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Social Media for Security and Risk Management Professionals

Everything you NEED to know

[Webinar]

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Social media is a growing influence on businesses and executive management.

Do you know they key issues affecting your business and how social media plays a role? 

This webinar is aimed at security and risk managers to help them quickly understand the issues, concerns and opportunities that social media presents.

The session will cover:

• What social media really is for businesses
• The big ones to be aware of and why
• How and what to monitor
• Crisis, response and defence online
• Social Intelligence

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Crisis Management and Leadership Education Tutorials

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Exclusive, professional video training series includes over four and a half hours of content. Resulting from years of experience, writing, leading and managing crisis management teams, I have put together this unique training package covering all the essential elements of effective crisis leadership and management.

The video training includes:

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70 Travel Risk Management Safety and Security Tips [Video]

All travel should be considered hazardous, until proven otherwise. This 70 travel risk management video set provides professional tips and advice on how to manage the threats and hazards of travel.

Ranging from the administrative processes to extreme events such as natural disasters each video is a short 2-5 minute education tutorial that will assist in reducing the risk of travel, anywhere you travel.

You will receive a unique, informative video each day in your inbox. Just like having a professional chat or mentoring session each day over coffee.

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The education tips and tutorials will include:

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Why the London riots created a greater business travel threat than a terrorist attack

Introduction to the London riots business travel threat

If you have business travel to London, you need to read this article. In this article you will discover why the London riots created a greater business travel threat than a terrorist attack. We will examine the threat posed by the London riots and demonstrations, terrorist attacks and resulting travel delays, disruptions and changes. At the end of this article, you will have a specific understanding of the required business travel management response and awareness as to why this will happen again.

The London riots and demonstrations has resulted in one of the largest business travel disruptions of 2011.

London Riots and Demonstrations

The London riots and demonstrations have come as a complete surprise to many. It is not a unique event and certainly not unique to the UK. The scale, violence, fire and failure of the authorities is often something expected in other countries but the lack of preparedness for destinations like the UK is common and widespread. Therefore, the lack of preparedness and last minute scramble to respond and the inability to avoid major business travel disruptions are widespread as a result.

Due to the footprint of disruption, many routes and modes of transport have been negatively affected. Simple commute from the airport, trains and ports to planned accommodation options have been altered and continuous review of hazard or threat assessment are required. Furthermore, travel support providers such as taxis, hotels, restaurants, emergency services an other basic amenities have also been affected, to varying degrees.

Travel and risk managers need to immediately identify:

London Riots Business Travel Threat

• Affected areas,
• Degree of threat,
• Affected and exposed (inbound and outbound) business travellers,
• Arrival/departure points,
• Safe and non-affected areas,
• Mitigation or eradication options,
• Cost of implementation,
• Funds available,
• Emergency support,
• Accommodation options,
• On-going or developing events,
• Social or non-business activity,
• Insurance claims and compliance requirements,
• Cancellation criteria,
• Resumption of travel criteria,
• Extended event plans,
• Travel alternatives (domestic and international)

The London riots have affected multiple support systems related to business and leisure travel. Any leisure travel disruptions will further compound business travel threats such as decreased accommodation options, airport congestion and increased public transport demand. Even simple actions like withdrawing money from an ATM will prove a challenge and compound the hazard/s.

The London riots have had a prolonged affect on UK business travel sector, far greater than the majority of terrorist attacks. Further affects such as planning and preparation for the 2012 Olympics will also contribute to the lingering affects.

A lack of planning and subsequent response capability by businesses could constitute a failure of duty of care, due diligence, corporate social responsibility, workplace health and safety or other related legislation.

Terrorist attacks less of a business travel threat than London riots

With the exception of the Mumbai terrorist attacks, most have limited business travel disruption and only affect a narrow band of business travellers. Inclusive of the Mumbai terror attack, terrorist attacks typically have clearly defined threat elements (terrorist, bombings, gunfire, etc) whereas the London riots is a constantly changing and unclear threat. Most business travellers will be unprepared for such decision making demands and lack sufficient experience to make consistent and safe decisions.

Most contemporary business travel risk management systems focus on location and plausible event threats, then seek to inform or prepare travellers for the best results to mitigate or eliminate the hazards and threats. Therefore, the bulk of business travellers will not be prepared or educated on how to respond in London, with such wide spread disruption and threats. Few will have residual knowledge from information and preparation for such events in other locations, considered more likely to be medium to high risk. Many of the supporting business travel management departments and managers will be equally unprepared and resourced.

A terrorist attack and other similar violent crimes would have a much smaller footprint of disruption, not affected such a wide business travel demographic, not affect business travel support providers so comprehensively or have such a prolonged impact on all exposed.

Routine travel delays, disruptions and changes represent one of the most persistent and probable travel risk management issues.

Travel delay, disruption and changes

Change management and the decision making involved is one of the most commonly accepted workplace hazard concerns. This is equally relevant to business travel and business travel threats.

The instinctive and guided response of business travellers to any delay, disruption or change can significantly affect the outcome of any spontaneous or new hazard as it presents. Particularly when this is the first level of response, before support options and resources can be activated or come into affect.

Travel delays have been triggered due to airport and airline workers unable to get to work, taxi drivers not able to refuel vehicles, hotels and staff overwhelmed, business travellers unprepared and convergence of business and leisure travellers upon all available exit travel nodes.

Access to information, at all levels, the ability to consume and process all the options and explore alternatives is imperative in this and similar travel disruption events. Crisis leadership will succeed more frequently than simple crisis management, to which are dependent upon timely and accurate information from all available resources.

Unfortunately, many will fail to fully understand the gravity of the events, the threats posed and respond or prepare accordingly. While many others exposed will chalk it up to another force majeure or random act that is just part of the rich experience of international travel. Courts, business travellers and peer review increasingly do not share this flippant view.

This scenario and lack of preparedness has been played out numerous times in recent history. Volcanos, volcanic ash affects, Japan’s tsunami, airport closures, airline failure and many others have caught business travellers and managers alike unprepared. This disturbing trend will continue.

Conclusion: London riots business travel threat

You should now see why the London riots have a far greater impact and threat to business travellers than you may have originally thought. We have examined the business travel threat posed by the London riots, terrorist attacks and resulting travel delays. You now have a specific plan for this and similar events and the required business travel management and response. This will happen again. Perhaps not in London, perhaps not a city wide demonstration but this kind and scale of business travel disruption event will happen more than once before the end of 2011. Review your plan and make the necessary enhancements now.

Why the London riots created a greater business travel threat than a terrorist attack

Tony Ridley

Introduction

The death of Osama Bin Laden does not conclude the global threat of terrorism but in many instances it will trigger a new wave or business travel threats. If you want to know more on how the killing of Osama Bin Laden will affect business travel then you need to read this article. This article will identify the major delays, disruptions, risks and threats to business travel as a result of this high profile leader’s death. By the end of the article you will know the key issues affecting business travel as a result and be able to identify the primary areas for travel planning and risk management focus. 

Bin Laden’s Death

The death of Osama will no more signal the collapse and conclusion of global terrorist events than if the CEO or chairman of a major multi-national were to die also. Global and local terrorism threats are made up of networks, many redundant and independent of any one single point of leadership. Standing Armies, Air Forces and Navies are also constructed along such lines. Would the death of a General bring an Army to a halt? Not likely. Therefore, while being a major news and emotional event for many it will have little to no effect on the command and control of sympathetic terrorist groups. It will embolden some to act, rally to the cause and even further elevate Bin Laden as an icon for their actions, much the same as Che Guevara has evolved as the face of freedom fighters the world over. 

Terrorism

Terrorism remains a minor threat to business travel based on the volume of travel and those affected. The responsibility and duty to combat such a threat still remains within the government realm and not that of corporate entities although they do need to be aware of developments and capabilities for local governments to combat or prevent attacks to ensure their travellers do not become targets or affected. Business travellers will still be more likely to be affected by delays, disruptions and threats from more routine and frequent issues such as motor vehicle accidents, illness, airline disputes and bad weather. 

The Real Threat to Business Travel

The real threat to business travellers in the wake of the death of Bin Laden will be the subsequent response by the global aviation security and government intelligence agencies. Most will view this result as a success but also be immediately focused on the potential for reprisal. Many individuals and groups are already in the advanced stages of planned attacks but others may rush to action and attack in support of Al Qaeda or Islamic extremists. Their single-minded attention on these issues will result in greater inconsistencies, delays and threats to business travellers. 

Airport Security

Airports will become even more unpredictable as to what and how security measures are implemented and changes are all but guaranteed. These changes will further disrupt the efficiency and flow of check-in, boarding, screening, arrivals and departures. However, the effects and approach will not be universal nor predictable to the average traveller and delays, disruptions and missed flights will results and further impact the effectiveness and efficiency of business travel. Company risk and security managers may also be on a hair-trigger and cease, suspend or defer business travel until they get “more information” on the situation, further compounding the issue. If history is any indication, any minor or major incident in the coming weeks and months will result in knee-jerk security treatment solutions that impact more travellers than it prevents terrorists. 

