Businesses in Cascadia - CREW

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THE ROLE PLAYED BY A BUSINESS’ CULTUREThe type of business, its organizational structure, and its internal culture all have a bearing on thelevel of preparedness. For example, some organizations, such as universities, are decentralized tosuch a degree that the level of preparedness varies from department to department. Banks, incontrast, are more hierarchical, and they tend to be ahead of other businesses in disaster responseand continuity planning in part because they must comply with federal mandates. Even withinbanks, however, the culture of the business has an effect on what will ultimately be done toprepare for an earthquake.A prominent concern in the roundtable discussions was how to create a culture of preparedness.If such a culture does not exist, even businesses that have response and continuity plans may failto keep them up to date, may never exercise them, and may not otherwise train employees indisaster response. In order to achieve results within businesses, participants agreed that themessages must reach the key administrators. Unless these people are persuaded of the need totake action, the business’ level of preparedness is unlikely to improve.PERSONAL PREPAREDNESSBusinesses that are more forward-thinking recognize that the level of personal preparationamong employees directly affects the business’ ability to recover from an earthquake andcontinue operations. To encourage robust preparations among employees, some employersprovide disaster supply kits at work, provide training to teach people how to prepare at home,and arrange for discounts to encourage employees to purchase disaster supplies for themselvesand their families. Employers may also provide easy access to disaster preparedness informationon their websites. In Washington, Puget Sound Energy has adopted a policy whereby thecompany’s initial focus following an earthquake will be to help its own employees and theirfamilies meet their basic needs. The objective is to make it possible for employees to return towork quickly and focus effectively on their jobs.The amount of effort that business administrators are willing to put into this aspect ofpreparedness is dependent on the culture of the business and its corresponding priorities.Likewise, the employees themselves may be more or less engaged in developing and maintainingtheir own disaster plans and supplies.MESSAGING AND THE MULTI-HAZARD APPROACHBecause of the need to persuade both the chief administrators of businesses and the employeesthat they should treat earthquake preparedness as a priority, a number of participants stressed theneed for a well-funded, carefully targeted professional messaging campaign. It was also notedthat adopting a multi-hazard approach, rather than focusing exclusively on the earthquakehazard, may be more persuasive and may make it easier to take advantage of existing policiesand laws, such as those that address fire safety. If people can see that by preparing forearthquakes they will be prepared for other more familiar disasters, including fires, flooding, andstorm-related power outages, they will be more likely to invest their time and resources.8 | CREW Business Roundtables
INTERDEPENDENCIESAll of the discussions addressed the complex problem of interdependencies—the extent to whicha business’ response to a disaster and ability to continue operations may be affected by itsdependence on or interactions with people, systems, and infrastructure that are outside of thecontrol of the business. The dependence of tenant-businesses on the decisions of building ownershas already been discussed. Other facets of the interdependence issue include:Public Emergency Management Plans. The business sector needs a better understanding of howthe public sector will respond to an earthquake. Understanding the public sector’s plans—including the hierarchy of the command structure, the mechanics of the operations, and thepriorities for distributing emergency supplies and restoring infrastructure—will help thosebusinesses that assist in the recovery do so more effectively and will make business continuityplanning more accurate. The success of all of this depends on a number of factors:• The public sector, including individual communities, must maintain and exercisecomprehensive emergency management plans.• Such plans must include clearly articulated arrangements for coordination across multiplejurisdictions.• There must be a designated liaison or some other consistent means of communicationbetween businesses and the public emergency response coordinators.• A list that identifies the priorities for the distribution of emergency supplies and for therestoration of services and infrastructure must be shared with the business sector.(Because many of the essential services are supplied by privately owned companies,some participants suggested that the government work with these companies to assesshow their systems will perform in an earthquake and develop options and timeframes forrestoring service.)Essential Services and Infrastructure. Most businesses depend on the same set of basic servicesand infrastructure: power (chiefly electricity and natural gas), water, wastewater, and thetransportation system. For the majority, power and the transportation system are the most criticalin the short term and the most difficult to address in continuity plans. Even businesses that installbackup power generators are usually unable to run all of their normal operations from them andtypically store only enough fuel to last three days. In the case of large industrial operations, suchas Intel in Oregon, it is impossible to store sufficient fuel to sustain the generators for more thanabout 10 hours. The transportation system, meanwhile, is the only means by which people can beevacuated and inspectors, repair crews, personnel, and supplies can reach businesses. While mostbusinesses would like a better sense of the timeframe within which they can expect their servicesto be restored, some of the participants suggested that certain businesses—such as Intel,Microsoft, and Boeing—are cornerstones of the regional economy and should receive prioritybecause of their importance to the economy’s overall resilience. In such cases, it may beappropriate to make firm commitments regarding the timeframe within which their services willbe restored.The Business Roundtable Series | 9
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Businesses in Cascadia - CREW

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