Leading in a crisis: lessons from the Costa Concordia

The horrific images of the Costa Concordia lying stricken on its side send out a message not just to holiday makers, but also business owners and leaders.

Comparisons are being drawn between this and the Titanic, which sank 100 years ago in 1912, however not about the build of ships and technology… but the leadership.

Mr Schettino Cpt of Costa Concordia (Reuters)

With the focus of the media investigations now turning to the actions and leaked comments by Captain Francesco Schettino appearing in the Italian media, a picture is being drawn up of him either consciously leaving the ship before it was fully evacuated or accidentally leaving by tripping and falling into a life raft. Only time will tell exactly what happened. 

Leading in a difficult situation, be it on a cruise liner or sat in your office, requires similar skill sets – just used to different levels.  From our experience of successfully leading high risk incidents involving businesses in their darkest hour and public safety operations we’ve developed a picture of the ideal response for a leader.  These apply to any situation you may face including a major customer threatening to cancel their contract or you losing your stock through a burglary.  This includes:

1. Plan & Prepare: Understanding the realistic problems your business may face and have an idea of what you can do in advance to reduce the risk or put the right things in place to help you when you need to act quickly and decisively.  The way we can help you do this can reduce your business insurance by up to 10%.
2. Protect & Provide: When an unforeseen event does happen take a deep breath, clear your mind and picture your ideal outcome.  Keep this thought with you at all times as it will dramatically increase your chance of achieving it… because you know why you’re doing things and where you’re trying to get to.  Your emotional and primary responsibility is to protect people (public/staff/customers) then property. By providing people with information and support quickly and efficiently you can resolve the matter in half the time. Be aware of fatigue as well if the incident is running on for sometime and provide people (including yourself) with refreshments and rest breaks.
3. People & Process: The biggest impact of an unforeseen event is the aftermath and managing the emotional impact on people. By taking the time to support people afterwards it can build strong relationships and deliver a huge impact to your business in making it stronger for the future. Taking the time to review why the unforeseen event took place can also help to put steps in place to ensure they won’t happen again. One of our clients recently said:“It was a very upsetting time for the staff and the support Treble 9 have given us in showing how to protect or the future has been invaluable.”

This is just a snapshot of what you can do to help yourself should you face a significant problem. An unforeseen event is the biggest challenge a leader will face in their career which is why we’re running a specialist leadership course this year which gives you practical commercially-focused skills which make a real difference. If you’d like more information please email Henry at henry@treble9group.com.

We can also arrange to come to your business for a free 30min consultation to help you strengthen your business and reduce the risk. We look forward to hearing from you.

In for the Long Haul?

2011 was a tough year for businesses across the UK as the global recession really began to bite. With ever spiraling costs and a shrinking client base many companies found it difficult to stay afloat and some big names disappeared from the high street forever.

A key element of the retail supply chain is the road haulage industry and many operators faced some difficult challenges last year. The rising cost of fuel, excise duty, premises, vehicle maintenance and labour meant that  many hauliers faced the future with trepidation. Against this back drop, the industry also attracted the attention of various ‘green’ groups, critical of the impact road transport has on the environment.

A healthy road haulage industry is crucial to the recovery of Britain’s economy, but many operators are feeling undervalued, demoralized and unloved. VOSA, the industry’s regulatory body, has a clear and understandable duty to ensure that haulage companies are operated effectively, efficiently and above all safely. The obligations placed on hauliers in order to comply with the terms of their operators’ licence can, however, be daunting and can seem like yet another burden placed on businesses which already feel pressured.

Treble 9 can take the stress away for operators, allowing the professionals to get on with what they are good at – supplying the retailers and manufacturers of Britain with the goods they need to stoke the furnaces of the economy.  To claim a free 30min consultation email david@treble9group.com

Know thy neighbour

Picture from Lancashire Evening Post

A huge blaze at a business park has put companies in peril days before employees are due to sit down for their Christmas dinner.

The Leyland Business Park Fire has been contained to one building, but not before 8000 sq ft was affected, businesses closed, buildings and stock wiped out and train lines and roads shut.

The anguish of one company boss when describing the site of his premises being raised to the ground really strikes a chord in how important risk assessments and business continuity plans can be.

The Lancashire Evening Post has reported:

“Neil Bowker, commercial director of Bowker, described how he arrived at the scene at 5.30pm to see flames devour the building, which the transport logistics firm had occupied since 1994. He said: “There was fire licking through the roof and a lot of smoke from our neighbour’s property.

“I just watched it spread. It went pretty quickly. We were helpless.

“We have lost all our customers’ products – machinery, clothing, industrial type materials”.”

The ultimate lesson for others is to reflect on include:

• Plan and prepare: know who your neighbours are (the best business continuity plans always think about external factors, such as the businesses around them)
• Protect and provide: in a crisis communication is vital. To protect your business you’ll benefit from clear communication channels (the best way to handle an incident is to know who you need to speak to, how regularly they need to be updated and what information you need from others)
• People and process: make sure your staff know what’s expected of them and give your managers the right guidance to cover your main risks (our clients find this gives them great peace of mind, especially with our training).

We understand business owners might not have the time available to carry out risk assessments and check their business continuity plans are up-to-date.

It’s for exactly this reason that we’re offering businesses the opportunity to enter our free draw to win a free risk assessment.

If you’d like a chance to win peace of mind through a Treble 9 assessment please email my999@treble9group.com.