Affected Demographics

Profiling and heightened security measures will be applied to specific ethnic groups, nationalities and those traveling through identified travel corridors. Once again this will be inaccurate, inconsistent and opaque to the majority of travellers who will suffer the wider effects and possibly even personal effects of such changes. Those traveling from the Middle East, of Pakistani ethnicity, Muslims, single males, those with beards, women in burkas, travellers with no check-in luggage, those paying by cash or even those that “act funny” at the airport will all draw the attention of someone who is looking at reasons why someone poses a threat or could jeopardize air safety and security, therefore requires interception. 

Conclusion

The world is no safer or riskier than it was the day before Osama Bin Laden was killed. The subsequent actions and reactions following his death however will impact the landscape in which business travellers journey through. Hopefully it will be short-term but should we see the slightest hint of threat or reports from the government agencies then we are all likely to be subjected to greater delay, disruption and risk due to this relatively low level threat. Osama’s death will not signify the end of terrorism, business travellers need to remember there is continued and greater threat from the more routine, airport security will have it’s ups and down in the coming weeks/months and the color of your skin, accent, religion and point of origin will all play a role on how you are viewed by the various security agencies. 

While this event should not have had any major impact upon business travel, in reality it will. Now you know what the real threats are, you should prepare yourself and your travellers for the road ahead to ensure they continue to remain productive, efficient and safe during the course of their various business travel demands. 

Introduction

The 2011 Thailand elections will be an eventful few months for the country and businesses and travellers will be affected by the newest political climate change. If you want to know how business and travellers will be affected, then read on. In this article you will learn how recent events and the elections have affected business leaders viewpoints, travel and tourism, government agencies along with the what the next few months has in stall for everyone with exposure to Thailand. By the end of the article you will know all the key facts and have all the ingredients to make a more balanced and accurate assessment of the 2011 Thailand elections and how your business or travellers will be affected.
Following recent discussions and visits to Thailand, I have compiled the sum of all discussions and observations from a variety of business, government, travel and security sectors in this article.

Business Leader’s Viewpoint

The best way to describe the viewpoint of the majority of Thailand based business leaders is polarized. There are those that are adamant, along with their advisors, that the elections signal the end of days for sustainable business in Thailand. This group loves conspiracy theories and sees evidence in their views in every event and incident that happens within the country. Conversely, there are the ones that don’t see what all the fuss is about and believe the entire event is just a storm in a teacup with little concern for the elections or the entire state of the country. This group has also regularly been disrupted by recent historical events within the country as they just didn’t see it coming nor did they have a plan. The problem is that both groups mix with like-minded thinkers and never entertain the validity of either side’s viewpoint nor do they inject new views or opinions into their considerations or final standpoints.
The fact remains that much of the focus and discussions are on issues that are nothing more than inconsequential celebrity dramas. Everyone loves a good story and some juicy gossip but the reality is that not much of these conversations are either relevant to the every day situation in the country or have that much direct impact on business, business leaders or travellers. Most business leaders would be better served focusing on the day-to-day limitations and challenges in the country and how some of these upcoming election events can stress or disrupt the already present deficiencies and sub-optimal business standards within the country but for the most part it will have minimal impact on the majority of businesses and travellers.

Travel and Tourism

The official tourism figures for Thailand are wrong; at best they are significantly inflated. Tourist and travel numbers to the country are down. Anyone can see that main tourist areas and facilities are noticeably more quite than they should be at this time of the year and this trend has been running for several months. However, most of this is not Thailand’s fault and not related to the demonstrations and political tensions over the past couple of years.
Japanese tourist numbers are down due to the tsunami, middle east visitors are down due to unrest and disturbances in their region, Australian tourists are exploiting the week US exchange rate to head to areas they couldn’t previously afford and the Russian and Chinese tourists predicted to add sizable numbers to the annual travel have not materialized due largely to the fact they are not repeat visitors or only travel during narrow windows throughout the year.
Competition for medical tourism is increasing in the region, leaving Thailand to refocus and become more competitive in an area they once dominated.
All these factors combined, has resulted in significantly decreased travel numbers and providers and the industry is feeling the pinch with continuous efforts to get the numbers back up but they are not staying away because of any inherent fear.
Online search terms relating to Thailand and the overall security situation in Thailand indicates the majority of travel safety concerns have long passed and interest in the country remains as strong as ever over the past year.

Police and Military Forces

The upcoming election presents another opportunity for the police and military to re-engage in their long running opposition to each other’s role in the domestic political affairs of Thailand. Old scores have been settled in the past and opportunities to discredit the other have been exploited too. These issues and tactile events are not related to the overall safety and security within the country but do provide news worthy incidents or raise concerns to the uninitiated when a grenade attack or shooting takes place. While it is highly possible similar events will occur during the election (post pre and post election periods) it will not have a major impact on either businesses or travellers, as it hasn’t in the past 50 years this division has been taking shape.

Monarchy

Many are still concerned or talking about the monarchy and in particular the health of the king and a succession plan. His influence is not what it once was and many have already factored in this new influence into both financial markets and business threats. It is no secret that the King is highly revered and any decline in his health or passing will affect the country immensely but it will not trigger any major disputes or political realignments that have not already taken place or have not been in play for many years already. As to the succession issues, this will be a mere spectator drama as people and groups take sides but it will not have a great impact on the country’s business and travel landscape to any great degree, in either the short or long term.

Wild Cards

Demonstrations and political disputes have and will continue to provide for wild card entrants. Black shirt heavies, settling of outstanding business disputes, random acts of violence, crimes of opportunity are all possible but not part of the overall theme or related to the events taking place. Unfortunately most are unable to discount or separate these acts and see all events as parts of the whole. Unless directly related to the political outcome, business operations or travellers, such events should be assessed and identified as unrelated and decoupled from the overall view or assessment before seeking to modify any pre-prepared plans on the basis of one or more unrelated, albeit exciting, events or incidents.

The Path to Major Disruptions

In order for the elections to contribute to any major changes within Thailand that would affect business and travellers, there would need to be several significant indicators or events present before such a path was inevitable or plausible. These events would not be limited geographical issues such as demonstrations or small scale political disputes but widespread systemic changes to the law, business climate, personal safety, economic stability and so on. Given the time and will required to affect such changes, none of this would be an overnight scenario but would take time and present in a series of related steps with the end objective clearly telegraphed and apparent to all. Therefore, businesses, leaders and travellers would have more than sufficient time to identify the change, modify plans and respond accordingly without the unnecessary pressure of immediate or spontaneous decisions.

Past Demonstrations Impact

Demonstrations and disruptions are not new to Thailand, particularly to Bangkok. The economic loss and sustained business impact these events have caused have greatly reduced local, public support within Bangkok for such actions. Across the board, business owners and employees have suffered as a result of the hype and reality of past demonstrations and sporadic violence.
In order to get sheer numbers to attend and support specific political parties events, they have bussed most of them in from loyal jurisdictions or rural communities on promises of fee-for-attendance/support. This remains the only real way to get such numbers but increasingly locally affected business are fed up with the loss and inconvenience rallies and demonstrations have created. Not to mention the negative image the country has attracted due to the various news reports, images and occasional violence.
Future political action is unlikely to follow the same model and local support within Bangkok especially will be very low and likely not to be tolerated for as long as it has been in the past, by all stakeholders.
General awareness of the great divide between social classes or the so called haves and have nots is growing. Speed and ease of communications has guaranteed that many more Thais are aware of the existing and growing divide between the privileged and general masses. While this will be a political lightning rod for some campaigners it will not be fixed in the short term however many Thais will be increasingly more vocal and motivated to seek change if they continue to feel exploited for other’s gain.

Strategy Versus Tactics

Strategy should be the main concern and interest for business leaders and observation of short-term tactics the concern for travellers. Very few events have warranted the label or consideration as strategy by both sides, with most business leaders focusing too much on the isolated tactile events that have short term, minimal impact upon their various businesses. Tactics include demonstrations, violence, road closures, and political accusations. Strategy is how the business landscape and opportunity will change or look in 6 months to a year from now. Very little regarding strategy is likely to affect businesses (nor should they waste an inordinate amount of time analyzing it either) but occasional tactical issues will present which can be observed and mitigated with good planning and implementation for the most part.

