Question of what else can we do about it in order to stay on track? Once we have started the race, we must finish it. We just cannot drop out of the race. It is about ensuring the course of business while the heart of organization continues to beat to its own rhythm.

It shouldn’t be looked at as a life support system in the event of emergency. It is an answer to the question of how we are going to get there in case first idea hadn’t worked, second one didn’t work out, and third one was not working and so forth. It affords us a breathing space to reason what we do and how we do and shapes the moves we can make.

It is about ability to utilize all available mode of transportation to take us to where we set out to go; plane, ship, rails, cars, buses, bikes, even on foot if we need to. It allows us to be flexible in our approach, to keep our perspective in the right place away from self-interest that often blinds the eyes of organization, and be remaining accountable.

Minimum two contingency plans

Contingency plan is, therefore, neither a secondary plan nor a mere supportive measure. It must have its own strength to move forward to become a primary plan enabling the capacity to change the course of action without change of strategy.

Apart from the primary plan of each functional management aspect in the organization, there must be at least minimum two stages of contingency measure need to be put in place that falls into the same categorical strategic guidelines.

In other words, contingency plan must be drawn up separate from primary plan of each business function, such as management plan, financial plan, marketing plan, sales plan, human resources plan, or customer relationship management plan and etc.

So each departmental function will thus have a three plan package – the primary plan and two contingency plans- under the same initiatives and purpose of strategic direction.

Viability of contingency plan

In order to check the operative condition of contingency plan drawn up, we are going to need to diagnose whether they are in poor health or in good health by following diagnostic tool through regular check-ups.

1. Dead or alive, useless or not - Getting up to speed with reality?
2. Response time in real time – Deployable and executable at a moment’s notice?
3. Loose end - Riding out the devil in the details.
4. Back to back transferable – As good as a primary plan?

Working out contingency measure

How can we gather information and establish a baseline to draw up practical, useful, up to date contingency plan at the ready, which is streamlined to serve the purpose of keeping the organization on track for optimized business operation?

Recommend the following 3 points be taken into account in drafting contingency plan. This approach helps raise understanding of the business, not just on three dimensional perspectives, but to a holographic dimensional viewing position.

Backtracking

– Find out how your customer will get your product or service, and what they are going to do with it, how they are going to do with it, and etc? (I am thinking along the line of resources industry, industrial manufacturing, and financial service as I am writing this.)

– Trace their way through to you by backtracking, including governance and regulatory issues. From this exercise, you will get to know the every single post your customer is going to pass to pick your product or service.

Peaceful time engagement

– The best time and opportunity to work on contingency plan is when things are going well for you and your customers, and everyone is relatively happy with how things are, in other words boring time is the best time.

– When things are going nice and smooth, actively engage with customers. Call on them during peaceful time. See their operation. You can read a lot about your competitors and market place movement. You will be able to see what keeps customer happy during this time. That’s the element you are going to provide when contingency plan gets activated.

Test drive

– In order to put a truly workable contingency plan in place, you are going to need to turn and change your perspective 180 degree. That is, you are going to walk a mile in your customer’s shoes literally.

– Role playing is not good enough. Position shifting must occur in real time, which means you must serve from your customer’s end. Not only should you know what’s like to lead, you should also know what’s like to be led.

Based on that insight, you are then going to come up with platform to combine and unite functions and needs of both sides, so the twain shall meet, not remain opposite, an opposite, so the two arrive where they are going to go in good spirit successfully.

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(C) Copy right- Sabina Kim. All rights reserved.

In response to the requests I received, I have divided my previous posting on contingency plan into two parts: personal aspect and business aspect. As a result, some part of my original writing has been revised.

Lonely battle

When going gets tough, and when we feel pushed to the corner, our sense of behavioral desire shifts to instinctive level fighting and struggling for survival. We often lose focus and make an ill informed judgment in the process. We ask many questions to ourselves that we hadn’t asked before. We easily lose our way and life gets out of control in many ways.

The worst part is that, what we are going though in our lives is essentially a battle of our own, to the one who is going through it, even with the best support of loved ones in our life. That wasn’t hard enough, the cruel reality is that somehow we are going to need to find the way to get back on our feet in the end, without waiting someone to come along to get us out of trouble.

Urge to come through

Question comes down to how we are going to sustain ourselves without breaking down in the process when we are going through hard times? How are you going to manage those aches, pains, cramps, loneliness, a sense of disappointment, confusion and all that keep you stay awake at night without driving yourself to the breaking point? How are you to going to face the day when you wake up with a heavy heart?

