The situation is the least desirable situation one can imagine. There are approximately 30 people unaccounted for within the collapsed shopping mall, and Search and rescue people are walking away. The crowd and population are livid; how can they leave a survivor (for there have been indications there is at least one individual still alive within this unintentional tomb) and tell the world they are quitting? Protests start, politicians go on the verbal offensive, while ministry directors make decisions about what should and should not be. Everyone has a voice, and everyone demands their voice be the one heeded. The worst of situations.
Sunday saw a tragedy unfold right in our own back yard. Normally, Ontarians think of collapses such as this occurring during severe winter weather and severe storm (read tornado) events, or in second and third world nations where building code isn't strong enough or not enforced. Yet, it happened in Ontario. In a community known as a retirement haven not long ago. And to add insult to the situation, rescuers wont rescue.
So far, it may seem like the blog here is going to bash the search and rescue community, for not having the courage to do what is necessary to save a life, or potentially, lives. If that is your assumption Dear Reader, you assume wrong.
The very last thing ANY responder wants to do is leave a victim and or survivor behind. These brave souls are good at what they do... no, great at what they do because their first instinct is to save a life; to rescue those in need of rescuing come hell or high water. They are sworn to do what they can to save save lives. And on a daily basis, that is what our EMTs, Fire Services, Police Services and Special Teams such as Search and Rescue (SAR) and Heavy Urban Search and Rescue (HUSAR) personnel do. It isn't just a job, it is their calling and passion. So imagine how they must feel stepping back.
How can they step back? Sometimes its the only call that can be made. Is it responsible to place 2, 3, 5 or 10 rescuers lives in jeopardy in order to pull someone from the wreckage who may not live? If the person in that same wreckage is a loved one, just about every Canadian would say yes. And that is their emotion, connection, love and need for that loved one speaking. And its not wrong. But its also not right.
A very wise EMT/Paramedic I know, who trained me in Standard First Aid/HeartSaver CPR said something to us during training that needs repeating now: "At the end of the day, the rescuer goes home". Sounds a bit selfish doesn't it? But it is the furthest thing from selfish. Because at the end of the day, there is going be someone else, somewhere and sometime who is going to need that rescuer to help them. If a rescuer is lost, that soul can't help anyone. When a rescuer is lost, immediately his or her comrades feel the need to find him/her, and pull them to safety, jeopardizing more of the team (if left to their instincts). It spirals from there. So stepping away is, without doubt in my mind, the hardest action these brave souls must take. I imagine it kills a piece of them each time they have to make it.
Consider, if you will Dear Reader, the loss of a rescuer or rescuers for one potential survivor, only to have all lost permanently. Do we then attack citing faulty training? Faulty reasoning? What do we say to THEIR families? Do we shrug it off and say, "Well, that's their job! And they screwed it up because our loved one is still in there too!" DAMN RIGHT WE DON'T!
We are not there. And most of you good Readers are not versed in their trade and skill. You haven't the years of training and experience they do. I understand more than many of you due to my training, education and experience in Emergency Management, but even I am not qualified to criticize their judgement. And at the risk of sounding judgemental/critical/confrontational to the politicians and Ministry Officials, neither do they. The only people truly fit to make the call are those with the training and experience. In the case of the Elliott Lake shopping mall, that means HUSAR personnel. And we need to leave them to their task as they deem fit.
Its hard for us to understand, but sometimes the fastest and safest way for HUSAR/SAR to do their job is to stop, pull back even walk away and rethink the task out. They need to re-evaluate, revise plans, regroup then and only then resume operations. And sometimes, that means walking away for good.
My heart goes out to all those trapped in the wreckage of the mall. It goes out to their families, to their friends, their coworkers. And it goes out to the reponders; EMTs, firefighters, police the SAR and HUSAR teams especially. They have the hardest decisions to make; life and death decisions, and very often they are the most unpopular and undesirable decisions. Decisions they absolutely find repulsive to make. And even if only necessary to make once throughout an entire career, too often necessary.
Share this Blog if you will Dear Reader, in support of the responders in our communities. Theirs is the hardest job of any to do, and the most necessary.
To all our EMTs, Fire Fighters, Police, SAR and HUSAR Teams and all other Emergency Responders;
Thank you in the most heart felt ways, for the sacrifices you make each and every day! We owe you a debt that can never be repaid!
Greg Long, President
TEN33 Inc. Disaster Preparedness Consulting
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Monday, June 4, 2012
The Awakening; it Can Happen to Me!
