Are your premises at risk of flooding ?

As the UK and local businesses slowly begin to recover from the significant disruptions to cashflow and programme forced by last week’s  last week’s heavy snowfalls and freezing temperatures it’s easy to forget that there are problems still to come as the snow melts and rivers test their boundaries over the coming days bringing the potential for further loss and disruption to business critical activities.

Floods happen so quickly

I vividly recall walking the Pennie Way as a schoolboy and seeing first-hand how quickly the smallest of quietly meandering moorland streams rose in seconds to become powerful raging torrents that would knock you off your feet if you didn’t have an eye upstream and weren’t agile enough to clear their path.

Can you see around corners?

What’s your equivalent process for keeping an eye upstream – how do you see around the corners.  It’s too late to crane your neck around at the corner when the situation changes that rapidly and the potential for damage and loss is so high.

The ability to forecast likely events or “horizon scan” and plan ahead lies at the heart of all business continuity success.

So what should you do to prepare for the thaw?

Please don’t rush out and buy insurance.  That won’thelp you in the immediate aftermath and we want to prevent the problem not struggle for weeks convincing loss adjusters that we really did have all of that kit when we’ve lost the up to date inventory (or never had one in the first place).

Here’s a couple of bullets to start you thinking:

• Daily monitoring of the weather up to 5 days ahead
• Registering for the Environment Agency flood alerts at your postcode
• Checking whether you business is in a flood plain
• Checking whether your business is in the deluge path of a reservoir
• Checking where the water mains are – mechanical failures are equally likely to cause a flood
• Checking where the stop cock is and that you can access and operate it
• Transferring critical papers to higher shelves (you can store separate copies elsewhere but sometimes originals are needed)
• Making plans to re-locate if all or part of your premises is denied or lost

Have you written and tested your fallback premises plans?

If you have a substantial business and need to put together fallback premises plans we can do that for you in a matter of weeks from concept to live exercise.

Imagine how good it feels to know that come hell or high water (sic) you can continue to operate seamlessly from another site within a few hours of Armageddon?  What’s that worth?

It’s got to be worth a phone call to find out more hasn’t it?

Call Us on 08456 434775 for a free consultation or e mail your questions to info@veterusconsulting.com

@Veterus

Portsmouth

11 Jan 2010

Business Continuity Consultancy – It all begins with a capability and risk assessment…

Severe Weather Challenges Business Continuity

As I “penguined” along the icy pavements to catch the 0615 train to London from Portsmouth I was reflecting on a number of lessons identified from the ongoing severe weather and heavy snowfall.

The local road were not impassable but certainly had the potential to cause accidents to both vehicles and pedestrians.  Many had chosen to terminate this risk by not venturing out or transfer it by booking a taxi.  My risk assessment (as always based on a combination of knowledge, skill and attitude) was to walk “gingerly” across the obviously icy bits choosing rougher, less polished patches where possible and keeping my hands out of pockets and free from bags etc in case my balance let me down.

Coming across an oasis of ice-free pavement that a good citizen had cleared brought to mind a couple of thoughts:

• The importance of keeping an eye out for and lending a hand to those less able to navigate the ice
• That the time to clear the snow is before it freezes
• That when something happens very infrequently we forget what we did last time
• That when something happens several times we begin to learn what works best
• We always learn from mishaps – maybe the pavement clearer had fallen previously
• Where there is a will, or significant consequence for failure, there is a way – perhaps the path clearer’s job was under threat and he really wanted to get to work or he was in the Royal Navy where there is no excuse (and a significant penalty) for missing the ship sailing (should’ve come back on board last night Jack!)

I imagine that more paths were cleared “up north” than “down south” because residents are more familiar with the problem and what helps prevent the consequences but maybe it’s the opposite?

Perhaps there is more motivation (for some at least) to catch the 0515 to town for an investment banker’s salary and bonus than there is for a less lucrative job?

My next observation was on arriving at Gunwharf Quays where security staff or someone had helpfully cleared several routes to allow shoppers easier access to the shops, restaurants and coffee houses.  In a recession this is obviously good sense (especially when lots of people are off work and their kids are bored) because of the potential for increased sales; but it also communicates to the customers that they are important and valued by the business owners of the landlord (if shops fail the rent doesn’t come in).  On a more cynical note it also mitigates against claims for negligence from the “slips and trips” chancers!

