Comments on: Be Afraid, Maybe. Plan Better, Definitely. http://timberry.bplans.com/2008/10/be-afraid-may-1.html Tim Berry on business planning, starting and growing your business, and having a life in the meantime Sat, 21 Nov 2009 17:26:20 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: Tom Bragg http://timberry.bplans.com/2008/10/be-afraid-may-1.html/comment-page-1#comment-104608 Tom Bragg Mon, 26 Oct 2009 19:57:54 +0000 http://timberry.bplans.com/2008/10/be-afraid-may-1.html#comment-104608 The hurricane is a great analogy, Tim, but I think it differs from a typical business crisis in terms of advance notice. In today's world the arrival of a hurricane is well publicized, providing some time for people to formulate some type of response even if they haven't planned in advance. In contrast, the most serious business crises tend to be complete surprises forcing owners/managers to choose the right reactions under stress and on the fly - a difficult thing to do. I think the answer is to actively manage the biggest risks as part of the overall business planning process.. identify them, evaluate them and then plan for those that are biggest and/or most probable. The big question is: How do you convince people to care about (and plan for) potential 'surprises' that may not occur? The hurricane is a great analogy, Tim, but I think it differs from a typical business crisis in terms of advance notice. In today’s world the arrival of a hurricane is well publicized, providing some time for people to formulate some type of response even if they haven’t planned in advance. In contrast, the most serious business crises tend to be complete surprises forcing owners/managers to choose the right reactions under stress and on the fly – a difficult thing to do.

I think the answer is to actively manage the biggest risks as part of the overall business planning process.. identify them, evaluate them and then plan for those that are biggest and/or most probable. The big question is: How do you convince people to care about (and plan for) potential ’surprises’ that may not occur?

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