Prepare, Prepare, Prepare.
Bears know Mother Nature will do the hard work needed for spring while they sleep their winter away. It is unlikely your business will have such a kindly soul to prepare your assets for reactivation.
Things can be done to focus efforts and reduce the impact. But make no mistake, we are in an international critical incident of unimaginable magnitude.
Your business, large or small, has physical assets that need to be prepared for hibernation within this rapidly changing landscape. You may also have regulatory and statutory obligations, financial implications and environmental hazards that, all of which possibly need to be transitioned into a holding phase.
A physical asset includes: you, your staff and support persons (family, friends, other business owners); laptops, computers and associated IT hardware; supplies, stores and stock; machinery and equipment; hardcopy documents including vital records; fit-out; ephemera (think personal items); …..
Where do you start? What priority should you give to different assets? What should you keep or cull? Questions swirl around your head and the answers are elusive. The list of tasks is overwhelming for owners, managers and staff as you deal with, and try and balance, competing, urgent priorities of the business, home and community. Exhaustion, fear and loss are contributing factors in the inability to concentrate. You and your team will make mistakes, you and your team will have some wins and you and your team will struggle at times.
Be comforted in the fact the knowledge is there and that someone knows what it will take for your business to hibernate and then be ready for reactivation. Also understand your business is not alone in not having the luxury of in-house risk managers nor formal business continuity planning.
Not everything should be mothballed. Risk.Report would encourage you to continue to use as many of your assets as viable, but to do so within strict financial controls. Do maintenance and repairs, look at new products and services using your existing kit, update documents associated with the asset, streamline procedures and consider new ways of working. It could be as simple as improving your Excel knowledge or as complex as designing software. Remember – Prepare, Prepare, Prepare but not like a bear.
Risk Report have identified that now is the time to develop and activate your focused hibernation plan.
Your aim is to retain physical assets from which to springboard your business’s reactivation.
