What Can Happen?
It’s relatively easy to search the Web for horrible things that can happen to companies just like yours. It’s amazing what’s out there. On a routine Google search, I learned such trivia as this: What state has had the most disaster declarations since 1953? Texas. (My gosh! I live in Dallas!) The least? Connecticut.
Seriously, what info you use depends on the kind of organization. The concerns of a bank or brokerage company are going to be very different from those of a poison control hotline or 911 center. Generally, the routine canvass of fires, flood, disgruntled employees, sabotage, vandalism, tornadoes, hurricanes, broken pipes, lightning, power surges, and terrorism on a slide or two will get management’s attention. If management has agreed to meet with you at all, that shows that they’ve already internalized two facts:
- Disasters are serious.
- Reasonable people try to take precautions.
Therefore, even though the disasters you cite will show why business resumption planning is important, there’s no reason to spend an inordinate amount of time on this portion of the management presentation.