Forecast

The Thailand election for 2011 will disappoint most. It will not bring immediate and sweeping changes for those in need, it will not resolve all the political tensions and divisions within the country and it will certainly not deteriorate into an outright civil war. There will be peaks and troughs throughout the campaign and like all campaigns around the world it will not we devoid of scandal, excitement and change. However, for the most part, this will be mere white noise for business leaders and travellers. The focus should be on filtering out what is good for news broadcasts and what is relevant or within context to your situation or events.
Expect lots of archive footage, narrow street scape images with the message of military oppression, high volume reporting on any and all violent acts and comprehensive calculations and predictions on just how many colored shirts are at any one location or event. Do not expect a balanced and rational view in context to the overall size of the country and how a few disrupted intersections do not indicate the collapse of a country. Expect foreigner’s opinion and views to go up and down also, but this will be in response to media stimulus or the lack of comparative information. Again, not a real indicator.

Have a plan for general business continuity, know when travellers should/shouldn’t travel, pre-prepare an emergency plan for the more routine events such as power outage and denied access, consider relocation options if the need arises, map your resources and assets, monitor and track events as they relate directly to you, have a failsafe communications plan, use if often, prepare/educate your personnel and set up in advance your key requirements and resources to ensure successful business continuance and resilience.

Conclusion

Now you understand why the 2011 Thailand elections will be an eventful few months for the country and businesses and travellers, and why they will be affected by the newest political climate change. You now know how business and travellers will be affected. Recent events and the elections have affected business leaders viewpoints, travel and tourism, government agencies along with the fact that many are almost hoping that the election will bring suffering and catastrophe to all. This is not the case, but you need to continue to monitor the situation for the distinct changes that will mark a more problematic period but it will not be widespread disruption and violence as predicted by some. Consider all this before making your business and travel decisions and ensure you have plans and resources for any and all contingencies you need to implement. For those with completed plans, consider the above advice and forecast against your current assumptions and plans and ensure they remain relevant. For those yet to plan for the events, re-read this article and make the right plans for the most plausible events and situations without wasting too much time and resources on an “end of days” scenario that is highly unlikely to occur.

Travel Safe Advice to Thailand

Beware the Fine Print

Introduction

If like most, you base your overall assessment of a country or city based on some-kind of threat rating then you need to read this article before blindly basing all your business decisions upon such tools.

This article will address the development and reporting of security or travel safety threats and how they are communicated. Specifically, the collection of data, affected audience demographics, aggregated indicators, qualifiers and the real threats revealed.

By the end of this article you will have immediate knowledge that can be applied to your current risk analysis methods, tools and services to ensure a more accurate and relevant approach for your business needs.

Data

True analysis is based upon and supported by demonstrable facts. While a derived assessment may be a combination of multiple factors, the baseline factors remain constant.

These facts must be relevant to the business and the affected assets and not a standardized collection of threat topics representing the mean average of the world’s problems.

This data must also be reported in support of the final threat/risk analysis. Rarely do end users ever see or are offered these facts but they provide greater insight into the effectiveness of the final number or score and often highlight weaknesses with the assessment process. Possibly the reason they are rarely released.

Data such as accidents per capita, delays per route, illnesses per demographics, victims of localized crime, total loss per event and time loss per disruption are all key requirements to any travel threat spectrum.

The data alone is insufficient unless related directly to the audience in which the analysis is created for or those directly affected. Local inhabitants and their risk categories are seldom shared by that of travellers, expats and other visitors to a location.

Audience

If your intention or requirement is to present an accurate index of threats or risks for travellers, then your data must show an index or scale as to how/how much they are affected.

While these groups may have further diversify, it must exclusively show the threat and impact as it relates to that demographic and that demographic alone, in all sectors.

High cholesterol may be a national issue but will it have any great affect on travellers to that location? Hotel incidents may not make local newspapers but have a significant impact upon travellers and visitors to the area. Terrorism kills thousands of people every year but only a handful of travellers are ever affected, often indirectly. The Mumbai attack was far less successful than many other terrorist attacks in the country but because so many foreigners were affected, it had a far greater audience and “news worthiness” to the event.

Natural disasters have a much greater impact on local residents but the loss or disruption to airports, roads, accommodation and public utilities affects everyone, with the potential for greater threat to visitors and travellers.

Final risk levels are only useful as a final comparison between multiple locations. Risk levels can only be really effective if displayed in conjunction with the key element/factors that created the final assessment/index.

Aggregated Indicators

Indicators will always need to be collated or compared, or the task and reporting would become too onerous and lengthy with the end result that no one would bother to read them.

Final aggregated indicators are tolerable in measured doses to mass audiences that have little decision making power. However, businesses and business leaders need more than just a final “score”.

The indicators must be based on fact (even if used in conjunction with “experience based evaluations”) and specific to the primary audience. Anything less is next to useless. If you have system or a service that can’t or won’t display/disclose such indicators, you need to reconsider the contribution and service immediately.

Real threats

Most “travel threat ratings” fail to demonstrate greatest areas of risk and only display the final tally.

The most effective and useful systems mirror mainstream business assessments with measurements/results focused on plausible outage times or percentages.

Most threats result in loss of productivity, delays, disruptions or other efficiencies surrounding travel. Because analysis rarely has the capacity to understand or measure this niche, coupled with the fact that few companies are really aware of the cost of such events on a regular basis, much of the value associated with travel risk ratings is lost.

Events and incidents that exclusively affect travellers, expats and visitors such as motor vehicle accidents, illness, sickness, bad water, petty crimes, loss, damage and life safety and security issues constitute a far greater threat to business, even if their ratings don’t indicate it.

The frequency of updates and the replaceable methodologies employed create a threat in their own right. Traveller threats may be cyclic, annual, persistent or isolated in duration but the systems and processes in which they are measured or reviewed are often lengthy and bureaucratic which may only be updated periodically.

Conclusion

Any type of rating or threat analysis is immensely helpful but any “black box” calculation should be questioned. The data that went into the final analysis and rating can be just as important, if not more so, than just the final index, percentage or level.

Now that you understand the differences and weaknesses in many systems, in particular issues around data, audience, indicators and threats you can immediately review or assess your current methods.

Look at the information you have collected or the services you are provided and question whether the results are really relevant to travellers, are they updated very frequently, are the pertinent to your business or are they even pertinent to your location of travel?

Removing the veil associated with much of the analysis is the only way to improve the final results and add greater value to your company with an effective, targeted travel risk management strategy supported by effective and reliable tools.

Tony Ridley

Introduction

If you want to know why the Japan tsunami turned into a far greater disaster than the initial earthquake and learn the 7 main reasons for this calamity, then read on. In this article we will touch on the government, closed cultures, leadership vacuum, system failures and Japanese crisis management, timing and information practices.

By the end of this article you will have the information to act in a much more decisive manner during the next similar crisis or immediately review your crisis and continuity plans involving Japan.

Government

The Japanese government and political leadership has been in constant turmoil for the past few years, with regular scandals and changes. This constant change and lack of continuity has resulted in each successive party’s rebirth and having to learn “on the job” without a clear political vision. Lack of experience in power coupled with perpetual flux for all government employees and agencies results in limited growth, development and the absence of clear leadership. This is not the type of situation you want during great times of disaster but the current situation Japan has, on top of the natural calamity, and it has been a major contributor to the compounding problems and lack of appropriate action at all stages. This was both foreseeable and likely.

Many public utilities are privately owned and have enjoyed limited government oversight or interference. The government is all but powerless to correct the lack of oversight and accountability at this late stage and are dependent on the private companies for all the decision and action taking. For reasons mentioned further on, this is perfect storm of failure in the making.

Japanese governance is an extension of norms and culture, which have created this malaise.

Culture

Most will be aware that the Japanese culture and sense of community is very unique in many ways. However, with nearly 25% of the population over 65, growing generational gaps, history and habit of covering up the truth in order to save face, lack of leadership at all functional levels and a group culture of sufferance and stoic resolve in the face of adversity do not strengthen the county or business sectors capacity to plan, manage and respond to crisis. In weakens it.

Internationally, Japanese executives and companies are known for their lack of crisis management plans and decision making. The country and national businesses have enjoyed fantastic economic success and have never seen the need to change or evolve without the pressure of failure or the demand to innovate. This is significantly more so within the ranks of Japanese government agencies. Therefore, they have not embraced or implemented current competencies for crisis management as they have not seen the “need”.

Culture often determines the strengths and weaknesses of the planning process but it must be assessed objectively as culture is the one common element to all societies, locations and plans.

Crisis Management Preparedness

The evolution of crisis management and disaster prevention has been accelerated by the acknowledgment that while their may be “acts of god” there is much man can do to plan, manage and respond to such acts without a spiritual belief that one must simply accept ones’ fate. This is not the case with much of Japan’s executive leadership. Therefore they fail to plan for many natural disasters in an adequate and holistic manner. Most Japanese simply accept disaster, whether secular or religious.

One statement summed up the issue by stating “they had no crisis management because they were never ready for crisis”.

Most companies and foreigners in Japan have failed to understand or mitigate against this reality which has left them very vulnerable and greatly affected.

