Crisis & Disaster Recovery Management (Lecture
Notes)
Crisis Management
Property management is more than the provision of security and cleansing
services, maintenance and repairs, collection of fee and control of budget, it
also involves preparing and managing disasters.
A property manager is exposed to emergency or crisis situations almost on
a daily basis. He is expected to prepare for and handle any disaster that his
building or his group of buildings may come across.
He should determine potential risks present, measure/assess them, minimize
loss/damages when they strike and plan for recovery from them.
To confront crisis or disaster in property management, a proper Crisis and
Disaster Recovery Plan should be in place.
Thus, crisis management is to coordinate resources and implement plans for
the unexpected and preparing for the come up of any chaotic and
emergency situation.
Components of Crisis Management
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Preparing for a Crisis
Forming of a Crisis Management Team
Establishing a Crisis Management Structure/Organization
Setting up of a Surveillance and Alert System.
Making Available of an Emergency/Crisis Management Manual
Learn to Communicate in a Crisis
Preparing for a Crisis
Crisis or emergency suddenly comes up. A company could be vulnerable to
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crisis if not getting well prepared or even worse unaware of it. Preparation
is the initial step of crisis management.
Poor and inappropriate response to crises could ruin a business. Of course
no one could plan for every detail, but some work done is better than no
work done at all.
Crisis planning costs little if nothing when compared to the possible great
loss incurred as a result of ill-preparation for crises.
The first thing to prepare for crisis is to conduct an audit to identify
potential risks and threats. It should cover as much aspects as possible.
Forming of a Crisis Management Team
It would be better to form a crisis management team with participants from
various sections and departments of the company, as well as
tenants/occupants of the building.
The job of the team is to identify and analyze possible crises, their impact
and the appropriate way to handle them.
The team drafts and prepares the steps and procedures in the form of an
emergency or crisis management manual for others to follow at time of
emergency or crisis.
All the team members should be well trained and drilled so that they know
their roles to play and actions to take when crisis comes.
Establishing a Crisis Management Structure/Organization
The structure/organization should be written and published in the form of a
guide/directory, giving the names, contact information and outlining the
roles and responsibilities of each member.
The chain of command should be clearly established and the
decision-making powers defined for each member of the crisis management
team.
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Setting up a Surveillance and Alert System
Surveillance and alert system is for early detection and assessment of
crisis before initiating a response.
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It differs with the crisis to be detected, for example, climate monitoring and
environmental surveillance for natural disasters like typhoon detection;
smoke detectors for fire surveillance.
It is essential to recognize the triggering event e.g. fire alarm for fire
breakout, blackout for power failure etc. so as to know the start of crisis.
A good surveillance and alert system should be sensitive, timely and
collecting intelligence widely. Do not depend on a single source for it may
be fault signal that will mislead you to a wrong decision e.g. have to verify
any fire alarm signal with security visit.
Making Available of an Emergency/ Crisis Management Manual
An emergency/crisis management manual is simply considering
hypothetical situations and alternative scenarios that might occur, with
action(s) designed or determined to address each of them.
A good crisis management manual is not expected to deal with every
incident because no person can write a plan to handle everything. It will
never be complete, all inclusive and exhaustive. There is always room for
improvement.
However, the manual could provide management with a roadmap to handle
every anticipated emergency and crisis. In other words, a crisis
management manual works by specifying pre-determined action(s) in
handling a specific type of crisis.
Learning to Communicate in a Crisis
In this digital age, communication dictates life or death in the course of
crisis.
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A crisis can be turned around if perception of the public could be shaped in
the communicator’s favor through good public relation and crisis
communication
Good crisis communication responds to the media and informs the public
and internal stakeholders of the whole picture to the company’s advantage.
Good crisis communication mitigates damage, scales down litigation and
reduces claims.
Good crisis communication should be proactive rather than passive,
authoritative and centralized, to avoid hearsay and confusion.
A spokesperson should be designated in the crisis management manual
even before the crisis happens. Usually he/she is the CEO or Chief
Information Officer of the company.
The spokesperson should be knowledgeable, credible, authoritative and has
had training in media relation.
Disaster Recovery Management
Disasters of all kinds can cause loss of life & property and can even cripple normal
business.
Disasters can happen at any time and in any place. It would always be
better to prepare for the unexpected.
Company should be able to run critical functions of her business or
maintain business continuity after the disaster. A Disaster Recovery Plan
should be in place if possible before the disaster so as to support the
management to anticipate and handle all issues arising from disaster. Such
plan is critical to maintain control over crisis situation and to contain
damages arising from the disaster.
Factors to consider for a Disaster Recovery Plan
• Identifying the Issues
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- Occupant issues.
- Building issues.
- Business issues.
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•
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Addressing the Issues
Assessing the Probability and Impact of Disaster
Identifying Available Resources
Limitations And Constraints
Developing the Recovery Plan
Identifying the Issues
There are three major issues that must be considered in developing a disaster
recovery plan.
Occupant issues.
Building issues.
Business issues.
Each of these three issues is critical and must be addressed if the overall
objectives of the disaster recovery plan, which are to minimize the risk of
injury and/ or loss of human life as well as to minimize property damage
and business loss, are to be met.
Occupant Issues
We need to decide whether a facility serves a specific population, as in
the case of an office building (for office workers) , school, college (for
teachers and students) etc., or whether the facility serves a broader general
population such as shopping mall, government complex or town hall
which serves people of all walks of life.
The profile and specific needs of its regular and transient occupants
must be identified.
By identifying occupant needs, a specific plan of action for meeting
those needs can be developed e.g. assistance to be provided for
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physically handicapped office workers during evacuation
Building Issues
Building issues include every physical aspect of the building or site such
as structures, building elements and building services installations.
