Devoted to Managers and those that seek to improve their management skills

The storm season is upon us with Tropical Storm Dean increasing in strength in the Atlantic Ocean, and heading toward the Caribbean. Tropcial Storm Erin is projected to hit the coast of south Texas on Thursday, although at this time much weaker than "Dean."

"We're off to the tropical storm races," said Joe Bastardi, chief hurricane forecaster for AccuWeather Inc. "Seventy-five percent of the most dangerous storms occur after Aug. 15."

There are a lot of things businesses need to during these times. The one major one I think of is backup plans. The unfortunate fiasco JetBlue and its customers experienced is a case in point.

When a snowstorm hit the east coast, the airline had no contingency plans in place, and it undermined their entire company as stranded customers in planes were outraged at the time they had to wait.

As CEO at the time David Neeleman said: "It's been a somber week for us, a week of hard-learned lessons. We made a mistake. We should have had contingency plans. We should have called the Port Authority quicker."

The point is these types of disasters have to be anticipated. It's not like the potential of them happening is a surprise to anybody. By anticipated I mean there needs to be contingency plans in place.

For example, with the storm in Texas, and more potentially over the next months, do companies with supply routes coming out of there have backup plans in place. Are there alternative transportation plans in place if something goes down? Are there alternative transportation industries ready to be accessed if one is cut off for some time?

Then in the case of "Erin," as it's located in the Gulf of Mexico, where 27 percent of U.S. oil production is performed. Do companies have plans in place to account for potential price hikes or delivery if they count heavily on those resources?
 
What about any company heavily dependent on oil? We need to know where the sources of our oil primarily come from and what would happen if a storm disrupted the system for an extended period of time. After Hurricane Katrina, pipelines, refineries and platforms were devasted and fuel prices rose to record levels as a result in 2005. It could happen again.

If trucking is interrupted do we have railroad backup? Do we have communication systems in place if something happens completely out of our control? Are rapid response systems in place for potential diasters? Think if Jet Blue would have had plans and communication in place. Instead of being a destructive experience, they would have been heroes to their customers.

This can go beyond the obvious transportation and fuel cost problems, to having your computer systems backed up and alternative plans in place if utilities go down. You get the idea.

Not only should plans be in place as being put on paper, but plans need to be in place in agreement with alternative companies or resources before anything happens. Plans on paper without the practicals agreed upon with other companies are useless. Then we need to communicate with these alternative companies and make sure everything is in place if something happens.

The bottom line in making contingency plans is providing alternative, practical strategies and having communication systems and backups in place. We can't wait until it happens, by then it's too late.