Carol Humphries, AXI Associate
As
we approach the anniversary of September 11 we are inundated with the memories
of this day. The memories are much more detailed than they have been with one
year’s worth of information now expanding the details and the clarity of
hindsight well applied by every aspect of the media.
As we try to bring sense to the senselessness of this day, one of the
ways to do this is to apply the empathy of this situation to own situations.
Besides the horror or personal empathy...what if that had been my spouse, and I
was left always wondering about his death? What is that had been my organization
and it was on the top floor, what would I have done?
One
of the most public of organizational 911 horror stories was told of Cantor Fitzgerald,
a financial company perched atop the five floors of north tower of the World
Trade Centre. Completely devastated during the attack, the story of how the CEO
handled this is worthwhile for any CEO to learn from.
Here
are some of the facts:
10%
of the company was held by family members.
All
but one of the human resources people died
All
the computer passwords died with the employees
There
was no disaster plan in place.
"We
never practised a business plan where we imagined that no one in the US would be
available -- we never imagined that two-thirds of the US office would be wiped
out." he said.
What
the CEO did was not too surprising. He called everyone together and said the
first thing that came to his head from a business perspective. In the heat of
the moment he announced that he was halting paycheques and benefits of the
employees who had perished. Then he hired a public image consultant.
Everything
that he has been doing since then has been seen as overcompensating and
inappropriate, with such things as advertising campaigns thinly veiled to
attract new business.
The clarity of hindsight leads only to good learning for us. And the questions to ask ourselves are obvious -- about disaster planning, and keeping essential information, even the knowledge of people, off-site.
Whether nepotism works or not, the CEO says that “Out of this has come a community” and they are still doing a multi-billion dollar business.
What
risk management do you have in place for your association?
Carol Humphries is a consultant based in Edmonton.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Association Xpertise Inc.