“Terrorist attacks. Data assaults. Natural catastrophes. Disease outbreaks. Recent years have taught us that not only was 9/11 not just a single, horrible occurrence, but that events of many types can–and statistically will–hit organizations of every size, threatening to disrupt and potentially even destroy those that are not fully prepared.”
The above excerpt was taken from the synopsis of The Disaster Recovery Handbook written by Michael Wallace and Lawrence Webber. Just like it sounds, the book is full of practical tools and instructions business owners and people leaders can use to safeguard their organizations against unpredictable, unpreventable events.
Business continuity, according to Wallace and Webber, is a business’ ability to provide goods and services to customers despite significant disruption and challenges. From a business owner’s perspective, this is vital if the organization is to survive and continue making a profit. But what about from a community perspective?
Many forget to consider what would happen if the top three employers in a given community collapsed. How do people continue making a living? And if they don’t, how does the community survive? We can point to Detroit and the well-known collapse of the auto-industry to answer these kinds of questions. The common adage, “when Detroit gets a cold, the whole Midwest gets pneumonia,” was born in response to the area’s industry dependence.
Healthy businesses are directly linked to the health and vitality of the communities they are located in. A 2020 report on the impact of small businesses on rural U.S. communities describes how “as an alternative to traditional industry, rural areas can benefit from fostering a vibrant small business and entrepreneurship ecosystem, as rural small businesses have been found to generate wealth that stays in the community, build local leadership, and even contribute to population health.” The same report talks about how many rural American communities were still in recovery from the Great Recession when COVID hit, impacting much of the Main Street economic revitalization work they were engaged in.
Communities tend to participate in contingency planning to protect themselves against the kinds of natural and man-made disasters listed in the synopsis at the top of this article. They tend to overlook however, contingency planning for if a few key businesses shuttered unexpectedly or failed to transition to the next generation. Current statistics show that up to 80% of local businesses owned by baby boomers are on track to do just that due to a lack of succession planning and preparedness.
Ready for Next Cities developed the Business Disruption Risk (BDR) to determine the potential impact of business disruption in communities across the U.S. To find out about your community specific risk or learn more about how RFN Cities programming was developed to help mitigate this impending crisis, contact us.