Not in our corner of the world!
Things like that happen on other countries, we're too nice!
What are the chances? So small they really don't exist!
This are typical responses one would get if we we're to discuss the potential of a "shooter" running rampant inside a major shopping venue in Toronto. Oh, perhaps we could have a mugging, or more likely just a "fisticuffs" going on, even a purse or purchase snatching. But never a shooting. C'mon, this is "Toronto the Good"! We don't do crap like that!
Apparently, some of us do.
There are three things I won't do following this dastardly attack. One, I won't blatantly use it to sell myself, my services or my programs. That would be, and is cheap and taudry. Secondly, I won't use it to stir fervor and frighten people to action in the cause of Emergency and Disaster Planning and Preparedness. I think that doing so would only stir up anxieties unnecessarily, and that would not be a positive to peoples responses should another like event occur. And lastly, I will not attempt to soothe you collective brows, and coo such sweet affections inferring the bad man is gone, never to return, and this is a once in a lifetime thing, never to return to us again. Because this is the second time such events have unfolded inside of 7 years.
In December of 2005, a vivacious 15 year old Jane Creba was shot dead by an errant bullet from the gun of another drug/gang-banger while she shopped a busy Yonge Street, only meters away from Saturdays sad events. We were all amazed and shocked such a thing could happen in our fair city then, but I think many believed (perhaps even me to a degree) that this would likely never happen again. We've just been reminded that events, like history, have a tendency to repeat themselves, and as Churchill said, we are damned to repeat them if we do not learn from them.
I know we learned from Jane Creba's death. Perhaps we forgot some of what we learned though, and this is our lesson on remembering.
From all accounts I have seen, the security team at the Eaton's Centre performed admirably and quickly. I can't say I've seen anything to find fault with in their response by any media account of events. The same can be said for Toronto's men and women of Toronto Police Services. They too were on the scene rapidly, and took charge as they needed to in order to protect. I can't say that there was any miscue at all from any responder. That's great news!
In saying all that though, it brings to the front of my mind anyway, the need for more preparedness training in the private sector. A heads up as it were for the average man and woman and child on the street. And, more importantly, practice in the business world in responding to these rare yet potentially deadly occurrences ahead of time.
I don't know if the Cadillac Fairview Security staff had ever conducted an exercise related shooters inside the Eaton's Center before, but it seems obvious there may have been some discussion and possibly training conducted reflecting that. It would make sense with the Centre's tourist designation. The result either way is, this might have been a far more tragic day for many more families had the response gone any other way. I strongly commend the actions of those immediately on scene in response.
I can't help but wonder though, how things would have gone if this event occurred in a private business instead of a public place. How many would be injured, how many would be dead. I wonder this because the majority of businesses don't have a security team on hand trained or at least schooled on responses to such hostile attacks. I wonder how our organizations events(Scouting events, Optimist Club meetings, Lion's Club charity events and Charity gals and balls and more) would fair if something similar to Saturday's food court attack occurred during the event. I cant recall seeing any security personnel around when I spoke before a Rotarian Sunrise group breakfast a year or so ago in downtown Toronto. And I know we didn't have any onside security in the warehouse of a former employer of mine when an escapee of the Metro East Detention Center tried to hide in one of the dumpsters inside our loading dock one year.
Security teams at every event we hold as NPOs isn't feasible. Nor is having, in most cases, a full time security team in our businesses and meeting halls. The cost benefit ratio is way out of whack, especially for our service clubs who all too often work on shoe-string budgets. But (you knew there had to be a "but"), there is a liability we have as business owners, service club members and organizers of other events (those aforementioned galas and balls) to those who attend the meetings, events, galas and balls. It's called "Due Diligence", it's called "Duty of Care" and it all hangs on doing "all things reasonable" to protect employees, guests, friends, and families from harm. While a security team might be above the "all things reasonable" category, having Emergency/Disaster Plans that deal with theses potentially deadly occurrences isn't.
Emergency/Disaster Plans for events, balls, galas, service club meetings and in general for businesses really aren't expensive, especially compared to the value of the lives that would be saved by having a plan in place, not to mention the potential cost from litigation should a court decide you didn't do everything reasonable to protect those "in your charge". For most charitable events, Emergency Plannners would offer discounts based on the nature of your organization. Savings would be seen too, where an event was returning to a previously utilized venue, as the bulk of the plan would already be written and require minor revision to accommodate the new event. I think it would be fair to say, based on inside knowledge, most of these plans could be generated for less than $1000.00 Cdn for very large events, and probably less than a few hundred dollars for the average sized event. Perhaps less for charitable.
