Let me tell you what happened last Friday. In the greater scope of what constitutes a crisis, this story will not qualify. But on the “BIE” (Business Interruption Event) Richter Scale, this definitely registered. My DSL service was “disconnected in error.” I learned that it would be 3 – 5 days before it was corrected. Hmmmm…. consternation ensued. With email at a standstill and a website launch in its final phases, the timing was seriously inopportune. The emails will receive delayed attention in due course, but the website launch must go on. The upside is that I am working on the launch project with a very resourceful and exceptionally cooperative technology whiz. With a combination of laptops and flashdrives, and the WiFi connection at my health club, we cobbled together a contingency plan, including production of this missive.

To my mind, it is virtually impossible to be prepared for all eventualities. For example, this is certainly not something that I would have ever predicted. But we can have in place at least the skeleton of a back-up plan for our essential business systems. In this case, my relationship with a professional colleague has proved critically important. The greater the risk on the BIE Scale, the more you need to develop contingency plans.