How to brave the storms

Two lorries blown over by the storm on A83, picture by Richard Hunt-Smith (www.blipfoto.com/richard)

The terrible storms hitting the UK this week have truly signaled that winter is here.

Despite the arrival of bad weather, there are still things you can do to ensure you can keep the heart beat of your business going, no matter what life (or the elements) throws at you.

Ideally business continuity planning for bad weather takes place months before the clouds start to draw in. However with almost 50,000 homes and businesses hit … don’t worry it’s not too late.

Here’s some top tips you can put in place (some in the same time it’ll take to boil-up the kettle and make yourself a nice hot drink)…

1. Stay one step ahead: There are great sources of free information which can help you identify if you, your team or your operations are at risk of bad weather. One of the best places to check is the BBC Weather pages http://bbc.in/v3WP0y
2. Bad weather = stress: During bad weather people start to get anxious about if they can get home, how safe their family is, if their car will start. You can help to remove these stresses if you keep an eye on the weather and letting your team know in advance that you’ll be sending them home if weather gets bad.
3. Keeping calm and carrying on: Freezing conditions can stop people getting into work. If your business can carry on with people working from home then it’s well worth looking at some great resources such as Google Docs which can help people work remotely. This helps you keep calm if the office is out of bounds and carry on trading.

With team members working from home it’s best to have a remote working policy (which covers your data protection liabilities). Our sister company HR Angels Consultancy are offering readers of our blog a 15% discount on a tailored remote workers policy if you email danielle@hrangelsconsultancy.com.

If you’ve got any questions from this blog, or would like to ask any questions about how to reduce the risks to your business from the bad weather please call the team on 01244 537304, email my999@treble9.com or visit our LinkedIn group Treble 9.

Striking a chord?

This week’s national strike, depending which side of the Parliamentary fence you sit on, was either a significant event or a  “damp squib”.

The coverage focused on the level of disruption to the actual public sector services with Cabinet Minister Francis Maude saying: “Our rigorous contingency planning has been working well.”

Whilst his comments might be true for front-line services, the real victims of November 30 were UK businesses who had to suffer disruption to their trading and might not have had the opportunity to carry out such “rigorous contingency planning” because they’re busy running their own companies.

Sadly businesses were hit with employees failing to turn up for work taking unpaid leave to care for children and some transport networks were disrupted – even the iconic Mersey tunnel was closed forcing commuters to either abandon the roads or take longer journeys.

These are all symptoms of what we believe is the biggest success or risk factor in a crisis… the human factor. So often people, and the vital role they play to the successful resolution of a situation, can be over looked in the business continuity plans automated programmes can draw up. The Government’s plans appear to focused purely on the infrastructure and not the impact upon people.

That’s why we don’t use such approaches. We believe every emergency plan should tailored by our specialists to the unique characteristics of a business and ultimately be people shaped. Our clients agree and have seen the great rewards that can come from building a plan around people, as opposed to adding them in later.

Companies shouldn’t worry that they need to write War and Peace for a plan. The real benefit of a rigorous plan isn’t how thick the document is… actually we feel less is more and strip plans back to just the key tried and tested actions people need to take to carry on trading. We can do this with confidence as we understand people and how they act in a crisis, which is why we use ground-breaking behaviour change techniques to reduce the risk and deliver real business benefits.

If you’d like to learn more about how to identify risks in your business and remove them through clear planning, we’d be delighted to add you to our e-bulletin mailing list and also provide you with details of our training courses and taster sessions we’re running throughout 2012. Please email my999@treble9group.com today to be added to the list and get a copy of our top tips e-booklet.

Don’t be burnt by 2012 Olympic torch

The long awaited route for the 2012 Olympic torch is out and business leaders should check if it’s going past their doorstep.

With crowds expected to line to streets, road closures disrupting traffic and employees taking time out of their day to catch a glimpse, your company could run the risk of getting burnt with all these external factors – unless you spare a quick thought about what you can do.

We’ve worked with members of the business community before to limit the impact of large events on their business and here’s a couple of hints and tips based on our experience:

1. Talk to your staff – you can build great goodwill by giving them 30mins break to watch the procession
2. Check on any disruption to your trade routes – your local Council, together with the police, will manage this and the earlier you engage with them you may be able to reduce the impact
3. Communicate with customers and suppliers – by giving them information early you can increase engagement, trust and ensure you can carry on trading without interference.

 

Tips to help you survive and thrive

With the clocks going back and the first mention of snow in UK weather reports, today’s blog is designed to give you the building blocks to help you to plan for the winter ahead.

The Met Office and others have already forecast we’ll be entering the worst winter for 100 years, so there’s never been a better time to think about how you, your staff and your customers will cope in the months ahead.

At Treble 9 we believe there are three steps to solving any unforeseen event, be it staff numbers reduced due to flu or your office flooding with freezing pipes, (there’s also some good links to tips from The AA, ACAS, Age UK and Direct Gov)…

1. Plan and prepare: take a look at the risks your business faces in bad weather – most can be reduced with careful planning, including seasonal colds (we help a lot of our clients in carrying out these tailored risk assessments)
2. Protect and provide: give advice to staff who commute on how to keep safe and think about how you can safeguard your stock and premises (we find early communication is key)
3. People and process: make sure your staff know what’s expected of them and give your managers the right guidance to cover your main risks (our clients find this gives them great peace of mind, especially with our training)

We’d love to hear from you and if you have 30seconds we’d be be grateful if you could answer our poll?

If you’d like to have confidence your business can deal with whatever life throws at it, we’re just a call away on 01244 537304.