Regardless, the benefits of putting into place an Emergency/Disaster Plan in the workplace, or for any type of gathering or event far exceeds ANY of the costs. There are any number of people and businesses that can help you prepare, or prepare for you, a solid Emergency Plan. I strongly recommend you consider using their services. It's not just for you protection, but also for your guests, employees and their families protection.
Greg Long, President;
TEN33 Inc.
Things like that happen on other countries, we're too nice!
What are the chances? So small they really don't exist!
This are typical responses one would get if we we're to discuss the potential of a "shooter" running rampant inside a major shopping venue in Toronto. Oh, perhaps we could have a mugging, or more likely just a "fisticuffs" going on, even a purse or purchase snatching. But never a shooting. C'mon, this is "Toronto the Good"! We don't do crap like that!
Apparently, some of us do.
There are three things I won't do following this dastardly attack. One, I won't blatantly use it to sell myself, my services or my programs. That would be, and is cheap and taudry. Secondly, I won't use it to stir fervor and frighten people to action in the cause of Emergency and Disaster Planning and Preparedness. I think that doing so would only stir up anxieties unnecessarily, and that would not be a positive to peoples responses should another like event occur. And lastly, I will not attempt to soothe you collective brows, and coo such sweet affections inferring the bad man is gone, never to return, and this is a once in a lifetime thing, never to return to us again. Because this is the second time such events have unfolded inside of 7 years.
In December of 2005, a vivacious 15 year old Jane Creba was shot dead by an errant bullet from the gun of another drug/gang-banger while she shopped a busy Yonge Street, only meters away from Saturdays sad events. We were all amazed and shocked such a thing could happen in our fair city then, but I think many believed (perhaps even me to a degree) that this would likely never happen again. We've just been reminded that events, like history, have a tendency to repeat themselves, and as Churchill said, we are damned to repeat them if we do not learn from them.
I know we learned from Jane Creba's death. Perhaps we forgot some of what we learned though, and this is our lesson on remembering.
From all accounts I have seen, the security team at the Eaton's Centre performed admirably and quickly. I can't say I've seen anything to find fault with in their response by any media account of events. The same can be said for Toronto's men and women of Toronto Police Services. They too were on the scene rapidly, and took charge as they needed to in order to protect. I can't say that there was any miscue at all from any responder. That's great news!
In saying all that though, it brings to the front of my mind anyway, the need for more preparedness training in the private sector. A heads up as it were for the average man and woman and child on the street. And, more importantly, practice in the business world in responding to these rare yet potentially deadly occurrences ahead of time.
I don't know if the Cadillac Fairview Security staff had ever conducted an exercise related shooters inside the Eaton's Center before, but it seems obvious there may have been some discussion and possibly training conducted reflecting that. It would make sense with the Centre's tourist designation. The result either way is, this might have been a far more tragic day for many more families had the response gone any other way. I strongly commend the actions of those immediately on scene in response.
I can't help but wonder though, how things would have gone if this event occurred in a private business instead of a public place. How many would be injured, how many would be dead. I wonder this because the majority of businesses don't have a security team on hand trained or at least schooled on responses to such hostile attacks. I wonder how our organizations events(Scouting events, Optimist Club meetings, Lion's Club charity events and Charity gals and balls and more) would fair if something similar to Saturday's food court attack occurred during the event. I cant recall seeing any security personnel around when I spoke before a Rotarian Sunrise group breakfast a year or so ago in downtown Toronto. And I know we didn't have any onside security in the warehouse of a former employer of mine when an escapee of the Metro East Detention Center tried to hide in one of the dumpsters inside our loading dock one year.
Security teams at every event we hold as NPOs isn't feasible. Nor is having, in most cases, a full time security team in our businesses and meeting halls. The cost benefit ratio is way out of whack, especially for our service clubs who all too often work on shoe-string budgets. But (you knew there had to be a "but"), there is a liability we have as business owners, service club members and organizers of other events (those aforementioned galas and balls) to those who attend the meetings, events, galas and balls. It's called "Due Diligence", it's called "Duty of Care" and it all hangs on doing "all things reasonable" to protect employees, guests, friends, and families from harm. While a security team might be above the "all things reasonable" category, having Emergency/Disaster Plans that deal with theses potentially deadly occurrences isn't.
