Pub. 4 2015-2016 Issue 4

24 San Diego Dealer Why don’t we prepare for it? If you are like most people, you would have a hard time answering that question. You know emergency preparedness is important, but maybe it’s too overwhelming and just doesn’t seem that urgent. You can’t control what’s going to happen to you all the time, no matter who you are, and you can’t always control when it happens, either. That being the case, it’s easy to focus on issues that seem to havemore immedi- ate importance. Emergency preparedness gets shoved off to the side, and the next thing you know, you aren’t even thinking about where to put it on your to-do list. Eric Holdeman, former director of the King County, Washington, Office of Emergency Management and a contributing writer for Emergency Management magazine, has an explanation for why people don’t preparemore: in a word, it’s denial. As he puts it, people think disaster won’t happen, or it won’t happen to them. If they’re wrong, they don’t think it will be too serious. If it is, there isn’t anything to be done about it anyway. That kind of thinking isn’t going to do anything except ensure defeat. You can do better. By thinking about the possibilities in advance, you can approach disaster with resilience, minimize the damages, and potentially keep the most important business processes going. Even though it’s true you can’t control everything, you can choose to be proactive. By being proac- tive, you immediately improve your chances of navigating disaster as gracefully as possible. Do you have guaranteed success? No. But you will have shifted the odds somewhat in your favor, and as Louis Pasteur famously said, “Chance favors the prepared mind.” In short, what you need is a business continuity plan. Your goals will be straightforward: • Keep people and assets as safe as possible. • Teach your employees to be more con- scious of potential disasters. • Make a plan. • Prevent disasters whenever you can. Writing the plan will involve several stages: • Identify the risks and assess which ones are most likely to occur. You may not be able to predict everything, but the odds are better for some disasters than others. Since your pocketbook almost certainly has its limitations, you will have to make some choices. • Think about how disaster would affect your business. • Develop one or more strategies that would minimize or prevent damage. • Create a plan to implement the strategies you developed. • As much as is practical, test the plan. For example, you might want to have an earthquake drill. • Maintain the plan, because things change. If you aren’t paying attention, your plan may become obsolete without your ever realizing it. You will need to train your employees periodically, and you should also update the plan on a regular basis. Don’t ignore maintenance. Having an obsolete plan is like having food stored in your basement that expired 20 years ago. It can’t do you much good, and it might do some harm. The following sections contain specific items to consider while creating your plan. Identifying Risks and Impact You and your dealership could be affected by many different types of risk. Although you can divide the risks into roughly two catego- ries, natural and artificial, the truth is that a disaster can actually be the compound result of many different events. For example, sup- pose a piece of land has been cleared of trees and vegetation, and is then left vacant for a period of time. If you live in an area with heavy rainfall the following spring, it’s not really com- pletely nature’s fault when a landslide occurs. Whoever cleared the land and didn’t take any steps to prevent a landslide is also partially responsible. When you are evaluating risks, don’t forget to look at surrounding businesses and properties. Is your dealership next to a hospital, a military base, or a power plant? What about hazard- ous materials? What’s the worst thing that can happen?What about someone suffering a heart attack, like a customer or an employee? Would people know what to do? You probably want to decide which threats are the most dangerous so you can prioritize your response. Is the disaster probably going to happen just once, or is it a seasonal risk, like the North Atlantic hurricane season between June and November each year? How likely is it that a particular disaster could occur?Which business processes are the most important? How would you make sure you have enough money to pay If you are like most people, you would have a hard time answering that question. You know emergency preparedness is important, but maybe it’s too overwhelm- ing and just doesn’t seem that urgent. You can’t control what’s going to happen to you all the time, no matter who you are, and you can’t always control when it happens, either. Continued from page 22