Despite the “first world” label applied to Japan, many parts of the country are still less advanced and from the perspective of a foreigner, signs, language, decision making and government services are still very exclusively “Japanese access” preferred. In time of disaster, access and benefit from any internal resource is further diminished.

I have said before, crisis leadership is always preferable to crisis management but an absence of leadership can be deadly.

Leadership Vacuum

Only the elderly and senior management are permitted to make decisions. This may work in a functioning communications and repetitive work environment but not in a dynamic crisis situation or natural calamity. Lack of communication and a vacuum of independent thought and decision making have compounded the event beyond it’s initial occurrence.

No person is to blame for a natural disaster but each and everyone affected or responsible will be judged on how they manage and respond to such events. Most have been found wanting.

Leaders need information to act. You can act in the absence of information but continuos limitations on information and its impact create even more chaos and disaster.

Information Access and Release

Nearly all Japanese businesses and government agencies are very protective of information even secretive, especially around unpleasant or embarrassing information. Cover ups, information filtering, trickle release, lies and lack of understanding play a role and have been demonstrated throughout.

No one received accurate and truthful information as to the state of the affected nuclear plants. Only hindsight will reveal just how wide spread the issue was but it was predictable and evident from the beginning that it would be managed in this way.

Again, cultural trends indicate those responsible would rather fail outright, apologies later, cry in public or just fade away than accept responsibility now, act now and share all the facts and truth about the situation from the onset of disaster.

All plans and response are dependent on supporting systems. Lose one, lose them all and you need an alternate response in order to be effective.

Systems Failure

All the best plans and considerations are inclusive of single and multiple system failures. Not in Japan. Little to no consideration has been given to a series of system failures such as communications, transport, access, health care, utilities and food supplies. This is painfully evident and compounded the issues while most have only discovered this lack of planning and preparation, after the fact.

Timing

Disasters and crisis seldom occur at a time of your choosing. Planning, training, rehearsals and response all need to be inclusive of the “worst possible time” concept. Weather has played a significant role in this calamity and it’s painfully evident that all supporting plans (as limited as we now know) clearly did not encompass the foreseeable and historical bad weather patterns experienced in Japan. Rain, hail, sleet and snow all have an impact on the response to an earthquake, fire, tsunami and flood. Sometimes positively but also negatively.

Here we have seen a lack of preparation, triggered at the worst possible time, creating the mess that has affected millions of citizens, residents, expatriates, companies and travellers.

Conclusion

Japan and the Japanese people are not blame for this natural calamity but their culture and unique circumstances have compounded the response and increased suffering.

Any company or foreigner “caught out” by this phenomena has failed to localize their plans, management and response to crisis. These oversights have resulted in poor accountability for missing people, delayed decision making, failed plans, over confidence in government advice, diminished ownership/action by companies along with heightened risk to those affected.

Now that you understand the additional factors contributing to this particular calamity such as government, culture, timing, leadership, management, information and system failures you can immediately correct your errors or fix the flaws in your current plans.

Condolences to those affected by this recent tragedy but lack of planning and preparation is no excuse when faced with foreseeable and likely crisis, no matter the source.

Tony Ridley

Tony Ridley's blog

Managing Business Travel Risks and Crisis

Introduction

If you know that business travel is not without its risk and the potential for crisis, then you need to read this article.

In this article we are going to talk about the management and containment of crisis as it relates to travellers and travel managers.
The objective of this article is to share with you the collective knowledge on managing crisis and significantly improve your ability to identify and manage a crisis but also improve your business travel efficiency.
The first thing we should cover, who is Tony Ridley?
Well I have directed and managed numerous critical events for companies such as the Bali bombings, Mumbai terror attacks, Sichuan quake and Thailand airport closure. I have multiple articles published on the subject of travel risk management and I’m a regular presenter on the issue.

During this article I am going to discuss travel risk myths, crisis management, plans and options so you can immediately compare or improve your own travel risk management system for your travellers or travel management department.

Crisis by definition is something you didn’t have a plan for or something in which you are unprepared. Additionally, it can be a series of events that in concert create a crisis.

Events or issues that occur, to which you have a plan and strategy, is merely an incident.

Crisis Management/Leadership

The first thing is to clarify what is the difference between crisis management and leadership. More importantly, which one is the more important?
Crisis management relates to the response to event/s that threaten your business, travellers or travel activity. The event leads and you follow with plans, decisions and actions.
Crisis leadership, on the other hand, is more about getting ahead of the events and issues to prevent, management and even contain the impact to your business or business travel activities. While management is a portion of the leadership demand, your actions and involvement lead the outcomes rather than a more passive wait and act approach with pure crisis management.
Crisis leadership is the less practiced of the two, but the most significant in terms of results and reduction in risk and impact.
If you take nothing else away from this session, it should be that your focus should always be on Crisis Leadership, not crisis management.

Myths

There are many myths and half-truths about crisis, disruption and threats within the travel management sector. Much of this misinformation has originated from travellers themselves, media, travel managers, friends and family or so called “experts”.

For example, many travellers and planners are focused on terrorism. The reality is, you have a very, very small chance of being exposed or affected directly by a terrorist act. It doesn’t mean you should discount it as a threat altogether but it shouldn’t dominate your plans or processes if not a proportional threat to you and your travellers. Conversely, almost everyone overlooks motor vehicle accidents. Yet, they happen far more frequently, can have devastating affect on travellers and are the least common plan contained within company travel management departments.

Travellers and travel managers must be prepared, educated and have supporting plans for any event that has the potential to delay, disrupt or harm the traveller or the business.
The most common events include:

• Motor vehicle accidents
• Airline delays or cancellations
• Airport closures or disruptions
• Transport delays
• Bad weather
• Sickness and illness
• Petty crimes
• Hotel fires
• Political disputes
• Demonstrations and gatherings

Motor vehicle accidents within your own country can be stressful and dangerous but on an overseas business trip they can be 100 times more challenging and dangerous. Consider language, local authorities, first responder, standard of healthcare, families and support in your plans and initial response.

Airline delays and cancelations. They happen all the time but they are not just an administrative response. You may need to consider safety, transport, quarantines, security threats, government response and wide spread suspension of services to overcome the issue and maintain safety of your travellers.

Airport closures or disruptions. Failed systems, electrical problems, threats, weather, construction and so on can prevent you even getting to your flight. Consider the impact this has on your plans and how your traveller will need to possibly extend stay, move to alternate airport or find accommodation.
All other transport delays and disruptions can create crisis when everyone no longer has access to trains, buses, key roads or even water transport. Have a plan and add it to your immediate decision making process.

2010 and the commencement of 2011 has seen travel of all kind affected by natural disasters and weather. Weather and natural forces have and always will impact travellers. It does and will continue to occur. It is highly concerning how unprepared travellers and companies are for volcanic eruptions, typhoons, floods, earthquakes and general bad weather.

People get sick or feel unwell all the time. This is compounded significantly when travelling. Standard of care, language, access, cost, complications, choice and numerous other location based concerns will determine just how at risk your traveller will be. A single, “one-size-fits-all” plan or solution will fail and you need to be aware of these issues immediately with the onset of an affected traveller.

Crimes are a reality of any city in the world. However, travellers seldom know the risks and may be preyed upon by thieves and criminals. The loss of phones, money, and other items may seem less likely to constitute a crisis but when overseas, injured or not able to speak the local language, all these simple events can create a major concern for your business travellers. This can be amplified if you have a senior executive or a group of executives affected.

Hotel fires and emergencies are more common than most people think. The immediate threat to an individual is fairly obvious but the impact that the lack of accommodation choices can create from the temporary or permanent closure of a hotel is a much bigger concern. This was graphically displayed during the Mumbai terror attacks (as extra ordinary as the event was) when most of the best/preferred hotels were now unavailable in a key part of the city. This removed thousands of rooms for business travellers and forced many to cancel or significantly alter travel plans just because there were a lack of suitable accommodation options, whether affected by the events or not.

Any event that alters the political stability of a location or region or results in thousands of people out on the streets constitutes a risk to your business travel plans and travellers. They can happen spontaneously or take time to develop. The immediate dangers and the ongoing disruption can have a major impact on your business or traveller. Again, plans, preparation and thought to these issues will greatly reduce the impact and improve your business too.

Now that we have removed the most common misconceptions, let’s focus on the management and containment of a crisis.

Crisis management

The key to successful crisis management is planning, training, plans, decision-making and adaptability.

Planning

Given the issues previously covered, you now have a better insight into how and why planning is important to remove the more emotive issues from the realities of real business threats and events.

Planning needs to include multiple departments and perspectives to be truly effective. One of the greatest weaknesses I see regularly is that departments continue to manage the risk of travel through multiple departments with multiple plans. The input and plan needs to be unified. Depending on the company, it may include travel managers, security, HR, finance, marketing, C-suite and operations.