Emergency/Disaster Plans for events, balls, galas, service club meetings and in general for businesses really aren't expensive, especially compared to the value of the lives that would be saved by having a plan in place, not to mention the potential cost from litigation should a court decide you didn't do everything reasonable to protect those "in your charge". For most charitable events, Emergency Plannners would offer discounts based on the nature of your organization. Savings would be seen too, where an event was returning to a previously utilized venue, as the bulk of the plan would already be written and require minor revision to accommodate the new event. I think it would be fair to say, based on inside knowledge, most of these plans could be generated for less than $1000.00 Cdn for very large events, and probably less than a few hundred dollars for the average sized event. Perhaps less for charitable.
Regardless, the benefits of putting into place an Emergency/Disaster Plan in the workplace, or for any type of gathering or event far exceeds ANY of the costs. There are any number of people and businesses that can help you prepare, or prepare for you, a solid Emergency Plan. I strongly recommend you consider using their services. It's not just for you protection, but also for your guests, employees and their families protection.
Greg Long, President;
TEN33 Inc.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Why or Why Not? Planning Makes Sense.
Keeping up with blogging is far more difficult than I thought it ws going to be. It requires time, and focus. Sometimes I have the time, but admittedly, focus is not one of my strong suits, outside of normal activities.
So, disaster of multitudes has hit Japan: an earthquake of major proportions, followed by a huge tsunami, and resulting from that a nuclear catastophy the likes of were only imagined in the minds of doomsayers. Who would have thought this much could have hit one nation all at once?
And I guess that would be the natural argument then for Emergency Preparedness, Planning, Testing, Reviewing, Evaluating... need I go on? Still, and I'm constantly amazed by this, North Americans and in particular, Canadians bury their heads in the dirt and profess, "We don't need to plan for extremes like this. This is Canada, nothing like this could ever happen here". Oh, really?
I remember a half decade or so there was a major disruption in the power of the entire eastern continent, that left some without power for a few hours, and other for weeks. And pretty near to that, an ice storm that left Eastern Ontario and most of Quebec without heat and light, nor runing water for many weeks to months.
The point is, we can never tell what nature is going to hurl our way. Where I am, east of Toronto, there isn't much thought of earthquake. And when one comes our way, we barely feel the "large ones" we get at 3 to 3.9 R. We seldom if ever give thought to the St Lawrence Valley Rift Fault on which the "Golden Horseshoe" is situated.We don't really have much in the way of hurricane, but in the 50's a biggie named Hazel took lives through flooding. We say we're not in "tornado alley", yet there has been an increase in tornado activity in Souther Ontario. And I'm sure if I sat here long enough, I could come up with examples of all types of disaster that might strike.
As for the terrorism threats, we've been really fortunate that all that were under planning in the area were discovered and thwarted before they had a chance to be enacted. Good intellegence, or something else, like luck?
The main objection I always hear is "why spend all that money for something that will never be needed?" Never? Really? For those that had plans, for each of the more recent events I mentioned above, they were enacted and response was simple. Municipalities enacted for certain. They managed these crisis' very well, with minimal if any disruption. It can work the same for business too.
Every time an Emergency Plan is enacted, it actually pays for its development. Down time costs money. Any disruption is down time. Minimizing downtime saves money. If an Emergency plan minimizes disruption, it must therefore minimize downtime, thus saving monetary loss, so there is a return on investment. Make sense? It can be through many small events, or realized with one large event, but in the end the cost of preparation is always returned in preventing or minimizing loss.
I'll get to the human factor next time.
Greg Long, President TEN33 Inc.
So, disaster of multitudes has hit Japan: an earthquake of major proportions, followed by a huge tsunami, and resulting from that a nuclear catastophy the likes of were only imagined in the minds of doomsayers. Who would have thought this much could have hit one nation all at once?
And I guess that would be the natural argument then for Emergency Preparedness, Planning, Testing, Reviewing, Evaluating... need I go on? Still, and I'm constantly amazed by this, North Americans and in particular, Canadians bury their heads in the dirt and profess, "We don't need to plan for extremes like this. This is Canada, nothing like this could ever happen here". Oh, really?
I remember a half decade or so there was a major disruption in the power of the entire eastern continent, that left some without power for a few hours, and other for weeks. And pretty near to that, an ice storm that left Eastern Ontario and most of Quebec without heat and light, nor runing water for many weeks to months.
