When it comes to monthly editorials, I tend to follow a regular routine. It starts with Katy (my West Highland terrier) and me going out to the porch where I set my laptop on the table. As she settles into the overstuffed chair behind me, I turn on a pile of competing distractions that seem completely incompatible with focusing on writing. Reminiscent of my odd study habits in college, it seems that wideband interference provides an odd focusing effect for me.

Today I have the porch TV set to both Fox and CNN (using PIP), a window running the web cam at our vacation cottage, a window on the weather channel radar, a window with continuous local news updates, and a window playing XM Radio (channel 113). While I had initial thoughts of discussing Wi-Fi protocols, I keep getting distracted by all these sources continually flashing warnings and dire predictions about the start of hurricane season. Connecticut isn’t exactly ground zero for weather anomalies, but the subject serves to point out that every business has to be cognizant of dealing with disruptions and problems no matter the size. Not preparing for the unknown can have dire consequences. 

There’s an old story in the cell phone manufacturing business that illustrates it well. Apparently, Philips manufactured many of the chips for both Ericsson and Nokia cell phones at a plant in New Mexico. One day, there was a small fire at the plant. The good news was that it was put out fairly quickly. The bad news was that the firemen dragged all their equipment and hoses through all the clean rooms with the result being that all chip production stopped cold. It has been reported that Philips called both Nokia and Ericsson immediately. Ericsson’s attitude apparently was to pass it up the line and that it was no big deal. Nokia asked for hourly updates and had an engineering team in the Netherlands three days later. Six weeks after the fire, Nokia had arranged alternative manufacturing capacity and Ericsson was basically saying, “So, what’s going on?” To make a long story short, Nokia is still a strong cell phone manufacturer, but they call it Sony-Ericsson today.

I feel I have an obligation to occasionally point out issues that might affect the readership, albeit social, technical, or meteorological. I don’t see it as any different than an editorial discussing the potential social consequences of ubiquitous RFID tags. 

My concern isn’t the specific sources or causes of any impending doom. There are too many paranoid prognosticators already. My concern is discussing the ingredients leading to a satisfactory revitalization. Recovery from random events like hurricanes, accidents like a chief supplier going up in flames, or intentional mayhem like terrorist activities all rely on resiliency and flexibility. A company needs to be sure that it can discover a developing problem quickly and act on it swiftly. The critical message if you are someone willing to plan ahead is simply that our chief defense in today’s world is to prepare for the unexpected and be ready for it.

Very much underreported during the events of Hurricane Katrina were the actions of one governmental agency that did everything right. While FEMA and various state governments sat around discussing how to organize recovery events, the U.S. Coast Guard was already doing it. The wind had barely stopped and everything rescue-related was all U.S. Coast Guard. The reason that an organization as large as the Coast Guard can move so quickly and effectively is that they have instituted an “On-Scene Initiative” principle. What this means is that they rely on the fact that their people on the scene can be depended upon to assess the situation, seize the initiative, and take the necessary action for success. The primary lesson for business management is that any recovery process depends not only on planning, but also on building a culture that emphasizes quick action through empowered lower-level employees who are close to the action.

While the economic realities of a small business might mitigate everyone in the organization from making financial commitments to alleviate matters, good decisions in unpredictable situations happen only with a cohesive and cooperative team. I’ll be the first one to tell you that the people involved in Circuit Cellar are just such a team. It is only because of their expertise and professionalism that I know that instead of just feeling like the lonely guy at the top, I know they would already be working on a wide variety of alternatives and solutions to any crisis event before it even hits my desk. Thanks, guys.