Oil? Toil!

At press time, there has been no confirmed oil product on Florida beaches. No tar balls, tar mats, mousse, sludge, or any other oil product has been found here. But media reports would have you thinking Florida is doomed, awash in dead sea creatures, drowning in our oil-filled bays, beachgoers slip-sliding on oil-coated shores. And while none of that is true, it’s a fact that Florida’s businesses are suffering.

 

And many of them are small businesses, like beach wedding planners and deep sea fishermen. Condo owners are also feeling the sting as they return deposits to people who had planned a sunny Florida vacation but have now changed their minds. Then there are the secondary and tertiary effects of the lost dollar. The business that cleans condos doesn’t need as many employees, the restaurant that caters to tourists needs fewer busboys, dishwashers, waiters, and cooks. The gas station takes a hit, and so does the souvenir shop.

 

Some 19 percent of the water controlled by the federal government has been shut down to fishing. For coastal states where seafood is big industry, that is a large part of the supply chain. And those who sell Gulf Coast seafood are finding that their customers are not as interested in our fish, oysters, and mussels as they were prior to the Deepwater Horizon incident, even though there is no oil in Florida oyster and mussel beds.

 

To see Florida’s beaches, you wouldn’t notice anything out of the ordinary … because there isn’t anything out of the ordinary! This “disaster” is not playing by the rules. It’s not something you typically plan for, like a vendor issue or a hurricane. And it’s not about people or facilities either. It’s mostly a perception issue, and it is a fiscal disaster.

 

So, I have to wonder if reputation management is part of your BC plans? Does it fall into your job description or is it a public relations or management task? Is reputation management considered at all where you work?

 

I really wrote this column to emphasize the need for BC planners to consider strategic issues, such as reputation management. I also think that businesses, like governments, should consider planning for the low frequency, high impact disasters that we don’t think will happen instead of focusing solely on the mundane disasters we always prepare for. After all, you know what to do if you lose power for a day or can’t access your building for a week, but what if that asteroid strikes?

 

By the way, Apophis is a 1,480-foot near-Earth asteroid that will next pass by our planet in 2010 and again a bit closer in 2029, 2036, and 2068. So, get planning. CI