|
|
|
|
StrategicPlanning360.com - Strategic Planning Information At Your Fingertips... |
|
|
 |
|
Corporate Contingency Planning
Part 1 A few weeks ago I attended a seminar sponsored by Independent Solutions Insurance Inc (Edmonton) entitled "Seminar On Disaster Preparedness", during this seminar I heard stories from individual company owners who told us of their misfortunes and how they coped with their crisis. In both cases these crisis were caused by accident, however, a potential catastrophe nonetheless. These individuals told their stories about how they had to deal with their traumas from onset through to completion. From listening to these stories, it quickly became clear to me that there were similarities; was their insurance coverage adequate, how long could their companies survive, without being operational, do they have adequate funding to start operations again, could they find suitable temporary business accommodations, employee morale and retention to name but a few. It is clear to most entrepreneurs that starting any new business involves risk and risk is one of the reasons, many of us are entrepreneurs. There is a certain thrill in taking the gamble and making a business work. Many entrepreneurs however, do not consider instituting measures to manage the inherent risk of doing business. While taking a risk and winning is fun, prudent business owners take care to minimize their risk, just as you would in any other type of business venture in which you are involved. We call this being "risk intelligent"; one needs to have a continuous process of analysis and communication as an integral part of any business. So, What Are The Risks Every day we are exposed to many risks which can cause a financial loss. Fraud, Accidents, property damage, illness and death are all risks we have to consider. However, other risks, such as the possibility of being sued or becoming disabled and unable to work, are also important. We each have to decide how we will protect our vital assets should a risk become a reality. RISK; is anything that threatens the ability of a corporation to accomplish it's mission. A corporations mission is to earn profits by selling it's products and services. What Can Be Done Appropriate contingency planning strategies protect against catastrophic losses, regardless of the cause. A company needs to adopt a risk aware culture, identify their risks and put in place a plan which will mitigate their losses. This plan needs to incorporate the entire risks of the organization, separating your external risks from your internal exposures. This process can be achieved by completing a risk threat analysis which basically outlines your assets and the threats posed against these assets. A more comprehensive analysis can be obtained by hiring a professional consultant who can guide your through the process and assist in the education of staff and preparedness of your organization. A basic analysis will break down your company into four parts; people assets, property assets, income assets and goodwill. Once we have identified the risks posed against these assets, we can then begin to formulate a plan of action which will deal with the risks identified and have that plan written into the companies policies and procedures in order that all members of the company can familiarize themselves with their individual responsibilities. In the event a disaster takes place and you have failed to plan, you are planning to fail in the management of a disaster, the consequence of your actions could be catastrophic to your organization. Ottawa's commitment to fighting white collar criminals and unnecessary corporate failures, introduced the Westray Bill. This bill is designed to protect organizations from fraud and the negligent acts of owners, directors and managers. Watch out for part 2 of this series of articles when we look at a risk analysis in greater detail and discuss some basic internal controls. Future articles will include topics relating to corporate occupational fraud, preventing industrial espionage, money laundering, corporate security in the millennium and investigating corporate thefts. Marwen's Contingency Planning; is a discipline that enables people and organizations to cope with uncertainty by taking steps to protect it's vital assets and resources. We recommend, just as you would walk around your car checking for defects, occasionally you should do the same with your business. Martin Maylor, Director of Marwen Consulting Group Inc., a corporate security consultancy based in the Edmonton area, who has been working with corporations for over 15 years assisting them in understanding the risks of doing business, corporate occupational fraud, who commits fraud, why fraud is committed and what a company can do to harden their defenses. Mr Maylor is a frequent speaker at business groups, associations and can be reached at m.maylor@marwen.ca, http://www.marwen.ca or 780 4978245.
 Strategic Planning News for Monday, Feb 6, 2012...
Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Six Key Areas For Evaluating A Strategic Alliance Strategic alliances are increasing at a rapid rate. It is good for business, good for the consumer. A strategic alliance is similar to a joint venture. Everyone remains in his or her own entity, yet come together for a single purpose or period of time to create something that could not otherwise be created. Business Plan Long Term Goals Writing a business plan is not an easy endeavor, nor is predicting the future. You will need to spent adequate time in preparing your long-term goals and objectives. This will help you understand what you are doing and where you wish to be. Martin Luther King in is most famous speech said; "I have a dream" which is noble indeed, but had he had a "Strategic Plan" with quarterly objectives he may have seen that dream come true in his lifetime. Strategic Planning Consulting Strategic planning and consulting is the strategy roadmap to manage business very effectively. To improve the performance in each business level, business strategic planning & consulting is essential. We should draw a clear strategic planning model to dilute the business complexity. If the strategic planning models are clearly set it is easy to find the business solution. During the election we heard about Ohio's Economy Much of what we heard in the mass media about Ohio and the down and out economy was the fiction of spin-doctors of politics who wanted to oust the current sitting President. On further review and first hand observation and experience Cincinnati has people moving in and economic expansion. It is in a good spot with decent quality of life, plenty of jobs and an expanding set of suburbs. Just cross the river into KY and you get a glimpse of the reality. The 7 Critical Steps to Formulating Your Annual Strategic Business Plan Businesses tend to avoid doing their annual business plan thinking that it is an arduous task that does not accomplish much. Formulating your annual plan is, however, critical to your business success and if done correctly should be quick, easy and generate bottom line results. How To Get More Business During The Winter Months Business seems to drop, slow or even stop during the winter months. As tourist traffic slows or stops during the winter months so does the incomes of many local business owners. The first step in overcoming this problem begins in your brain (don't they all?) Three Easy Ways To Know Thy Competitor "Did you hear what your competitor is doing?" This question has caused many business people to freeze in their tracks. How about you? Does your sales team know what your competitors are doing? And if a prospect was to ask them, "give me 10 unique reasons why I should buy from you and your company," could they answer this question without a pause? "Knowing thy competitor" is critical, and this article will outline three easy ways to know more about them, than they know about you! Let's get started! Don't Just Talk About the Weather, Use It to Advantage A well known, national chain of restaurants discovered that certain weather patterns substantially impacts their business. They have studied it and found that more people go out to eat dinner when there is a series of beautiful days. So they measure the weather quality at their stores across the country. Managers report the weather quality daily. A weather predicting system is then employed to determine the quality of subsequent days. When the model predicts a higher customer count they reduce or eliminate sale items and include higher priced or higher margin specials on the changing daily menu. While they can't control the weather, they know that their customers respond to it. Knowing that, they work to take advantage of factors that can predict changes in business activity. The Six Sigma Method and Design of Experiments Six Sigma is becoming a proven approach for businesses and organizations to improve their performance. The spectrum of companies actively engaging in Six Sigma today is wide from industrials like Celanese, Caterpillar, GE, Honeywell, and 3M to service/retail organizations like Starwood Hotels, Sears, and Home Depot. Six Sigma has even started in the financial industry with Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase initiating major deployments in the past two years. Probably the most exciting area is in the public and healthcare sectors with success stories emerging from city government and John Hopkins Medical. Could You Be Setting Your Business Plan Up For Failure? David E. Gumpert, author of Burn Your Business Plan, often tells the story about how he and his partner failed to raise money after sending their business plan around to venture capitalists and meeting with several others to make presentations. Disappointed by the fruits of their labor, they considered giving up on their venture in 1995. Fortunately, on the advice of their board of advisors, they chose to divert their time from massaging the business plan to making sales. The financing, they were told, would come later. Are You Ready To Go International? Although North Americans were the dominant population on the Internet, that has now changed, and the rest of the world has caught up rapidly. And while English is still the most widely used Internet language, it's not the language of choice for many, many Internet users. Scheduling of