All plans need to be continuously updated, location specific, aide in the decision-making process and modular enough have elements extracted quickly and effectively.

Modern, effective plans embrace technology. Rapid, efficient access to information, along with running updates is the hallmarks of a modern sustainable plan, regardless of the size of the issue or the company.

Training

No plan is effective without training and rehearsal. Training, whether through simulations, drills or live, full-scale exercises are vital to the success of any crisis situation. Such sessions don’t need to be boring or overly complicated but must include travel managers and planners along with the more common crisis and emergency managers.

Increasingly, training is becoming a mandatory requirement for key positions and roles. It can be linked to internal HR processes but must support the business objectives and measurable on how it reduces the risk to people, business, brand and travel demands.

While the plan creates the framework for crisis decision-making, teams can learn a lot from training on how and when to adapt their plans. How the team interacts, strength, weakness, leaders, followers, limitations, tools and many more planned and surprise outcomes are possible with effective training.

Adaptations

No plan will completely script all the events, issues and options available for every plausible travel delay, disruption or crisis. You need to be able to adapt and evolve from the original plan and intention. This can only be achieved with planning, plans and training.

Solutions

So what do I need in my plan? Here is the best travel risk management content for your plan:

• Objective(the single most important part of any travel policy)
• References
• Scope
• Legal
• Insurance
• Finance
• Reimbursements
• Limits
• Priority/precedence
• Management Authority/ies
• Situations
• Procedure will likely cover:
• Planning 
Resources
• Tools
• Authority
• Executive
• Decision making
• Limits
• Budgets
• Training
• Compliance
• Pre-trip admin
• Providers
• Booking
• Accommodation
• Airlines
• Ground Transport
• Safety and Security
• Health and wellness
• Emergency
• SOP/Actions on
• Insurance
• Travel Monitoring /tracking
• Reporting
• HR
• Entitlements
• Threat/risk levels
• Shelter in Place
• Relocations/evacuations
• Management 
Authority 
Review
• Don’t forget your risk assessment will need to include the key elements:
• Traveller 
Location
• Activity
• Support/Resources
• Response

Conclusion

There you have it. Now you know what is required, how do you rate your current plans and preparedness?
You now have the most relevant issues and areas to focus upon that will reduce or contain the majority of incidents you may face your travellers will be safer, your business more profitable and your costs will be contained by reducing your exposure to expensive crisis events.

We have debunked popular travel threat myths, identified the difference between crisis management and leadership, outlined plans and options so you can immediately compare or improve your own travel risk management system for your travellers or travel management department.
Review your plans and make the immediate improvements.

You will know when you have an effective crisis management system for your travel risk management strategy when you have little to no crisis. You may have numerous events or incidents but you have a plan, you’re prepared and your decision making is fast and consistent. If not, you have failed and you will run from crisis to crisis on a regular basis.

The Golden Hour and the First 24 Hours!

In the vast majority of cases, regardless of the duration, the end success or successful resolution to a crisis is determined by the initial actions in the first 24 hours. Often referred to as the “Golden Hour” in emergency medicine, the initial hour of the first 24 hours is the foundation upon which the primary phase is predicated. The events, information and decision making process during these two phases will place both individuals and multi national corporations upon a path that will over time will provide less opportunity for change and influence than at this juncture.

While the incidents and information injects, whether actively or passively collected, may change, the fundamental decision making methodology will remain relatively constant due to the leader or crisis management teams experience, skills and training. It is for this reason that the greatest emphasis due to the potential outcomes remains the burden of those in a position to determine the outcomes.

In broad terms, individual entities or multi-dimensional companies are classified into two categories when managing a crisis or significant event. The first of those categories is that of the Responder who is largely driven by the events and is forced to react to each and every information inject or demand due to the absence of preparation and planning joined with the lack or limitation on resources. The second of these two categories, and the most desired, is that to the Implementer who is characterized by the ability to activate resources and follow a pre-prepared and trained plan with the support of an array of supporting stakeholders, constructed responses and proactively formulated decision making guidelines that reduce the time from event to response.

The Implementer would typically be equally experienced as they are trained with significantly more emphasis on the latter. The primary and secondary phases of the first 24 hours will see the Responder desperately attempting to understand the situation, often with limited redundancy and support, while trying to time appropriate responses and activation of resources with little understanding of the strategic goals or longer term effects of these crucial decisions. This will be further exacerbated by the lack of experience or knowledge on the time taken to implement plans and the activation of vital resources.

In contrast, the Responder during the primary and secondary phases will be aligning support plans and stakeholders with preferred outcomes and anticipating events to potentially mitigate escalation of the situation or becoming reactionary focused. Typically the Implementer will seek to maintain a rapid escalation of support elements and appropriate resources with the option to then gradually deescalate or stand-down a range of options appropriate to the incident once they have sufficient control of information that the situation does not warrant the engagement of such resources or services.

History and more contemporary times are littered with examples whereby Government Leaders, Military Commanders, Corporate Leaders, Community Leaders and the like have failed to identify the impact of the events or incidents that have ultimately lead to an apparent disproportional result. Their failure or lack of appropriate response, relative to the potential impact and not necessarily the current information or perception, has lead to dire strategic consequences. As a result, it is these initial tactile decisions and responses that can in all likelihood determine the eventual outcome, favorable or otherwise.

The Golden Hour in medical terms is the most crucial time in which to both stabilize a patient suffering from significant injury or illness and to determine the best course of action in order to provide them with the most appropriate form of medical care supported by adequate resources. This decision making process is often done in remote locations, at the scene of an accident or within the emergency rooms of the nearest treatment facility. While this reference is centered more towards an individual or groups affected by such events the process and outcomes are indicative of the interaction it has with all the stakeholders affected and the commonalities faced by business in general.

Firstly, the affected parties may well be key elements to an organization or business that is dependant upon their contribution and will undoubtedly respond with all available resource for both the preservation of life and the continuity of business. Secondly, the process for escalation and decision making, including the activation of services and resources, will be made in the absence of a technical expert such as a doctor. As is the case with almost all business crisis in the initial stages. Even then, the measure to which any trained and experienced expert pertaining to crisis management will be limited to a large degree by the actions of the first responders and their support resources.

Tactile and spontaneous decisions made in the immediate stages of a developing incident that could lead to a crisis or disaster event have strategic consequences. These consequences may not affect an immediate impact but overtime could overshadow the incident itself. For instance, the decision to act in the absence of consultation or verification could result in legal, compliance, ethical, morale, code of conduct, medical or criminal violations to which the parent organization will be responsible, or held to account, for the actions of one or more responders. Irrespective of the fact that the decision at the time may have in fact saved lives, prevented further disasters or simply maintained business continuity the strategic consequence could be just the opposite.

While it is neither effective nor possible to script every potential incident and provide policy and processes to support such events, especially in the event of crisis, it can go a long way to mitigate many of the aforementioned issues and negative impacts. Even if during the post incident autopsy it is confirmed that a sound and consistent decision making process was employed with an appropriate degree of accountability and supported resources but ended in a less than favorable outcome, it will hold the organization and the individuals in far greater stead to know they did their utmost at the time but the situation was not recoverable despite best efforts and planning than to have made spontaneous decisions and decrees on the fly.

Enabling first responders, supervisors and crisis management elements to draw upon the collective knowledge of their peers and industry experts, with pretreated plans, budgets and designated resources appropriate to the risk and potential impact will significantly reduce the time from incident to response and prove to be a better overall strategy for the management of limited and significant crisis events. These plans should be both comprehensive and accessible to those that require access it but also simplified for immediate reference and implementation. This is equally applicable to any support services or resources that may be required in the event of particular incidents. Should partial or full responsibility of supporting this process be apportioned to external agencies or third party providers then they in turn should be equally if not more prepared for their roles and responsibilities. Sadly, all this amounts to nothing if the plan is not widely disseminated, trained and rehearsed with a degree of regularity to account for changing circumstances and new talent and roles.

While crisis management is often discussed and held up as the benchmark of preparedness and effectiveness, this is essentially still the realm of the Responder. In order to manage a crisis there is a disproportionate amount of time spent waiting for information injects, set circumstances, triggers and qualifying actions before implementing a plan that is known to be in existence and its results determined by the measure of its application. Crisis leadership is the true virtue of the Implementer. By proactively assessing events and mobilizing resources and the means in which to act before the situation demands, reduces the timeline of impact and in most cases reduces the overall affect the event/s may have on an organization and its personnel. It is often a far more cost effective application of resources also.

In the modern and developing business world there is simply more information and access to information than ever before. While this has lead to many efficiencies and advancements it has not advanced the capacity or effectiveness of crisis management elements at a comparable rate. If this were the case we would incur little to no crisis events and very incidents affecting organization and their personnel would ever need be reported in the media. Effective crisis leadership is learned by training and exposure with sufficient support services and resources. The critical time in which to apply this talent however remains the same, the Golden Hour and the first 24 hours. No amount of preparation and weighty plans will resolve undesirable events in the advanced stages as a direct result of poor leadership and management in the primary phases. It is therefore of paramount importance adequate depth, training and resourcing be focused on this pivotal stage.

