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CYCLONE IN PUERTO RICO: BUSINESS CONTINUITY IMPORTANCE REINFORCED



“There are dreamers and there are planners; the planners make their dreams come true.” -Edwin Louis Cole - American author


We have all heard of the famous Aesop’s fable, ‘The ant and the grasshopper’ where the ant works hard to store food for the winter whereas the grasshopper does not bother. When winter arrives, the grasshopper finds no food and requests the ant to spare some. The ant refuses citing it did not plan for the future and should face the consequences of his actions.


According to Poweroutages.us, around 1,00,000-5,00,000 customers still have not been restored power a week after Hurricane Fiona battered Puerto Rico on 18th September 2022 as per the latest update (Read about it here). The scale of disruptions even after a week of the hurricane making landfall shows the extensive negative impact it has had on business continuity(Read about it here). Businesses operating in Puerto Rico are consequently facing massive disruptions along with, economic losses due to the non-availability of power supply.


The entire incident shows how important it is to be prepared for any eventuality as a disaster can strike anytime. Ensuring Business Continuity is essential as livelihoods depend on it. Any unforeseen natural disaster will have an enormous impact on the business and economy of the country.


This blog focuses on the kind of problems organizations face when a disaster strikes and why it is important to have Business Continuity Management and a Plan.


Business Continuity Management: A holistic management process that identifies potential impacts that threaten an organization and provides a framework for building resilience and the capability for an effective response that safeguards the interests of its key stakeholders, reputation, brand, and value-creating activities. (It is from ISO 22301:2012).


Business Continuity Plan: Documented procedures that guide organizations to respond, recover, resume, and restore to a pre-defined level of operation following a disruption. Typically, this covers resources, services, and activities required to ensure the continuity of critical business functions. Read about it here.


PUERTO RICO IS FACING A BLOW OF BOTH POWER AND FUEL DISRUPTIONS

A power cut can impact a business negatively as operations may be halted temporarily. However, when a disaster strikes, there is no time frame by which normal power can be restored as in the case of hurricane Fiona, water may not yet have receded for workers to restore the power supply. In such a situation, the second option will be to rely on generators for power supply. However, generators operate on fuel and when around 1,00,000-5,00,000 customers are without power, demand for generators will be high and as a result, the fuel supply will be disrupted due to high demand. Read about the news here.


Diesel generators can meet the demand of essential power supply but not the full restoration. Further disruptions of the power supply may not be due to generating stations but due to the non-availability of transmission and distribution networks due to the disaster which is to be restored. The only solution is standalone and independent diesel generators both domestic and industrial types will meet the requirement of essential services such as hospitals, banks, healthcare units, fire stations, and other essential services. Upfront planning for business continuity and availability of generators is to be ensured for an uninterrupted power supply to meet the eventualities.


Organizations relying on generators for instant power supply may face problems of fuel shortage and business continuity disruptions may once again crop up if fuel is in short supply.


Is your organization prepared to handle disruptions when they occur in a chain form like the above?


IMPORTANCE OF MASS COMMUNICATION

When a disaster strikes, it is important for organizations to ensure the safety of their employees. One of the important steps towards securing business continuity will be securing life. So how can the organization contact its employees regarding updates about the situation during emergencies?


Is your organization equipped to handle a situation where mass communication is needed during a disaster? Does your organization have a mass communication tool?


FOOD SUPPLIES AND WATER

If staff critical to your organization is operating to ensure minimum business continuity is maintained, then in such situations it is important that the location of staff is known so that essential supplies like food and water can be delivered to them so that they can continue to operate.


Is your organization equipped to handle a situation where food and water supplies need to be transported during a disaster?


HOW A DISASTER IMPACTS A BUSINESS?

We all know that when a disaster like this strikes, businesses are forced to temporarily close their operations. When Clients see that the company they are interested in doing business with or are already doing business, is unable to restore operations to minimum normal within a predefined duration, they lose their confidence and the company loses the business.


On the other hand, a company equipped with an upfront business continuity plan which ensures business continuity in the event of a disaster can gain more Clients as they are assured that even in case of a major disaster the company has the capacity to provide services to the Clients within a short period of time during the disaster.


Protect your business, maintain operations, retain Clients and grow through a Business Continuity.


CONCLUSION

Are your business continuity plans ready? Get your business continuity built without any further delay, as we never know when the disaster strikes your organization. Speak with our experts.

Gorisco has wide range of experts who have help you and your organization with various solutions to mitigate the risks and prepare you with better resilient foundation.


At Gorisco, our motto is 'Embedding Resilience' and we are committed to make the organizations and their workforce resilient. Reach out to us if you have any queries, clarifications or need any support on your initiatives.


To read our other blogs, click here. More importantly, let us know if you liked them or not through your comments.




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