The point is, we can never tell what nature is going to hurl our way. Where I am, east of Toronto, there isn't much thought of earthquake. And when one comes our way, we barely feel the "large ones" we get at 3 to 3.9 R. We seldom if ever give thought to the St Lawrence Valley Rift Fault on which the "Golden Horseshoe" is situated.We don't really have much in the way of hurricane, but in the 50's a biggie named Hazel took lives through flooding. We say we're not in "tornado alley", yet there has been an increase in tornado activity in Souther Ontario. And I'm sure if I sat here long enough, I could come up with examples of all types of disaster that might strike.
As for the terrorism threats, we've been really fortunate that all that were under planning in the area were discovered and thwarted before they had a chance to be enacted. Good intellegence, or something else, like luck?
The main objection I always hear is "why spend all that money for something that will never be needed?" Never? Really? For those that had plans, for each of the more recent events I mentioned above, they were enacted and response was simple. Municipalities enacted for certain. They managed these crisis' very well, with minimal if any disruption. It can work the same for business too.
Every time an Emergency Plan is enacted, it actually pays for its development. Down time costs money. Any disruption is down time. Minimizing downtime saves money. If an Emergency plan minimizes disruption, it must therefore minimize downtime, thus saving monetary loss, so there is a return on investment. Make sense? It can be through many small events, or realized with one large event, but in the end the cost of preparation is always returned in preventing or minimizing loss.
I'll get to the human factor next time.
Greg Long, President TEN33 Inc.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Preparedness In The Home.
This past weekend I helped introduce 200 youth to Emergency and Disaster Preparedness through my volunteer work with Scouts Canada, and Whitby Area Scouts. It was an eye opening experience for most of them, if not a bit on the heady side. But, they all left the weekend camp with a good idea of what they needed to do and what they needed to have when disaster strikes. And, they all came away with their own Home Emergency Plan.
Home Emergency Planning is the direction we need to head in the world today. If you want your family to survive a disaster without injury and only minor inconvenience, then you need to plan. They aren't very expensive, they are easy to do and are easy to follow, test and adjust where needed. They can come as templates for the family to complete, or they are available customized in advance to your address and community. Either way, they have good time investment value, and there may be an argument that they can save on insurance premiums. (the latter I will not guarantee at this time, but I have seen some indicators that this may be so)
My fellow Whitby Cub Scouters and I could not have done this introduction to Emergency Management in the home alone, and we had some fantastic people come and help us from organizations in the Durham Region.
Kathleen Smyth from the Durham Emergency Management Office (DEMO) introduced the youth to putting together a 72 hour preparedness kit. Kathleen dealt with an average of 50 youth in each of 4 sessions, and managed to engage them in a topic often lost on adults.
Shawna Coulter from Whitby Fire services brought us her team to teach the youth fire safety, and had some incredible display teaching props and games.
OVERT, the Ontario Volunteer Emergency Response Team joined us and taught the youth how to keep themselves safe in field and community, and how to be found if they became lost due to disaster, and introduced the youth to Backus the search and rescue dog. Glenn Turpin, Alex Gun and the team taught the Hug a Tree program as well, and ran one of our challenges on the Sunday session.
Others of note who helped us bring the material to the youth, Brian Wick of Custom Printing/Brooklin Bulletin Signs, Pressprint.com, and Nelson Education.
Whitby Scouting, Pack Section wishes to thank each and every person who helped make this camp weekend so special for the youth. They met the challenges of 200 excited youth, and a service team of new members who may not have been the most organized bunch running their first camp experience as a team. These program sponsors had their hands full, came through like champions and we owe them a large debt of gratitude.
I hope the families of the youth in attendance will complete the plans they now have, and test them and review them and make the necessary changes to their plans to make them work and continue to work for their families. They are now ahead of the majority of Canadian families, and I for one would like to see them stay that way.
For everyone else out there: get going on your plans! I'll be happy to help.
Greg Long, TEN33
Home Emergency Planning is the direction we need to head in the world today. If you want your family to survive a disaster without injury and only minor inconvenience, then you need to plan. They aren't very expensive, they are easy to do and are easy to follow, test and adjust where needed. They can come as templates for the family to complete, or they are available customized in advance to your address and community. Either way, they have good time investment value, and there may be an argument that they can save on insurance premiums. (the latter I will not guarantee at this time, but I have seen some indicators that this may be so)
My fellow Whitby Cub Scouters and I could not have done this introduction to Emergency Management in the home alone, and we had some fantastic people come and help us from organizations in the Durham Region.