The truth about government travel advisories, warnings and alerts

If you’re like most people and you believe that government travel advisories, warning and alerts represent the most accurate advice for business travellers then you are terribly mistaken.

Here are the key elements that all business travellers and travel managers need to know regarding the validity and application of government travel alerts and travel related advice. Knowing and understanding these few simple issues will save your company unnecessary travel delays and disruptions under almost any circumstance. The main points to always consider in the wake of a renewed or updated advisory, warning or alert is the target audience, specific government resources, commercial relevance and the avoidance of evacuation scenarios.

The primary demographic for government advisories are first time travellers, backpackers, families and anyone else with little to no prior travelling experience and preparation or the lowest possible denominator. It is this group that governments aim their advice and analysis towards with the belief that if this group is adequately informed, then all remaining demographics will be covered. Unfortunately this results in an artificially low benchmark for all travellers not within this group.These other groups depend upon travel for business productivity, management and administration and the more likely to have their travel plans altered unnessesarily due to many government alerts. This is in part due to corporate risk avoidance (in the belief the government travel advisories are adequate) and insurance companies benchmarking many of their travel policy exclusions on that of government travel advice (again, in the belief the government are catering to their needs too). Unless you are a first time traveller, significantly inexperienced or lack appropriate business support while travelling, then the majority of government travel advice does not apply to you.

Detailed examination of dedicated resources aimed at travel related advice and content typically reveals little more than a handful of “specific” resources. That is, someone or department dedicated solely to the collection, analysis and dissemination of commercially relevant travel advice. Most government resources are “shared” services when it comes to travel intelligence and advice with general non-government travel a very small increment of their overall mandate. Smaller countries have no dedicated resources and simply “share” the advice from coalition partners or more populace countries, further diluting the relevance to their citizens. Most continuous travel advisory services, provided by a government, are little more than a chronology of publicly available media updates. While resources are limited in the first instance, it is the lack of commercial experience that constitutes the greatest flaw to government travel advisories.

What little resources there are that are aimed at travel intelligence typically lack any direct commercial experience. Therefore, all their apparent advice is predicated more on the interests of the government (resulting in censorship, omissions and politically correct publications) than that of any business sector or commercial demographic. When you have soldiers, government agents and police officers commenting on matters relating to commerce and business travel, you get little actionable advice due to their inability to put into commercial context the impact events may have from a purely commercial perspective rather than a transnational or political viewpoint.

Behind closed doors, most governments admit they do not maintain nor posses the resources (assumed by most of their citizens) for large scale evacuations from any corner of the globe. Regrettably many travellers have grown to assume that complete failure to take responsibility for their own safety and security while travelling will always be compensated by the government’s ability to swoop in and save then if they should so choose. This is wrong and very dangerous for those with such a belief. For those governments that would even consider an evacuation of their nationals (not very many) they will often go to great lengths to advise their citizens to leave or make personal arrangements long before any government is forced into acting. Landing troops or foreign government elements in someone else’s country is always the choice of last resort and highly prone to complications, even if it were possible.

Anything published by a government will always have the country’s national interests such as economy, trade and diplomatic relationships carefully considered before release. Anything that may threaten such strategic goals is likely to be withheld, including government travel advisories, warnings and alerts. Now that you understand the importance of being self sufficient and discerning when it comes to government travel advice you will waste less time placing priority on such updates and focus on more commercially relevant inputs. As a result, your company travel risk management process will be far more resilient and less impacted by the stop/start affect created by government updates, warnings and alerts. You may also now identify gaps that need to be filled by insufficient commercial content from government sources.

Government travel advisories, warnings and alerts focus on the wrong target demographic, lack the appropriate resources, have little commercial relevance and seek to avoid last minute acts such as evacuations. Now that you too are aware of these limitations you should be better positioned to make business decisions in the wake of crisis, emergency and dynamic events that affect a location and your business travellers. Business travel risk management is a commercial process and can only be achieved with appropriate commercial products and services.

Tony Ridley's Website

Are you wondering “How safe is it to travel to Thailand in 2011?“. So are many others. Find out here what the main travel safety and security issues will be for Thailand in 2011. You may be surprised as to what the REALthreats and issues are.

Thailand Travel Safety and Security Report

Remove the guess work or hesitation when considering travel to Thailand

• No more fear and exaggerated reporting
• No more waiting for the main news broadcasts
• No more worried or confused managers and travellers
• No more concerned family members
• No more cancelled flights or delays because of what you “think” is going on
• Ensure safe and effective travel to Thailand, all year around

Information on all the things that you need to know to make an informed decision

• A single location to get or check the facts
• Qualified and experienced experts to compare your opinion or ask advice
• Continuous flow of information when about or currently travelling in Thailand
• A range of choices to receive and contribute information with other travellers

"Travel Alert-Travel Safe"

Click link below for information/access:

Travel Alert-Travel Safe: 2011 Business Travel Threats

2010 was an eventful year for business travellers with new and varied events that caused delay, disruption and life safety concerns.

Join our global travel safety and security expert as he discusses:

• Key travel threats for 2011
• Industry and company trends
• Tips for the year ahead
• Questions from attendees

"Travel Alert-Travel Safe"

Click link below for information/access:

Travel Alert-Travel Safe: 2011 Business Travel Threats

Tony Ridley

In spite of the considerable investment and development around the preservation of assets and the mitigation of risks across conventional corporate assets such as facilities, information, equipment and products, the same methodology and motivation remains far less advanced in regards to human capital.

Before any organization even explores risk management strategies for their human capital it is fundamentally important that they first determine the value at risk. Not only is it a case of valuing the contributions of the individual or groups of personnel but differentiating the value in which they contribute to the company, whether it be through the provision of specific skills and services or the commercial value they present the company. These distinctions also need to be made between job functions or management/executive levels. No two individuals are contributing to the company in the same manner, much less two diverse business functions.  How many companies even know this definitive financial value of their people?

Following the basics of valuation, and any other unique considerations that the company may have (mobile work force, fixed laborers, knowledge capital, research and development) a unit cost can then be applied for prioritizing strategies or expenditure. For example, an individual that reflects a unit cost/investment per hour of $1 will be less likely to addressed as a priority when compared to an individually that presents a unit cost/investment per hour of $100. However, if there are significant numbers of the basic unit cost of $1 at risk, that group as a whole may be a greater priority than that of a single or limited $100 per unit cost individual.

Threats and residual risks associated with human capital are many and varied. Over time a detailed and thorough analysis can be conducted to determine the probability, velocity of onset and other governing factors that will provide a single or annual loss expectancy to the company. A single loss expectancy, such as death, may cost the company significantly more than just the forecast value identified in the first stages. Conversely, an annual loss expectancy, especially in light of the fact many companies are unable to even quantify this loss, may equate to millions of dollars in lost productivity, administrative burden or opportune costs.

To truly understand or appreciate the current or potential losses to a company through their human capital it is imperative to model the disruptions and time loss (inclusive of management and departmental support) to a cellular and group level. If someone falls ill, how long are they unproductive? What does it cost the company? Should the become a victim of crime or their business activity disrupted due to a natural disaster, what is the cost to the company? When applied to our entire human capital asset base, what is our single and annual loss expectancy?

“You can’t improve what you can’t measure” If you are making a truly informed decision on where your assets are distributed, you can then make informed decisions around strategies to preserve their value. You also enjoy the benefits of comparative investment/management. Most companies are surprised to discover that despite their commitment to their people, they actually devalue their contribution by not acknowledging them as an asset and preserving it accordingly. Are you one of those companies?

Companies that have undertaken to approach the management of their human capital consistent with other corporate assets have found the process highly rewarding and very confronting. Conversely, those adverse to such strategies or behind the curve continue to loose more money than the cost of such preparation and mitigation. They too find over time that penny wise turned out to be pound foolish.

Tony Ridley

Volcanos that erupt and disrupt the world’s travel plans don’t happen every day but travel disruptions and threats to travelers do. It often takes a dynamic or amplified event to display just how much planning and oversight goes into day-to-day risk management, in order to reveal just how ineffective the process may be overall.

Travel buyers have admitted that the volcano eruption in Iceland has taken a substantial bite out of their 2010 travel budget, if a new survey is to be believed.

Polling its international members, the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE) found that some 71% of global travel buyers said the disruption in Europe has resulted in a “substantial” economic hit on their travel spend for the year. Of this 71%, 36% percent described the unanticipated expenses as “severe”. An additional 21% indicated the hit was slight, while 8% reported being unaffected.