Moving further into the plaza I saw the benefit of covered walkways.  As well as keeping the worst of the wind and rain off shoppers they deliver snow and ice free routes without the shovelling and gritting – brilliant.  I’d like to think that was a design intent but I’m pretty sure it was accidental.  Nevertheless, it makes you think about doing the same for your site if the cost matches the benefit which it might if it saves the CEO from putting his back out transiting from the car park.

The snow and ice clearing, gritting and salting led me like Hantzel and Gretel to the rail and ferry links from whence (in addition to the heated underground car parks – another bonus in weather like this) most of Gunwharf’s customers come.  Most impressive and simple to do with a bit of thought and some labour.

Perhaps the local authority had contributed to this team effort?  If so, you’d have thought they’d take a bit of credit with a sign to capitalise on the goodwill created – a missed opportunity to get some reputational credit for a metaphorically rainy day.

At the railway station I was delighted that the automated ticket machine had got to work and wasn’t wingeing about standing around in the cold so I could pay for my ticket and that there were some trains in the station that looked like mine.

I’d registered on Twitter last night to receive updates on disruptions (which was a great idea given the station and train companies’ websites told me nothing except to expect cancellations and disruptions and that I could follow them on Twitter for the latest news) but I didn’t get any.

The train was on a different platform to usual because of a dead train blocking one line.  The driver said he had to take it to the depot but didn’t know what was wrong.  An opportunity missed there to potentially rectify the problem in situ and keep the train working and the platform clear as well as freeing up a driver and avoiding the waste of time to repair.  Perhaps the cost doesn’t justify a mobile repair – surely?

Nevertheless, the information boards were working and told me of the platform alterations (ok I had to do a lap of the station because they weren’t on my usual route over the pedestrian bridge but you can’t expect too much from train people) and I boarded a very hot train with a 240V socket to plug into and a table to work from.  Happy days!

The train left on time and stopped 10 seconds later because of a (traditional) points problem between Portsmouth Harbour and Portsmouth & Southsea.  We sat there for about 15 minutes waiting for the light to change and so several hundred people got to work late again thanks to the train – okay at least they got there.

But how difficult can it be to have a “battle over-ride switch” or a spare cable/system to make the chuffing (this is a train story) points work?  Isembard Kingdom Brunel (honoured with a statue outside my motionless window below) must have been turning in his grave!

Anyway, I thought I’d share my musings on today’s journey to see how you and your culture would benchmark against these 2 examples of preparedness and unpreparedness for severe weather.

ps – I am writing this on the return journey and we’ve been stationary between stations for 15 minutes.  Fortunately we’ve cancelled our evening out so it’s less critical if I am late and of course there’s no chuffing signal – broadband or to drive the safety lights again  - so I’ll have to post this once I am back in the first world – ie off this crappy SouthWest Train.

pps – Regrettably the broadcast is working so plenty of well-meant but invasive apologies from the guard.  A cup of tea would go much further or a discount voucher; as if!

@Veterus 8 Jan 2010 Portmsouth

Crikey it’s cold!

Has Your neighbour got a key?

Following a last minute change of plan the other day, my wife and I both rushed out of the house to walk the children to school.

I didn’t take a house key (which I realised) so I was a little anxious about my ability to get back into the house but thought that as we had left together, we’d probably come back together.

The childrens schools as separated by about 1 minutes walk so I dropped my daughter off then returned to the other school to meet my wife (and her key) so that I could go back home to work.

I realised en-route that I had also left my mobile phone at home but was unfazed because I imagined it woud be easy to find my wife at the school.

Despite scouting the grounds and checking all of the usual places then ringing my wife I was unable to find her so I set off home alone thinking perhaps she’d be home – she wasn’t.

Fortunately, our neighbour was at home and we had provided him with a key for such eventualities so I managed to get in and get the kettle on without delay or drama.

Now you could argue that I should have taken the key and phone when I went out but you know, sometimes sh*t happens and the best laid plans of mice and men gang aft agley (sp?) as Robert Burns well knew.

My colleague threw a suprise business continuity exercise for a client a couple of weeks ago and one of the senior managers had just returned from 3 weeks leave, popped out in his shirt sleeves for a pint of milk and ended up bundled into a waiting transit van ahead of a 2 day off-site exercise.  As I said, sh*t happens.

My advice is to think through as many potential disruptions and mitigations as possible and make good plans through effective training and exercising.  If you do that, you might survive and get back on track regardless of whatever nasty suprises life throws at you.

Like the scouts – be prepared!

@Veterus