Thursday, July 29, 2010

Beginning The Journey

Many executives are reluctant to begin the Emergency Planning game. Many more of those who are reluctant are small to medium size business owners. They see more money being spent than can be justified by the perceived Return on Investment. They see hours upon hours of time being spent on a plan that could be spent generating more business, and growing their client base. So really again, they see dollars, but this time dollars not being generated.

I see their point of view, to a degree.

Capital is the life blood of business. It is why business begis, what keeps it going, pays salaries, bills and helps business expand. So, spending money on an Emergency Plan is a low priority. The arguemet is that, in all likelyhood, they will never need to call upon that plan. Depending on location, many of the "disasters" plans cover are unlikely. These men and women would argue that they watch whats going on, and take steps as they need too, so a plan is just tied up capital. Why bother to make a plan for what is a statisical annomaly? The answer is in remembering the events of September 11th, 2001.

Who would have dreamed that men would fly 2 loaded airliners into those buildings? Who would have dreamed that those buildings would have collapsed from fires? If smeone had suggested even a remote possibility of it happening, people would have said they were just making stuff up to justify their jobs or the expenditure.

It did happen. And one would think that message would still ring loud and clear; that "stuff" happens. Those that had plans for other reasons came through those dark days ruffled, but strong. Many of those without plans arent around to do business any longer. and that is the point. The first time (or only time if you wish) a plan needs to be activated, its paid for itself a hundred times over.

And that will be the topic of the next message; The Returns VS The Costs

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