The Christmas Day explosion in downtown Nashville was devasting.
Three people were critically injured. Nashville locals suffered loss of property, loss of homes, and navigated through the disruption imposed on those in the immediate and surrounding areas.
What’s truly amazing is so few people were hurt.
Now is the time to understand what crisis systems failed and what proactive actions can be taken to minimize or better yet sidestep a future event of similar or greater magnitude.
Californians worry about earthquakes, Floridians worry about hurricanes, and rarely does anyone lose sleep worrying over a bomb explosion.
Face it, most companies are not proactive about minimizing risk. The most significant reason is cost. What company wants to spend money on something where there’s little to no perceived value?
The second most common reason is lack of time. People are busy. Who wants to spend time practicing an evacuation drill or running a table top test for some crazy event like a bomb blast? “Surely, that will NEVER happen to my business.”
So, the question is: what can a business do to minimize risk at the lowest possible cost while exerting the least amount of time?
Let’s break down two key infrastructure elements disrupted by the Nashville bomb: buildings and telecommunications.
Sprinkler systems ran for days and generators were knocked offline or failed
First, roughly 41 buildings were directly impacted and evacuated. Several blocks were shut down as fires spread and authorities searched for evidence. In addition, sprinkler systems ran unchecked for days and generators were knocked offline or possibly failed.
Second, telecommunications including voice, mobile and data networks (i.e., the internet) were shutdown. With an AT&T telecommunications hub absorbing the maximum force of the blast, AT&T mobiles phones were down, internet was down, twenty-plus 911 operations centers were down, and Nashville International Airport halted takeoffs. While AT&T and T-Mobile services were impacted sporadically across Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama and Georgia, it was reported mobile service from Verizon functioned normally.
There is a lot to unpack with this incident; consequently, I will focus on three simple actions available to favorably tilt the odds of survival at time of crisis.
Create a Crisis Plan
A thought-out incident plan is always better than “winging it” at time of disaster. If you are a large business, the plan needs to be carefully examined with stakeholders. AT&T quickly executed their crisis plan by installing mobile cell towers and activating construction crews necessary to restore commercial power. AT&Ts incident plan appears to have been invoked rapidly and worked as designed.
The time to understand why the AT&T infrastructure failed, and if AT&T’s hub is a single point of failure happens after the crisis is over. While crews are feverishly working to resolve operations is not the time to place blame or solve long-term problems.
Those with prepared crisis plans recovered their business the fastest
As demonstrated by the pandemic, at some point people find a way to work and live when life radically and suddenly changes. The same goes for this crisis. Those with prepared crisis plans recovered their business the fastest. Eventually, everyone else found their way.
Think Big Animal Pictures
When developing a crisis plan, think of developing solutions that work with the majority of disaster scenarios your business might encounter. Think of creating “big animal pictures.” For example, what happens if the building is not available? What happens if employees are unable to work? What happens if IT, phone systems or credit card machines are down?
Many local sellers, bars and restaurants were impacted by this blast. Some were unable to access their building while most were impacted by loss of telecommunications meaning no internet.
For small business, a simple solution is maintaining two wireless contracts, with a wireless hotspot, across two carriers. For years, I have carried both a Verizon and an AT&T mobile phone with hotspots. Unless I am in a very remote part of the country, no matter the disaster, I always have wireless and internet. In addition, look to credit card payment processor alternatives. If your primary payment provider is down, odds are high the alternative is ready to go, but working internet is the prerequisite.
In this situation, credit card transactions failed because the AT&T network failed.
Test Your Plan
Beyond the visible actions from AT&T and first responders, it’s hard to say who had a plan and who tested their plan. Clearly, the firms who returned to operation the quickest had a plan and tested their plan. As legendary golfer Gary Player is often quoted, “the more I practice, the luckier I get.”
Take That First Step to Avoid Disruption
The Nashville Christmas Day bomb blast is a huge tragedy which will be dissected for months. For the people directly impacted, this disaster is a big deal and should be taken very seriously.
However, disasters are relative. Californians worry about earthquakes, Floridians worry about hurricanes, and rarely does anyone think of a sudden bomb explosion. While these events are different in scale and scope, everyone is concerned how a disaster inflicts harm and has the potential to disrupt their daily life.
For the rest of country, watching this unfold on the sidelines, take the opportunity to examine how your family and your business would have both been impacted and responded to this crisis.
The simple actions of planning, thinking and testing will pay huge dividends in safeguarding your future.
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