Zachary Aldwin Milkshake in the Boardroom
It was pointed out recently by a high level martial arts instructor that if, when fighting someone, your opponent never threw a punch then, in that ideal world, all fighters would only have to learn to punch. However, more often than not, the guy you are trying to hit is throwing a punch of his own and so you have to learn to block. The world, for some strange reason, does not conform to ideals.
If you have been a long term reader of this column, then you will know that I tend to have a streak of idealist in me. I can see situations where everyone gets on, where employers treat their employees with respect, where employees never try to rip the system created for their benefit, and where everything works the entire time.
Sadly the ideal is tempered with a touch of real. A musician is an hour and a half late for your gig: do you wait till he arrives and strangle him with a microphone cable after your performance?
The GPS system navigating you through a foreign city sends you down the wrong highway: do you throw it through your window in a fit of rage (realising as it goes crunch on the tarmac that you now have no way of telling where you are)? The reality is that people are not perfect, some are darn right evil, and stuff will break down. Hence we end up creating back-up systems and ‘Plan B’s.
Anyone dealing in IT will tell you how important it is to back up your data. It is probably wise to have a little cash set aside for emergencies. Contingency planning is one of those situations people would rather avoid thinking about but should form a part of what you have in the background of your business.
If you think about it, many Zimbabweans already have contingency plans in place for things like power supply interruption and water delivery failure. These, in most cases, have developed as a response to circumstances rather than necessarily being pre-emptive in nature. So how on earth do you develop a contingency plan?
Well, first of all realise that there are two types of ‘emergency’. There is the obvious negative ‘what if it goes wrong’ disaster, and there is the more positive ‘what if it gets bigger and better than we expected’.
An example of the second one would be an internet based company that suddenly goes viral and exceeds the server space and bandwidth that it had allocated to service delivery. I am a firm believer that business plans should be an ongoing process, not just done at start up. As such, contingency planning forms part of the looking forward.
First step is to identify the biggest threats that you could potentially face. Do not try to cover all of them, it is unlikely that you will think of anything anyway, but if you cover the majors then you will probably be able to cover the minors by modifying the plan you created. Death of a partner, drop in sales, theft, location specific issues like flooding, loss of a major supplier, strike. . . the list is potentially endless.
Then look at how each aspect may affect the business and produce a series of positive actions for people to take.
For a fire emergency this is your evacuation plan. A list of the fire brigade and ambulance companies, your data protection, and later dealing with the insurance company. Each disaster will have a different plan and set of instructions depending on what it is. Your response to the death of a staff member will be different to that for receiving a massive order that requires overtime commitments.
The key thing is to have the steps taken be as clear and simple as possible; in a disaster people’s decision making capacities are often confused so the clearer the instruction the better.
In some cases certain aspects of the plan may be able to be implemented now to avoid future issues. Cash flow management is a classic example here. Dealing with the ‘what if’ may identify areas that could head off aspects. Certain businesses work on a monthly invoicing/receipt of payment cycle (think medical aid societies, or utility providers), getting your invoicing system running efficiently or more frequently can help minimise cash flow dramas.
Knock up your plan, keep it handy (in a hard copy form somewhere, it is a bit difficult to access your email if the power has been taken out by a flood), modify it once in a while as you grow, and then pray you never have to use it.