Kathleen Smyth from the Durham Emergency Management Office (DEMO) introduced the youth to putting together a 72 hour preparedness kit. Kathleen dealt with an average of 50 youth in each of 4 sessions, and managed to engage them in a topic often lost on adults.
Shawna Coulter from Whitby Fire services brought us her team to teach the youth fire safety, and had some incredible display teaching props and games.
OVERT, the Ontario Volunteer Emergency Response Team joined us and taught the youth how to keep themselves safe in field and community, and how to be found if they became lost due to disaster, and introduced the youth to Backus the search and rescue dog. Glenn Turpin, Alex Gun and the team taught the Hug a Tree program as well, and ran one of our challenges on the Sunday session.
Others of note who helped us bring the material to the youth, Brian Wick of Custom Printing/Brooklin Bulletin Signs, Pressprint.com, and Nelson Education.
Whitby Scouting, Pack Section wishes to thank each and every person who helped make this camp weekend so special for the youth. They met the challenges of 200 excited youth, and a service team of new members who may not have been the most organized bunch running their first camp experience as a team. These program sponsors had their hands full, came through like champions and we owe them a large debt of gratitude.
I hope the families of the youth in attendance will complete the plans they now have, and test them and review them and make the necessary changes to their plans to make them work and continue to work for their families. They are now ahead of the majority of Canadian families, and I for one would like to see them stay that way.
For everyone else out there: get going on your plans! I'll be happy to help.
Greg Long, TEN33
Monday, August 16, 2010
Returns Vs Costs: Argument FOR Emergency Planning
Keeping operational costs at as low a figure as possible is crucial in today's world market. Banks and financial institutions have failed, ad its put a tremendous strain on business's. It's really a disaster unto its own. And that is why it is so important to seek out and retain the services of an Emergency Management professional. But the cost is the concern, right?
The cost of NOT planning should be your focus. Lets look at some figures for a bit.
You hire an EM consultant to help make your plans. Consulting rates for any thing these days is high; a little over $81.00 per hour on the low side, and reaching to over $200.00 on the high side. For this exercise, lets say the rate is $115.00 per hour. In order to create a comprehensive plan to protect a medium large to large business, its going to take approximately 16 weeks (probably more, depending on what planning exists). It would also be fair to assume there would be 35.5 billable hours per week during the process. So, the simple math tells us the cost of creating the plan is around $59,800.00.
That isn't the end of the costs, because there is annual (preferably twice annually) testing of the plan, review, revision etc., which would add about another 25 to 30 hours annually. That is really small change though in the grand scheme, coming in at $3450.00 on the high side, using the same hourly rate.
Now, lets look at the other side of the equation, the potential losses.
The goal of Emergency Planning is to get critical business functions back up and running within 72 hours. If your business is the average medium large to large company, daily revenues would be somewhere about $25,000.00 per day. Assume then that you will certainly loose profits for at lest one day before critical functions are up, and then another day at half function, the existing loss would then be $37,500.00. This of course assumes you've planned. For those who haven't planned, there will be at least 3 days (72 hrs) down. Already that's $75,000.00, plus facility losses, plus lost documentation, worker downtime, production downtime; well, you get the picture. Most companies without plans find they need 5 to 7 business days for resumption of critical business functions to occur. That means a loss of $175,000.00 on the long side, $125,000.00 on the short.
Lets go to the low side, and say 5 days lost, for $125,000.00. Now if you had planned, and we use the one and a half days to resume critical functions, a loss of only $37,500 there is a saving of $87,500.00. THE PLAN HAS MORE THAN PAID FOR ITS SELF!
Take this into account too: 80% of businesses that suffer some disaster that do not get there critical functions up and running within 72 hours fail within the following year. Of the remainder, 20% will fail within two years. Not encouraging numbers.
So, in the grand scheme of things, some money spent now will have a significant ROI the first time the plan needs to be enacted, and we haven't talked about litigation from failure to deliver on terms of contract (meting purchasing requirements from suppliers, failure to deliver to customers etc.) and employee litigation's for negligence and more. Now the loss figures could be into the millions.
So, my advice; do some planning. With a consultant on board, the process is largely in the background. There is minimal disruption, and the benefits sure outweigh the inconveniences.