Additional Auto Detailing or Mobile Car Wash Units If you own a mobile car wash business or auto detailing business then you realize that when you are parked working you are making money and when you are stuck in traffic you are losing money. Sure you can say when you are in traffic people see you and write down the phone number, but you are not making money, that is potential future income, which is work you still must do in the future. Many auto detailers do not schedule properly and therefore get into trouble in that they attempt to expand before they have maximized their schedules. Documenting the Exit Strategy in Your Business Plan All investors greatly desire and are motivated by a clear picture of a company's exit strategy, or the timing and method through which they can "cash in" on their investment. This picture best comes into focus when the key valuation and liquidity drivers of the company are clearly delineated. An excellent method to accomplish this is through descriptions of comparable firms that have had successful liquidity events, either through acquisition, merger, of initial public offerings (IPOs). How To Leverage Your Current Ideas And Products Into Multiple Revenue Streams Diversify - to make diverse, give variety, to balance, to divide securities in different industries, to produce variety, to engage in varied operations. Breaking the Growth Barriers in the Information Technology and Software Sector There's nothing automatic about corporate growth, particularly in the information technology industry; build it and they will come is a myth. In the real world there is either a structured, process-driven growth cycle, or stagnation-and stagnation is automatic. Inherent to growth cycles are barriers, real-world business challenges that put some software companies out of business and spur others on to break through those barriers to higher levels of success. Overcoming those barriers is the very definition of growth; when you break through a barrier, you've achieved growth. Buying Used Detailing Equipment and Rainy Day Services Mobile auto detailing equipment becomes very inexpensive around March each year. If you look on eBay or your local classified section of the newspaper you will see. This is because mobile auto detailers are in a seasonal business. They find themselves scraping bottom when it is too cold to work because the water is freezing or it is raining and it becomes hard to sell detailing services. No one wants to see their business cards when it's raining. The only people who page them are their girlfriends who they can no longer take out for dinner or a movie. They can't use their car phone because it's been turned off by Verizon or Sprint. In a rainy year their cash reserve, if they had one, has been used up by mid January. They are eating Top Ramen by February. Their business no longer supports their needs. So they quit. Too bad for them; they obviously are not winners because: "Winner's Never Quit and Quitters Never Win!" Vendor Relations Strategies Sample Outline One of the quintessential parts to any business is your supply chain. To insure that the supplies are there when you need them; in this new day and age of "just in time" distribution where very little sits on warehouse shelves until you order it you will need excellent vendor relations. Without the help of your vendors a small customer need turns into a astronomical problem and if you cannot solve it or serve your customer, you will indeed lose that customer to someone else who will. Microsoft Great Plains Implementation: Pharmaceutical Corporation Specifics ? overview Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains serves mid-size and large clients in horizontal and vertical markets. Historically Great Plains Software was encouraging ISV partner to write third party modules and later on ? Great Plains Software had a chance to select the product for incorporation into their core set of modules: Manufacturing, Project Accounting, Purchase Order Processing, Collection Management, etc. Today we'll consider Microsoft Great Plains implementation specifics for large pharmaceutical corporation. College Students and Graduates to Run Company Outlets or Franchises Does your overall business strategy include the recruitment of college students to run your locations? Are you a franchising company and looking for young, talented, hardworking and dedicated franchisees? There are some things to think about before you deploy such a strategy. There are both positives and negatives to focusing your recruitment efforts on college students, for instance best reason's to use college students include some of the following: Microsoft Great Plains in Advertising & Publishing ? implementation highlights Microsoft Great Plains, former Great Plains Dynamics is excellent fit for service oriented business and in this small article we'll give you magazine publisher and advertiser implementation and reporting scenarios. The system we describe is not real, we are putting together industry specifics, based on our consulting practice. In the case if you do not see some unique features of your publishing business, this just means that publishing industry is diversified and say, regional newspaper publishing is quite different from magazine with narrow specialization.
|
Copyright © 2005 - 2012 StrategicPlanning360.com. All rights reserved. Legal Info Site Map |
 |
