Planning, Communications and Cash: Key ingredients for disaster planning

COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO -- Hurricanes, blackouts and bird flu, oh my. This afternoon's panel on disaster preparedness and recovery covered all three of those scenarios here at CSO Perspectives as the conference neared its end.



Moderated by CSO publisher Bob Bragdon, the panel chosen to discuss their disaster plans included Brad Brekke, vice president, assets protection at Target; Mark Connelly, vice president and CISO at Sun Microsystems and Bill Ramsey, security director at McCormick & Co., the spice manufacturer.



The session was set up so that a wheel was spun on the big screen and landed on a disaster. Then CSO Editor Derek Slater would present the panel with the scenario and they'd take it from there.



The first scenario: a bird flu outbreak in Europe with confirmed human-to-human transmissions, and someone bringing the virus to the United States discovered at JFK airport in New York City.



All three said they'd stand up their disaster plans, but each participant had specific issues to deal with. Ramsey at McCormick was thinking internationally, since his company has workers in many parts of the world, including remote areas where spices are grown and harvested. Sun's Connelly said he was thinking about communications networks and preparing for a large portion of the workforce to have the capability to work from home or remotely. Brekke joked that he was somewhat relieved the virus came into JFK instead of through the west coast, where much of Target's imports come into the country. "If it had hit the west coast, it would have been catastrophic, so thanks for putting it on the east coast," he said.



Turning more serious, one of Brekke's concerns was Target's role as a center and distributor of goods during a crisis,  something many retailers know is part of their role during a disaster.



Scenario 2: A hurricane hitting the east coast of Texas, closing ports and ravaging the region. Poignantly, Ramsey at McCormick told a real-life tale of a small company McCormick had acquired that was knocked down by Hurricane Katrina and the heroic efforts of local employees there to get things back up and running and rebuild.



"One thing we learned is the first casualty in a disaster like this is the lack of purchasing power," Ramsey said. "Cash or barter is all you have. We're not a retailer, we didn't have cash and it's difficult to get. One thing we did, is gave product to local restaurants to cook up for people who were hungry. We said, you can have it all for free as long as you feed our people, too. Barter worked."



Mark Connelly said he would be focused on communications, locating satellite phones and making sure the chain of command is in place, so if one employee can't be located, everyone knows who to call next.



"We had a plan in place," Brad Brekke said, "but back-to-back hurricanes overwhelmed the plan. The hardest thing for us was finding people. We also noted the need for money, but also our pharmacy."



The last scenario was a major power outage, and the panel was nonplussed by the scenario, noting that they had multiple power redundancies on separate grids and generators that could run for days. Sun's Connelly even mentioned that, in drastic situations, it might be possible to put the data center on wheels. "Three to four times a year we'll have the electricity go out around our headquarters," said Ramsey of McCormick. "However, the data center won't be affected."



--Scott Berinato



See also:



Spinning The Wheel of Misfortune



ABCs of Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery