'Be prepared' best lesson from the quake

In disasters like the Canterbury quake, what can make the difference between failure and survival is planning to manage the risk. Photo / Sarah Ivey

Aftershocks from the Christchurch earthquake continue to rumble through the planning departments of New Zealand businesses.

Steve Vaughan, executive director of the New Zealand Society for Risk Management, said a core consideration for a business - whether multi-national or a corner cafe - was how long it could run below normal levels before it fell over.

"That's a critical first question and that in itself can be highly variable," Vaughan said.

For a call centre, the time before a serious business impact could be a matter of hours.

"I think the awareness is growing and the Christchurch earthquake in my read has given it a fairly sharp jolt upwards," he said.

Large corporates or small firms could plan for disruptive events.

"This is a characteristic of risk management generally, you think through things at the scale of your business."

A number of companies and public utility providers did well in the Christchurch earthquake, Vaughan said.

"Within approximately 48 hours almost everybody had electricity back, nobody died.

"It was the middle of the night and that was partly why, but a lot of houses stood up which in other places with similar sized earthquakes haven't stood up."

Fonterra national emergency response lead Kevin Lockley said the dairy co-operative had plans for emergency preparedness on each site, emergency response and business continuity.

"We plan for minor to major," Lockley said.

"On site, you can have just your normal product activity where you have blockages in the plant, right through to chemical leaks, the whole spectrum and natural disasters."

Fonterra looked at all natural disasters including earthquake, flood, snow damage and tsunami.

"People's lives and then getting the business up and running, that's the priority," Lockley said.

He said the Christchurch quake did not result in a lot of milk being lost.

"Even with our brands stores that were affected, there was not a lot of product loss at the end of the day because of the recovery and how quickly it was done."

Fonterra emergency response team members are full-time employees in different parts of the company and many have experience including Fire Service, ambulance and Army.

"We can pick the skill sets we need and respond," Lockley said.

Manuals were living documents.

"They're not just something that's made and then put on a shelf."

There was a cost in planning for disruption, but this was nothing compared to the potential impact of not being prepared.

"At the end of the day, you're talking hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses, sometimes millions."

David Dunsheath, director of consultancy firm Business Continuance Planning, said every business faced disruption.

"It's a question of what's beyond the capability of normal management to normally deal with," Dunsheath said.

The actual cause of disruption was not so relevant.

"The major thrust is what is the impact on the business, and is it important for the business to have that IT up and running within a certain timeframe."

It was not a case of eliminating risk, Dunsheath said.

"It's managing risk and managing the opportunity that comes with taking risk," he said.

Sally Gardiner, general manager of supply chain at kiwifruit exporter Zespri, said a crisis was typically something that could damage the brand or result in a change to the business.

Events that triggered crisis management were often weather related, including hail last year and a tsunami warning in the Bay of Plenty earlier this year.

Zespri also had quite detailed plans for issues such as a new pest or disease.

"Something that could potentially close the border for us," Gardiner said.

"Then we look at the commercial ones ... something like a wharf strike or an event of fraud or theft."

In the early stages of a crisis, the first thoughts should be about the people affected.

"What do we need to do to protect them, what do we need to do to support them, what's the information they need."

For a tsunami warning this year, Zespri evacuated its Mt Maunganui headquarters where it has about 150 employees and put telephone systems in place so when the crisis was over they knew how to get hold of all staff.

"At times when you're writing the plans and when you're testing them they seem overly bureaucratic, but then in a crisis they are incredibly valuable."

If you weren't ready you could end up being disorganised and not respond as quickly or forget things.

Zespri's insurance company also required the company to undertake planning.

"And we'd be foolish not to."