Each of these physical features and systems must be evaluated in terms
of their availability, accessibility and reliability (e.g. standby generator) prior
to a disaster as well as their impact upon occupants and business
operations during and after the disaster occurrence (e.g. essential power
supply can be maintained during power failure for escape/evacuation).
Business Issues
The business nature of the facility (e.g. education, hospital etc.), including the
nature of tenant business operations (e.g. IT, clinic etc. if the building is a
commercial rental property) is another factor that must be considered in the
disaster recovery planning process.
Business issues are operations issues that drive a company in the direction
of its mission, goals and purpose.
Therefore, any interruption in these issues can seriously hamper the
entity's existence and survival. In many cases, the adverse effects
of a prolonged interruption can cripple a business. From this perspective,
the business issues must be addressed for business continuity during
Crisis and Disaster Recovery Planning.
Addressing the Issues
Therefore, prevention and minimization of injury and/ or loss of
human life a r e the primary objective of any disaster recovery plan.
Ensuring the safety and well- being of employees and various building
occupants a r e a b o v e all other considerations.
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On the other hand, preventing and/or minimizing physical property damage
and/
or
loss
are
resuming/maintaining
also
critical
of
paramount
business
importance
operation
after
in
the
disaster. Any prolonged interruption will adversely affect business
continuity which could have catastrophic consequences for the very
survival of a business.
Assessing the Probability & Impact of Disaster
All potential disasters must be identified and all potential risk factors
associated with a specific type of disaster must be identified.
Assessing the probability of a disaster involves identifying the
various internal and external risk factors that could precipitate a disaster e.g.
fire probability enhanced from old wires (internal risk factor) and/or
nearby oil station (external risk factor).
Identification begins with conducting a comprehensive work site
analysis
Each risk factor, in turn, should be evaluated on the basis of whether
any one, or a combination of factors, would either increase or decrease
the likelihood of a disaster, or have a negligible effect on the likelihood of
a disaster occurring. Take for an example, locating the power plant near to
the sea and in earthquake-prone Tokyo exacerbates the nuclear disaster in
Fukuoka; or locating our facility near to a restaurant subject us to higher
fire risk.
Once probability has been determined, any given potential disaster and
its impact on occupant, building and business issues and operations can
be assessed. For example, fire may cause injury/death to the
occupants, damage/collapse of building and/or suspension/loss of
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business of the owners/occupants.
Identifying Resource Availability and Limitation
Resource availability depends on the type of disaster happening. Single
site disaster occurs at one particular facility or location such as fire to a
building. On the other hand, an area-based disaster can affect many or all
businesses and entities within a given community or region such as
earthquake to the Christian Church Town in New Zealand. In planning
for each type of disaster, facility managers must be aware of the
availability of resources in either situation. For example, a single site
disaster may have the availability of full assistance and support from police
and fire services department, which may not be available for an
area-based disaster when they are drawn simultaneously by other
people in the area.
In identifying the availability of resources, it is also necessary to
consider the limitations of assistance under the various circumstances.
Effective disaster and recovery planning also requires that
considerations be made for alternative resource/support provision,
in the event that normal rsource/help is not available at time of
disaster. For example, call Contractor B if Contractor A is not
available to provide emergency service for a power blackout.
DEVELOPING THE RECOVERY PLAN
In the aftermath of a disaster, whether the occurrence is the result of a
natural event such as an earthquake or tsunami; or a human-engineered
event like an explosion or legionnaire spread out, attention is
focused on returning to business as usual.
E fforts should be directed to resume normal business operation as
quickly as possible.
How to set up a disaster recovery plan?
This shall be in 3 steps or phases:
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Identify Business Issues
Phase I begins with identifying those critical business issues that are
necessary to resume normal business operation subsequent to the
disaster e.g. maintain IT operation, classes in university, etc.
Prioritize Critical Business Needs
Phase II involves prioritizing the critical business needs that are
necessary for continuing operation. Take hospital as an example. After a
fire, the first priority operation is to resume operation in the operation
theatre(s) rather than operation in the out-patient clinic which is secondary
and less critical.
Develop the Recovery Plan
After identifying critical business issues and prioritizing business needs and
activities, the recovery plan can t h e n be developed.
Each of the occupant, building and business issues should be
addressed and well planned.
For occupant issues, recovery planning must i n v o l v e identifying both
medical
services
and mental
health
service
providers in
disaster, for care taking of the
advance
of the
potential
deaths/injuries or people in need after the disaster/trauma.
The building issues including various systems and components such as
electrical systems, HVAC systems, water supply systems, etc. will need to
be inspected after the disaster. P r i o r consideration and pre-listing must
be made of contractors and other service providers who shall be able to
assist in the aftermath building recovery operations. Otherwise, the
recovery progress will be delayed through the lengthy tendering and
selection process
Finally, pre-planning and pre-qualifying appropriate site (s), vendors
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and service providers are essential to expedite business recovery, such as
transferring surgical operations to other hospitals in the same cluster, or
prearrangement with a nearby school to use their classrooms for
examination
References
Leung, G. (2010),’ Emergency and Crisis Management: A Case Study of
HauTak Market Fire Incident and Its Impact on the Link and the
Society’ ,Master of Housing Management Dissertation, Department of
Housing, University of Hong Kong
Gustin, J. (2011),’Disaster & Recovery Planning: A Guide for Facility
Managers’ 5th Ed., CRC Press, California
IREM (2012),’Before and After Disaster Stikes: Developing An
Emergency Procedures Manual’, 4th Ed., Institute of Real Estate
Management, Chicago.
Taylor, J. (2006),’Disaster Planning’, Clays Ltd., Suffolk
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