World economic losses to disasters totaled an estimated $380 billion in 2011, and nearly every major company now sets up detailed continuity and mitigation plans for everything from terrorist incidents and nuclear attacks to pandemics like bird flu.
A cottage industry of in-house sky-is-falling professionals and glass-half-empty consulting firms has sprung up to deal with this need. And as companies become more reliant on digital data and geographically diverse locations, their strategies must evolve, too. “For instance, people don’t warehouse parts anymore,” says Ken Burris, chief executive officer of Witt Associates, a crisis management consultancy. “They rely on just-in-time delivery. But when there’s that hiccup in the supply chain, they’d better have multiple contingencies in place, or work stops.” And Burris points out that the implications are often dire: “Statistics show that, of small businesses impacted by disaster, about a third don’t recover.”
When millions in the Northeast lost power, cell service, Internet access, and running water due to Superstorm Sandy in October 2012, companies scrambled to find the answer.
The biggest difference between recent disruptions and those only a decade ago shows up in businesses’ increasing faith in cloud computing, which was sorely tested by Sandy. As Lower Manhattan was swamped, major media companies such as Huffington Post, MarketWatch, and Gawker saw their sites go offline as water flooded the basement floors of the Datagram server building.
Peer1 Hosting, a Net outfit based in Lower Manhattan, thought it was in the clear—it had generators on the 17th floor ready to keep the data servers humming. But when the fuel pump in the basement was flooded, Peer1 was unable to get the necessary diesel fuel upstairs.
And obviously the cloud can’t help if you don’t have electricity, cell service, or Net access. In the 10 states hit by Sandy, 25 percent of cell towers and land lines were affected by the storm, according to the Federal Communications Commission. Downtown New York lost power for nearly a week.
Yet, a smartphone and a land line are all you really need for a good day's work.
A hardwired phone is an enormous help, but not without a phone book. If you don't have a number in your contact list, you could look it up only in fits and starts, as the signal on your smartphone comes and goes.
There is also more contact redundancy in your life than you realize. If you don't have someone's cellphone number, you probably have their email address. If neither works, there's Facebook messaging. If that won't load, maybe a Twitter direct message will.
Also, you have to have a backup way to charge the smartphone. A portable battery pack, good for about six phone chargings, would work.
The toughest part is simple typing and editing what you've typed on the smartphone.
Source: Bloomberg BusinessWeek, November 12, 2012