Surface Ripples

How Robust is Your Recovery Plan?

Some may be aware of the fire that closed Heathrow Airport in March 2025.

The result: thousands of stranded passengers and questions about how resilient Britain’s infrastructure was.

The problem that caused the fire was in a transformer to the North of the airport.  What happened was that moisture entered the “high voltage bushings” in a transformer, sparking an electrical fault and causing it to catch fire.

The potential problem was reported in 2018 but nothing was done about it by the National Grid, who owned the transformer.

So, the problem arose because of a third party’s failure to maintain its equipment.  The question for all of us as business leaders is: “How reliant are we on third parties to ensure that our contingency and recovery plans work as they should?”

The problem with an event such as the fire in question is that some might consider it a “Black Swan Event” - an event considered “highly unlikely” to occur (as is the incidence of black swans).  What made this event less of a black swan however was that, although the reporting process for the problem worked, the process for addressing it broke down.  The event wouldn’t have occurred if the National Grid had addressed the problem when it was reported. 

Think back to the COVID pandemic – countries had plans, bit they relied on other countries being able to produce the PPE, etc needed. Problem: everyone closed down because of “social distancing” requirements preventing workers going to work. 

This could happen to anyone at any time.  If our recovery plans rely on another party to provide a vital service and that organisation finds itself unable to, then we’re back to square one.

We can plan, make contingency plans, and contingency plans for contingency plans.  There comes a point, however, when it’s no longer realistic to have plans covering plans covering plans covering plans.

In many cases our only solutions are:

• Run regular tests with the third parties concerned OR… 
• Have a contract with a service provider that stipulates that penalties and litigation will follow should that provider fail to maintain their goods and services in a state fit to perform as intended OR...
• Hope that things will work out...

I’ve spent more than half my life delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience 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. 

Labels: Crisis Management, Leadership, Productivity, Strategy, Teamwork

posted by William Martin @ 12:07