In the spirit of the Olympics and friendly competition – let’s play a quick guessing game!
Ready?
What do train failures, power blackouts, ash clouds, and a mass virus breakout all have in common?
Stumped?
Well, these are all events that did not occur at the Olympics thanks to the London Organizing Committee (LOCOG) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC). In their own gold medal moment of Risk Management glory, these two committees planned for every scenario possible that could potentially wreak havoc upon the Olympic Games. Security incidents were rehearsed, contingency plans were put into effect, and risk management made its way to the heart of the Olympic Governance model.
According to an article by the Harvard Business Review, the sizable and often times awkward time span involved in the progression from a city’s bid to the fruition of the Games can mean a greater vulnerability to dangers with a large potential impact that are poorly understood or not easily quantified. For example, even before the official opening of the games, a mix-up with the flag of the North Korean women’s soccer team had people running around all over the place trying to resolve a diplomatic spat.
So, what does risk management in the Olympics have to do with risk management in your own company? Here’s a takeaway from the same article: effective risk management is the ability to distinguish between events that cannot reasonably be foreseen and dangers that are self-inflicted because they could be avoided by thorough planning and careful execution.
In our Prepared Buildings: Reducing Your Exposure to Risk & Loss webinar, Kathy Nickerson explains how you can minimize your exposure to loss before you even get to what your insurance may possibly need to cover. By making sure you have best practices in place, as opposed to not paying attention to these things, you really minimize the chance that you’re going to have a loss. Preemptive planning and execution will save you a great deal of time and, potentially, money.
It’s no easy task making sure your entire company is on board with your risk management plans, but if an entire Olympic Committee and city can get on the same page, so can you. In our webinar, Emergency Preparedness: Managing risk and the changing role of the property manager, Joe Donovan lists some questions you should ask yourself about the preparedness of your company:
How prepared is my property team or my organization to withstand a potential event and bringing a building or facility back online as quickly as possible, and what sort of impact would an event cause? Am I ready? Is my team ready? Do all of my team members have all of the required personal plans so I make sure that they come back to work? Do I truly understand, and when I bid contracts out, that my vendors have business continuity plans, or am I simply going on good faith that they will be there to support me? Do I truly understand who my critical vendors are?
– Joe Donovan
Your company may not have the “fierce five” somersaulting down the halls or Ryan Lochte’s unmistakable American flag mouth piece glinting in the cubicle across from you, but that doesn’t mean your risk management can’t be world class too.