Till next time, remember: Knowledge is Resilience
Keep Safe
Greg Long, President; TEN33 Disaster Preparedness Consulting
The cost of NOT planning should be your focus. Lets look at some figures for a bit.
You hire an EM consultant to help make your plans. Consulting rates for any thing these days is high; a little over $81.00 per hour on the low side, and reaching to over $200.00 on the high side. For this exercise, lets say the rate is $115.00 per hour. In order to create a comprehensive plan to protect a medium large to large business, its going to take approximately 16 weeks (probably more, depending on what planning exists). It would also be fair to assume there would be 35.5 billable hours per week during the process. So, the simple math tells us the cost of creating the plan is around $59,800.00.
That isn't the end of the costs, because there is annual (preferably twice annually) testing of the plan, review, revision etc., which would add about another 25 to 30 hours annually. That is really small change though in the grand scheme, coming in at $3450.00 on the high side, using the same hourly rate.
Now, lets look at the other side of the equation, the potential losses.
The goal of Emergency Planning is to get critical business functions back up and running within 72 hours. If your business is the average medium large to large company, daily revenues would be somewhere about $25,000.00 per day. Assume then that you will certainly loose profits for at lest one day before critical functions are up, and then another day at half function, the existing loss would then be $37,500.00. This of course assumes you've planned. For those who haven't planned, there will be at least 3 days (72 hrs) down. Already that's $75,000.00, plus facility losses, plus lost documentation, worker downtime, production downtime; well, you get the picture. Most companies without plans find they need 5 to 7 business days for resumption of critical business functions to occur. That means a loss of $175,000.00 on the long side, $125,000.00 on the short.
Lets go to the low side, and say 5 days lost, for $125,000.00. Now if you had planned, and we use the one and a half days to resume critical functions, a loss of only $37,500 there is a saving of $87,500.00. THE PLAN HAS MORE THAN PAID FOR ITS SELF!
Take this into account too: 80% of businesses that suffer some disaster that do not get there critical functions up and running within 72 hours fail within the following year. Of the remainder, 20% will fail within two years. Not encouraging numbers.
So, in the grand scheme of things, some money spent now will have a significant ROI the first time the plan needs to be enacted, and we haven't talked about litigation from failure to deliver on terms of contract (meting purchasing requirements from suppliers, failure to deliver to customers etc.) and employee litigation's for negligence and more. Now the loss figures could be into the millions.
So, my advice; do some planning. With a consultant on board, the process is largely in the background. There is minimal disruption, and the benefits sure outweigh the inconveniences.
Till next time, remember: Knowledge is Resilience
Keep Safe
Greg Long, President; TEN33 Disaster Preparedness Consulting
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
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
Monday, July 19, 2010
So, This is Blogging
A new blog? Yes, I guess it is.
I'm not sure about blogging; I'm new to it. Frankly, this intimidates me a little. Ask me to present a training session on WHMIS, not a problem. Extoll in person the benefits of creating, testing and maintaining Emergency Management Plans, equally as simple. You can even ask me to participate and run a Cub Scout Camp, and I'l barely bat an eye. But, blogging is new to me. So kind blog reader, be kind and be gentle.
Over the next several messages, I will attempt to present to you kind reader, a logical explanation of Emergency Planning, Management and Response & Recovery. I will attempt to demonstrate how the expenditure of financial resources in the here an now will save potential millions for business in the future. I will hopefully bring away from the "darkside" of having no Emergency Plan, to the "lightside" and doing that which I firmly believe is the right thing...planning.
Before I get right into the thick of it, (which I will leave until my next blog) I want you my good reader to begin to think of Emergency Preparedness/Management/Planning as a living being. It grows, it learns, and it adapts. And, when proper attention is paid, it flourishes. That is when it really begins to pay off. The money spent initially shows its full value, and the additional costs diminish. And the best part is, you business becomes truely resillient.
There is, of course, planning for the home too. Think on it as well. Would it not be worth it to know your loved ones are as wel prepared to survive calamity as your business. (In my thoughts, it's far more important that family survives)
That's all for tonight. Start thinking about your plan, or the lack thereof, and what the cost might be to your business if some form of disaster struck tonight while you were sleeping. Try and imagine how long it would take for you to restore your Critical Business Functions (and that is way more than ust your IT/MIS group). Could you do it in say...72 hours?
Read me later, and we will begin this journey to resilliency.
Ciao:
Greg Long, President;
TEN33 Disaster Preparedness Consulting
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