Thursday 14 November 2019

Real(istic) Planning

The impact of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines showed that, despite generous and prompt offers of aid, a lot wasn't getting through to start with.

In posts during July 2019, I wrote about planning for disasters.  The questions to ask ourselves are:
  • Do we have a plan?  (Hopefully, by now, yes)
  • What assumptions does it make?
  • When and how was our plan last tested (Test, Test, TEST)?
  • Does our recovery plan make realistic estimates based on factors that may hinder recovery (e.g. availability of electricity, telephone lines and/or mobile services, roads, emergency personnel, key supplies in the right quantities, etc)? 
  • What do we do if one or more is lacking? 
In the case of Typhoon Haiyan, there was a plan in place, but aid was delayed in reaching victims because roads were blocked.

A major problem with natural disasters is that communication goes down and therefore the authorities don’t know where aid is needed, nor how much.   If they can’t get there by road, they rely on air searches to pinpoint priority areas.  

One of the most useful exercises I did with a client was to ask what the impact of snow on the roads would be to his business.  In this case, the client was in office renovations, so he needed to have workers on site to do the work and get paid.  That winter, there was snow on the roads which did disrupt businesses all over the country, but at least the client was prepared for it and could pre-warn clients of what might happen and how he would fix it.

If roads are blocked, staff can’t get to work, and the business will suffer, so how do we handle this?  A simple solution like having remote access to office systems (assuming that internet services are running) could mean the difference between keeping and losing clients.  Assuming mobile networks are working, businesses can call clients.  Hopefully, clients will be suffering from the same problem as their staff can’t get to work either!

It all boils down to:
  • What assumptions did we make?
  • Have we tested them (can we)?
  • What do we do if our assumptions don’t work out?
  • How can we make sure that we’re in the best position to respond to what comes our way?

Test, test and test again!


I have spent more than half my life delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With more than 20 years in international financial services around the world running different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management.  I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email. My website  provides a full picture of my portfolio of services.  For strategic questions that you should be asking yourself, follow me at @wkm610.

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