, sweltering in hot offices with no air-conditioning, useless computers, no communications, and no way of continuing with the normal flow of business. A few forward thinking companies had staff who knew exactly what was required, whether it was to all go home and leave one staff member in residence or sit tight, employ self air-cooling and pray for power. At least there was some direction. Some larger companies were forward thinking enough (and had the resources) to have the benefit of their own generators to provide their own power supply in such an emergency. Consider other possible crises. It is not beyond the realms of possibility for office buildings to collapse or suffer partial collapse, given rumours about questionable mortar quality, or for a freak gust of wind to blow one of the whirly-birds that delight in using Sheikh Zayed Road as their personal M1 into the tenth floor of one of the tower-blocks residing there with devastating consequences. A minor earthquake was recorded in Dubai last year, why not a bigger one this year and do we want to think of the possibility of a tsunami and the Palm? The point is that these possibilities should be considered and contingency plans put in place, this simply is not being done sufficiently in Dubai. Whether there is the threat of a flooded office due to a burst water tank or something as severe as a major fire or terrorist attack the following simple contingency planning points should be addressed.


• Designate key employees as crisis officers


• Designate employees as first aid officers, have sufficient first aid kits


• Designate employees as fire officers, trained in use of fire extinguishers, have sufficient fire extinguishers


• Train and empower CO's with authority to make all decisions necessary in a crisis


• Drill COs, FAO and staff in fire process and evacuation procedure


• Ensure that there is always a crisis officer physically present in the office at any given time


• Update contact details of all employees


• Have a list of all emergency contact numbers and who to contact in the organization if your company becomes under siege


• List procedure for main crises: fire, power-cut, building collapse/compromise, terrorist attack

Finally employ The Rule of Redundant Systems which states that every critical system should have a redundant backup system. When failure of a system would cause serious harm, there should be available some substitute means of performing that system's functions. Some airliners, for example have something called triple redundancy control systems: three separate systems operate the control surfaces of the aircraft. A high-speed train will have three braking systems: one electric, one hydraulic, and one compressed air. In a crisis situation there should be various means of communicating with staff and authorities in case one system fails. An emergency satellite phone is a good example.

Just a few hours spent planning and training employees in contingencies will equip your company to tackle a crisis head-on, help shield the business and may even, one day, save lives.