Preparis: Be Ready in a Changing World
“There can’t be a crisis today. My schedule is already full.” -Henry Kissinger
A simple quote. But true isn’t it? Life today is faster, more immediate, more transparent, and more unpredictable than ever before. Threats of the 21st Century like pandemics, terrorism, natural disasters, workplace violence, and every day emergencies are realities that can disrupt your company’s client relationships, people, business continuity, revenue, and brand without warning. The list seems to grow exponentially. Each day we hear news reports, government recommendations, alerts, gossip, and misinformation about how challenging these threats are – even for the experts.
If you’re like 80% of the companies in North America, your business is not ready to manage a 21st Century threat like today’s H1N1. If you have a preparedness plan, it’s likely sitting somewhere on a dusty bookshelf in the HR, IT or security departments. Yet, if your business does not respond appropriately to threats you may harm employees, lose customers, see a dip in shareholder value, or even go out of business altogether.
I founded Preparis to help businesses be ready to manage their employees and operations during times of crisis. I was the president of a media company in midtown Manhattan on September 11th, 2001 and felt the impact of helplessness. We, and most companies I was doing business with, were at a loss for good information, for direction, for ways to communicate appropriately with our employees. We entered a new world, filled with threats that were never part of our lexicon. In preparation for the ‘next’ threat, we began looking for options and researching best practices.
As the correlation between preparedness and shareholder value began to become more proven and the statistics accepted, Preparis was founded. Not because there were no firms offering risk analysis or business continuity, but because those solutions were not addressing key problems and utilizing the technologies available that would take preparedness to the web and mobile devices around the world.
Over the next several months, you’ll likely hear news about Preparis and our offerings within this blog – but that is not why I’m writing it.
The blog’s role is two-fold: I’ll share my own insights on the changing world around us with best practices for preparedness; and we’ll begin a conversation about what it takes to be ready to face the threats of the future.
Please: comment. Ask questions.
At Preparis, we have access to the most up-to-date information on how to manage over 200 threats. So ask away… if we don’t know, we’ll find out – or use this community to ask those of you who do know.
Stay tuned, ready or not….
Tags: business continuity, H1N1, natural disaster, pandemics, preparedness, terrorism, workplace violence
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November 6, 2009 at 4:37 am
[...] The message is, I guess, expect the unexpected, and always prepare for the worst. And most of all: Recognize your limits. And don’t be like Henry Kissinger, who said “There can’t be a crisis today. My schedule is already full.” [...]
November 6, 2009 at 8:01 am
Thanks for reminding me about this timeless and timely quote. In my experience, it’s impossible to be prepare for everything, but if even if you prepared for only one disaster scenario, whichever that is, if it is really thought through, planned and frequently drilled, then you are prepared for anything. Because why? Because preparedness is in your head. It’s in your attitude, it’s in your thinking. That said, many people don’t think, and thus, many people are completely unprepared. Sadly…