“It is important to note that the financial factors of this crisis have a special significance in the light of the fragile global economic recovery for business in general and business travel in particular,” said ACTE president Richard Crum. “If even just 1% of the industry’s financial contribution to the global economy were affected, that would equate to roughly 4 billion euros.”
Crum added that travel managers have been preparing for contagion, pandemic, conflict, war, and earthquakes for years. For many travelers, that level of preparedness was reflected in their corporate response to the eruptions in Iceland. Forty-seven percent of companies responding to the ACTE survey had a plan in place to accommodate stranded travelers. Twenty-nine percent did not have a specific program for this crisis, but moved forward with implementing one cobbled from other crisis programs. Twenty-five percent believe this crisis is so extraordinary and rare, that no preparation could have dealt with these developments and have no immediate intentions to change their policies.

The unanticipated expense of the crisis has already taken a big bite out of existing travel budgets for 2010, but survey respondents believe the crisis would not force the company to travel less in 2010 (76%). Twenty-two percent were unsure as the crisis is ongoing and 2% said yes.

Stories continue to emerge of how travelers and companies have been forced to sleep in airport terminals, pay thousands of dollars for taxi rides across countries or cancel major business activities, all the while suffering substantial productivity losses of some of their company’s most valuable human resource group. It is not acceptable that company travelers be subjected to the same limited response or emergency interventions as your everyday tourists, in the event of such wide spread disruptions. If you have been significantly affected, you have failed and your system just doesn’t work.

Poor surveillance of developing events, superficial plans and even less effective decision making methodologies reduce workable response options; if any exist after such systemic failure. Failure to identify and plan for whole-of-journey risk management leads to situations where your traveler/s is stranded in transit without a valid visa forcing them to sleep en mass in terminals with limited solutions. Similar oversights lead to false hopes that the situation will correct itself and “anytime soon” everything will be okay. After all this, if you believe that the overall situation will return to normal and you and your travelers will be on their way immediately after the airspace ban has been lifted, again; you’re in for a nasty shock.

Numerous managers and travelers now understand the various roles required to achieve productive, efficient and safe travel management. Your insurance company is more than capable, and perhaps willing, to process your claim for losses and expenditure incurred but you are still stuck at the airport without a workable solution and suffering a major loss in productivity for those that are typically within the top 20% of your human capital earning (compensation and business contribution) demographic. Your cheque will arrive in the mail and tangible loss/expenditure compensated. It still doesn’t get you from A to B or even via D. Your local office or contacts don’t possess the network or experience to manage your requirements, especially when the rest of the world is scrambling for the same resources. Those without wild stories of adventure to relate after this event are not inclusive of a well thought out plan and capacity to act. Those with a more boring story to tell but maintained productivity and contained costs, all the while preserving the safety of their people, have in their team brokers, insurance, travel management companies and assistance. Which is the smarter business option?

Total failure resulting in numerous stranded people are the result of high walled departments without collaboration. Lack of unification and leadership/ownership in the practice of travel risk management has lead to wide spread helplessness and stranding. If you have key executives traveling for leisure also affected that will prevent them returning to work as scheduled, you have yourself to blame and your appreciation has proven to be too shallow.

This is not over. Hotels are likely to default on bookings for pending travel as they still haven’t been able to clear the backlog of stranded travelers. Ground transport will be stretched and prices will rise even further. Government departments will debate the options but essentially there is nothing you can do to influence their inconsistent influence. Airlines will be pressured into economic decisions long before safety data is consolidated or examined under normal parameters. The thousands of inbound and outbound travellers will take much longer than a few days to clear, not forgetting those adding to the mele than need/want to travel this week. Overtime payments, supplies of food and water to airports, cash reserves and transnational collaboration will all act upon the solutions and choices. It is one thing to read about this in the media but do you really have a handle on what is happening and how it affects you? Failure to do so will compound past mistakes too.

There was adequate warning that this event would have far reaching implications. The impact could be calculated. There was opportunity to implement plans or develop an effective solution to support the objective and effective, rehearsed management teams would have had sufficient time to assess the impact and act accordingly. The final impact was not fate but determined by everything you have done to date. You have been weighed, you have been measured; have you been found wanting?

Tony Ridley

As a global business executive, I  know first hand the demands of travel. I spent more than 120 days out of the year on the road, and have supported the traveling workforces of clients every day. So how do I stay connected? Here are my thoughts on the best apps for  Android smart phones – a critical tool for helping me stay in touch and on top of things while traveling.

“Like most people I use my smart phone as both a communications tool and mini computer while traveling or on the road. My Apple iPhone is my primary device, because I like its exhaustive selection of applications. However, for those times when I need to travel with a second handset (to save on data roaming costs or to access local networks), I use my Android OS phone, which also offers a great range of apps.

I am constantly testing and sampling new apps to meet both my own requirements as well as those of our clients. Below is a list of my favorite travel apps – those that I find indispensible to helping me stay engaged even as I cross time zones. I selected them based on three criteria:

1. Provision of knowledge or data that I don’t possess myself

2. Backed up by expertise and a richer web-based content version

3. Ease, speed and functionality of the application version

Here are the key travel applications that I would recommend for iPhone and iPod Touch users:

WorldMate (Gold)

This application is the powerhouse of all my travel management requirements. I can centralize and view all my relevant travel information from flights, accommodation, meetings and various other travel support options. WorldMate (Gold) is the portable version of the online (cloud-based) application. WorldMate even helps me visually map out locations, distances and travel requirements between airports, hotels and meetings in Google maps.

TripIt

This application has some overlap with WorldMate. However, I use TripIt because it primarily allows me to share my travel location and dates with colleagues, clients and even family. My itinerary can then be synchronised to prevent conflicts, or keep select contacts informed of my travels. This application works great with social networks such as LinkedIn. It also tracks my cumulative trips, countries visited, cities, miles and nights spent on the road. Lastly, it links me to the International SOS travel group so we can see where our fellow team members are traveling or have been.

XpenseTrkr

An inevitable part of traveling is accounting for expenditure on expenses. Therefore, I find this tool excellent for keeping independent and accurate tabs on all my spending, expenses and other reimbursables. The cumulative archive of all my trips also helps in planning and future budgeting.

Tungle

I have a lot of meetings. It seems everyone in every company has a slightly different platform for managing e-mail and scheduling calendars. Additionally, I loathe endless e-mails and text messages back and forth purely to determine availability and the best time to meet. Setting a meeting time can be complicated enough with just one person but is further compounded when multiple parties are involved! Tungle is the perfect tool, centralizing all of my meeting appointments and quickly and simply determining both my availability and that of the client, colleague or other parties. This tool is fantastic as it synchronizes my desktop calendar, mobile device and web-based applications.

FlightTrack Pro

Before I even commit to a trip or a meeting I like to know if there are compatible flights for the time and location required. I find FlightTrack Pro an outstanding tool to determine the reliability and flight options to and from specific locations. In addition this tool also gives me the probability of departure and arrival running according to schedule. This application is great not only for my own travel, but also for being able to track the arrival and departure flights of friends and family.

Evernote

This is an excellent productivity tool that I find invaluable for travel also. Evernote enables me to cut & paste, capture, drop or simply add all the information relating to a particular trip or multiple trips. This application synchronizes between desktop applications (Outlook, Word, Internet Explorer, clipboard, etc). This ensures that all the information such as itineraries, hotel bookings, restaurants, navigation guides to client offices, local or translated phrases, maps and anything else I synchronized is available in electronic format whenever I might need it. I create separate folders for each location or activity, enabling me to quickly and efficiently access the information without opening my laptop or carrying around lots of printed or duplicated sheets of paper.

Foyage

Because I’m constantly bouncing around from one location to another, I often find myself in locations that I may not very familiar with. It is important to me than I make informed decisions or find locations quickly and efficiently. I therefore use this application to help me find other people in my network, ATMs, restaurants, supermarkets or anything else I may need quickly and simply

Dropbox

I’m constantly working on projects, information, issues or hobbies between multiple computers or formats. I use this daily to quickly share files and content between computers, colleagues, clients and myself. I can even review presentations and notes from my iPhone just before a walk on stage without having to print or open my laptop.

Worldcard Contacts

The management of information – and in particular contacts – is becoming increasingly challenging. To help me with this process I use this application to make an immediate copy or store a contact business card. The information is scanned directly into my contacts list, but I can also reference this directly on my iPhone. Built-in functions allow me to call, text, email, or navigate to a particular address directly from the electronic copy of the business card. This application has saved me hours of heartache and provided timely access to valuable contacts and details.

