We seem to live in a world filled with unpredictable risks: a banking crisis, potential Greek debt default, H1N1 flu, gulf oil spill, Icelandic volcano ash, terrorist attempts, etc.  Many small and medium-sized businesses defer emergency preparedness planning because they are unable to find the handle to get started or they fear a bottomless pit of cost with no expected benefits.  Doing nothing is a choice, but it is not the best choice.

Any firm can complete the first three steps of an emergency preparedness plan in less than one day: outline the potential risks, prioritize their likely impact and outline the required preparedness measures which would address the risks.  Most potential risks are generic.  The attached checklist can be modified to highlight any other risks.

The identified risks can be prioritized through a simple weighting scheme.  For each risk, rank its probability of occurrence in the next 10 years as 1-5, with 5 being highest.  For each risk, separately evaluate the potential human and property/asset risks from 1-5, with 5 being the highest damage.  Calculate the potential impact as the probability score times the SUM of the human and property impacts.  Sort the risks from high to low.  There will be a natural division of scores that highlights your top 5-15 risks.

 For each risk, determine what emergency preparedness steps are required.  Most will be addressed by a small number of generic recovery steps.

1. Shelter on-site for 4 hours, including emergency air supply.
2. Shelter on-site for 16 hours, during threatening weather.
3. Shelter on-site for 72 hours.
4. Quickly evacuate building and account for occupants.
5. Activate emergency communications plan/alternate command authority structure.
6. Activate emergency business recovery plan
7. Activate long-term quarantine plan.
8. Other specialized recovery steps.

 Once these first three steps have been completed, progress can begin on developing the recovery plans, including any immediate action steps that can be taken to reduce the risks or impacts of high potential impact threats.

 Emergency preparedness is a major investment.  Getting started is the most important step.

Group	No.	Risks
Brand	1	Key executive or representative incident
Brand	2	Product recall – safety, functional problems
Brand	3	Public relations crisis, fraud, suppliers, legal, political
Hazard	4	Biological – plague, insects, animals, malaria, anthrax, terror
Hazard	5	Chemical – on-site, storage, warehouse, adjacent, terrorist, gas leak
Hazard	6	Communicable disease – long-term impact (Avian flu, H1N1 flu)
Hazard	7	Explosion – natural gas, terror, plane, truck, car
Hazard	8	Fire – on-site, garage, storage, adjacent, roads, utilities
Hazard	9	Local  accident, making buildings inaccessible for 30 days+
Hazard	10	Nuclear accident, truck, terror, bomb, other radiation release
IT	11	Computer virus or malware infection, major
IT	12	Major internet access failure for more than 1 day
IT	13	Servers and co-location servers destroyed, restart
Natural	14	Earthquake – structural damage, fire, water, utility damage
Natural	15	Flood – on-site, nearby, preventing access
Natural	16	Severe winter storm, ice, heavy snow
Natural	17	Tornado, high wind storm, hurricane, hail storm, lightning
Personal	18	Armed threat, violence, hostage, robbery, escapee – nearby
Personal	19	Civil disturb, riot, war, occupation – on-site, nearby, country
Supply	20	Bank, fin system, invest failure, long-term recession
Supply	21	Critical supplier, shipper, facility or resource failure
Supply	22	Labor supply disruption
Transport	23	Major loss of staff due to travel accident
Transport	24	Major transportation interruption – road, train, air or ship
Transport	25	National travel emergency requiring alternate travel
Transport	26	Vehicles – collision, liability
Utility	27	Communications, utility service interruption
Utility	28	Long-term electrical power outage
Utility	29	Safe drinking water failure