He’s OK now, but in late April my husband had a cardiac arrest at home. The reason that sentence doesn’t say “my late husband” is solely because of the astoundingly quick and effective response of one police officer and the team (more police! paramedics! supervisors!) that followed him a few minutes later.
That has led me to think more about emergency response and my limited capacity therefor in the last two months than I did all together in the previous 73 years. Not smart (the lack of earlier thinking, I mean, not what I’m doing now). From personal failings we now move to corporate ones. Organizations, after all, are full of people.
Of course most businesses have on-site first-aid kits (some, tidily stashed on a shelf where you need a ladder to get at it); many/most public buildings these days have AEDs. (Do you know where they are in the places *you* frequent?) Many/most businesses also have some sort of contingency plans. I know because I’ve edited them: lists of actions to be taken in both fast-moving and slow-moving disasters. Floods, power outages, pandemics, attacks by armed brigands. OK, that last one maybe depends on where you live and do business.
But do many/most businesses have contingency plans for what they’ll do when a customer complains? When a hundred do? On the same day? When a production line goes down and orders are going to be late? When a major supplier of essential goods or parts is attacked by armed brigands? When a big electrical storm hits a site where they deliver services to customer personnel?
Seth addresses this question today: And when it breaks? It’s definitely worth the 30 seconds it will take to read. It’s worth the hours it will take to figure out your answer, and the days/weeks/months to put your answer into action.
When you’re not smack dab in the middle of an emergency, spend some of your time getting ready for one. What will you do when it breaks?
What does this have to do with proposals? Just this: Clients ask about your contingency plans, sometimes. You should tell them about your contingency plans, always. And, boy, is that ever easier when you actually have some.