Convert Everything

Part of the excitement of travel is often from the challenges foreign environments bring. Everywhere is different. Different measurements, different currencies, different languages and so on. This application can help with converting pretty much anything I want transferred from one unit of measure/language into something else.

nternational events such as major product launches, corporate meetings, annual or regular sporting events continue to fall outside the standard methodology and practices of risk and people risk management. Many organizations and individuals, also fail to anticipate or include this in travel risk management strategies for leisure or non-corporate travel.
The bigger the event; often the greater lack of oversight. Many organizations and planners have gotten themselves into what they consider ‘ a well rehearsed process’. However, given the continual growth in this area, one event could be just one of dozens or even hundreds on their annual calendar. Therefore, some planning groups do not even start their planning for these events until mere weeks before the start of the event. They have become so familiar with the process (in their minds) that they simply template their planning preparation and even the threat profiles.
Issue motivated groups, criminals and even terrorists all have wants and needs. Along with these wants and needs, there a number of capabilities, intent and even historical success that are required before they can even be considered to be truly a threat. More often than not, criminals and terrorists prefer people over places. Meaning; they will go to where the people are, particular if they gather in large numbers. It often has less to do about location than the accessibility and opportunity for victims or attention. Increasingly, terrorist and issue motivated groups, are about striking at social activities rather than iconic landmark locations. This means that many are at walking into the exact locations or circumstances preferred by both criminals and terrorists alike. In recent times sporting events have even been high on the list of preferred locations. Even athletes have become preferred targets.
Online bookings, cheaper airfares, product launches, the thrill of seeing your star athletes perform live are all increasingly motivating more and more people to travel to these major events and super events. This can in turn result in small or moderate sized cities and locations expanding well beyond their infrastructure capacity or overburdening everything from amenities to emergency services. The planning and preparation vary from city-to-city, location-to-location and even encompass cultural limitations. One should never assume that one particular event held in different locations is even remotely close to the same standard of planning, preparation or resources met with at the last.
Over the course of the next few months, everything from the soccer World Cup to the Shanghai Expo will see hundreds of thousands or millions of travellers descend on individual or clusters of location. These events to, have persistent and specific threats that will affect all travellers and attendees. They will range from the minor and routine, the life-threatening or catastrophic.
Part of the threat are travellers or attendees themselves. In simple terms you should know before you go. Understanding, adapting and preparing for the local circumstances, rather than just transit or your location of origin, is far more important if not pivotal to determine the success of an overall trip. Many times; Google just does not cut it! One should have accurate and specific advice that helps shape your decision planning an even logistics. Increasingly companies are providing this on behalf of their employees.
Local standards vary. The nature and even the scope of services provided at many of these events are likely to be different to what you may be accustomed at home. You may think it remote, or even unlikely to require such services but you should at least pay attention in order to understand how they will work in the event of an incident, accident or even an emergency.
Plan. Set time aside, to research study and understand the location and even the event in which you are travelling to enjoy. If you have resources to draw upon, use them. If not, seek them out, share and collaborate; but do not omit. It’s not so much the plan that’s important, it’s the planning.
Manage. All journeys (regardless of planning) present choices at various stages of the event. Informed and wise choices are based on the extent and knowledge applied to those particular choices. Ad hoc, ill informed, or simply cavalier choices often result in dangerous outcomes. Ensure you remain updated to changing circumstances. Maintain awareness of your activities and the surroundings in which you’re travelling. This should be applied to every stage from arrivals, transit to hotels, travel between events and locations; up to and including your return to the airport and subsequent departure.
Actions. Think through plausible scenarios in advance. Consider what resources may be required. Complement those resources with your applied knowledge and access to support services. Should anything occur, that requires even the most routine of responses up to an inclusive life safety and security incidents, your understanding in advance will determine or govern a successful outcome. This should by no means be an individual undertaking, and all travellers or attendees should consider leveraging from other support networks.
Bad things happen to good people all the time. It’s just a fraction of the overall time required to be spent on planning, managing and determining actions, that will determine the success of any incident, big or small.

Many companies navigate the routine complexity of business with adequate or acceptable managem

Team Sport

ent, however it is the truly stellar company/s that excel not only on a routine basis but especially in times of crisis. It is select skills, experience and traits that are able to applied during times of critical decision-making that separate them from the herd. Specific skills and attributes are not something that can be learnt in the minutes and seconds required in order to apply to a critical decision making process but are acquired and developed over many years and supported by advanced processes and tools.

To understand the best-in-class for corporate crisis management and decision-making we need to consider a number of things. Given that the timeliness of response is often predicated on how little time is wasted on logistical or bureaucratic processes before getting to a point of action, therefore companies with existing policy and procedure that is both rehearsed and updated, put themselves in the top 10 to 20% immediately. This element is certainly not a significant contributor to their success our outcome. Second, the quality of information on which decision-makers and leaders are basing their actions upon. This information alone does not comes from traditional sources such as television and paper it increasingly is inclusive of social media. The voices of many, albeit nonofficial, can have a significant impact on the outcome of the overall damage/survivability of an incident faced by a company.

The best-in-class companies not only acknowledge social media but have means of tapping into influencing and monitoring all social media channels as required, not just in times of crisis but on a routine basis. Lastly and most significantly it’s the character of the individuals that fill the functions within a crisis or communications plan. It’s this area will look in more depth to determine the requirements attributes and success factors as crisis management is seldom the catalyst for success or failure but that of crisis leadership.

In Malcolm Gladwell’s groundbreaking book The Tipping Point he mentions three significant class of character that are an important influence on social trends and epidemics. These three main character traits are also vital if not pivotal in the success of corporate communications and crisis response. Companies that lack or fail to identify and leverage from these key character and personality traits fall far behind the best of class and most innovative companies. These character traits and abilities are not governed by job title position or function they are skills possessed within a person and therefore should be leveraged in accordance with the skills to the desired outcome rather than relying on a predefined job title or function within the company. These three character traits are 1. Connectors. 2. Mavens and 3. Persuaders. In very rare instances one or more of these skill sets may be founded in a single person but any one person shouldn’t be relied upon in adding depth to any team, which is always sound practice.

What makes someone a connector? The first–and most obvious–criteria is that connectors know a lot of people. They are kinds of people who know everyone

No great team has all the solutions nor knows all of the information, however is vitally important that the team have access to an individual or group of individuals that can connect to all the known and possible resources in a short-as-possible time period. Connectors as such are fantastic networkers with not only huge personal networks but also plug into other complementary networkers or fellow connectors that maybe industry, technical, media or stakeholder orientated. They can aide immensely in benchmarking or calibrating the sentiment of particular decisions/actions or even the most appropriate channel to make sure that their message is heard clear and concisely with the required outcome.

Every company should have at least one connector in a crisis or communications team or one that can be called upon quickly and effectively. It should be painfully evident this is not the type of skill or network that is built up overnight and therefore can’t be expected to be turned on by the flick of a switch; it may take years if not decades to develop and refine.

Second of the three kinds of people who control the work of mouth epidemics are a Maven. The word Maven comes from Yiddish, and it means one who accumulates knowledge

Mavens are active if not and borderline fanatics in their collection of information relative to a specific discipline or social scenario. Once again it’s essential that corporate decision-makers and crisis management teams include such knowledge collectors. Some companies may have them within their own organic structure or call upon them as part of their service providers or trusted advisors, in some instances even board members. Mavens may manifest in many shapes, forms, gender and age but they are very quickly identifiable by their sheer depth of knowledge and cross-referencing ability to join problems with solutions. A single conversation with an effective Maven may save corporate decision-makers hours if not weeks of procrastination and circular discussions.

Mavens are teachers, Connectors are conduits but neither may be Persuaders and the reality is that some people are actually going to have to be persuaded to do something, this is the role of the persuader. A Persuader is not a snake-oil salesman, although many very effective salesmen and communicators are Persuaders. Persuaders are able to influence through their tone of voice, their physical appearance, their social observations, their empathy towards listeners or just in the way and manner they use all of the skills to communicate their particular message. Many famous politicians, while drawing criticism for their lack of knowledge and other skills, have been exceptional persuaders. Not advocating the requirement for “empty vessels” but persuaders have a rare and unique talent to be able to communicate and influence people to do something, that something being consistent with your objectives. It is a very dangerous process to use any of the identified skills and characteristics in the roles in which they’re not suited, in particular the use of a persuader in a lesser role or not that of an influencer.

Many can now probably identify these key character traits and how successful they have been in routine and critical environments. However, it should be of major concern if you can not identify these traits within your own corporate crisis and communications team. Additionally if you have a total absence of any-and-all of the skill sets within your corporate crisis and communications team. You may survive the day to day routine rigors of business but survivability rate when exposed to critical incidences without these key elements is very poor. Even worse are those that assume that job titles within the company or even gender have imparted these skills upon each and every one of their senior executives is a gross oversight. The question remains can you identify these assets or can you contact them on your worst day? Your survival may very well depend on it one day.

¹ The tipping point by Malcolm Gladwell chapter 1–The three rules of epidemics, page 38

² The tipping point by Malcolm Gladwell chapter 1–The three rules of epidemics, page 60