Underneath of our struggles though, there is an enduring natural urge to survive and come through within us. Struggle is a mirror image expression of our natural desire to come through and make it. What we need to know is how to get through the time of struggle, so we can make it.

Resources to fall back on

We need a contingency plan, on which we can fall back, to get through hard times, by working on resources which are already at our disposal, and under our control.

Contingency plan is about tapping into resources within, by pulling our characteristic and personality strength together, so that we can stand the test of time and continue to be on the journey of life.

Many ways to look at it, but maybe one of them could be like this. Your car, which is your life, has been taken out for a spin, in top gear at top speed at full throttle. You are the driver. Forget about for the moment, the exciting exhilarating fun part of it, when it does the lap in the controlled environment and safety measure put in place.

Look at, for now, the other side. What could happen when things go wrong at that high speed in top gear at full throttle doing the lap on the road, wet and oily, in uncontrolled environment with full of uncertain and unpredictable danger across the terrain? Tough times will be like this.

A split second misjudgment and loss of concentration will see you off the road with your car pretty quickly, no matter how good a driver you are. Impact will be truly felt all around. It won’t be a nice sight either.

(This principle guideline works equally well in business. It's a matter of modulating the scale of exercise in a more business like terms, if that sounds more tasteful.)

Tools of Survival

First and foremost important thing we do in a dangerous driving condition is reducing the speed.

Resource tool #1: Change gear and Slow down

- We have to slow down our pace deliberately to survive. It doesn’t matter what the cause or reason of difficulty might be.

- Unless we survive we can’t get there. Getting there matters.

- Reduce the speed in your lifestyle and pace yourself.

Once our car is brought to a low speed, no matter how slow we go, we can still get there if engine doesn’t stall. The size of engine won’t matter. How good an output it produce won’t matter.

Resource tool #2: Assurance of Evergreen contract

- Your heartbeat is the sound of engine running of your life. It is the evergreen contract you are born with.

- Put your hand over your heart and keep still. The rhythm of heartbeat you are hearing is an indisputable evidence of you that has survived the storm in your life.

- As long as your heart beats, your engine, the contract of your life rolls over automatically.

- Nothing else can be more convincing than your heartbeat to give you reason to get on with life. Don’t tear off the evergreen contract which is your birth right.

When we keep ourselves on the road, we will need to watch fuel consumption to go the distance we need to cover.

Resource Tool #3: Energy conservation mode

- Gather what is left of you, physically, emotionally and mentally. You will need to build up the strength to keep going on with life, and to keep up with what lies ahead.

- Don’t look for what you don’t have at that time, ignoring what you already have, however desperate you would feel in a tight bind.

- Don’t fritter away your energy. Save up and save up what is already in your possession, both tangible and intangible.

- Redirect whatever energy source you have at your disposal to where it needs most.

In order to ensure fatality and injury free safe driving on the road, we are required to take a break, recommended every 2 hour.

Resources tool #4: Take good care of yourself

- This is not about becoming a self-centered selfish person who tries to look after one’s interests and pleasure on ‘number one first’ basis in the face of stress.

- Be with yourself and look around your life. It is about being genuinely appreciative of your being, and the existence of being you are.

- You can come to terms with how you stand with your life, what is important to you and your life, what you cannot live without and what you can take with you.

- If you feel like it, cry a river. Don’t talk yourself out of it. That’s perfectly okay. Let it all out. And stop and wipe off tears when you feel enough is enough.

- Recharge your physical, emotional and mental battery with refreshing air of attitude, thoughts and understanding.

Once we are back on the road after a break, we look out for a place to fill up the gasoline and a workshop for emergency breakdown.

Resources tool #5: Take out insurance policy

- Don’t’ try to figure it all out on your own. Seek help. The right one. We are never alone. Don’t be afraid of asking help when most needed. You will be amazed at the genuine support you never thought you had.

- Don’t look for company loves misery. They are going to keep you at sickbay.

- Keep looking in the right place in the right direction that will get you out of misery and take you to the better place.

- Give yourself reassurance that you are going to be okay, that everything is going to be fine.

Every now and then, we consult the map or a compass to get a bearing on the direction in order to make sure we are headed in the right direction.

Resources tool #6: Follow the sun

- Keep walking towards where you are going to go. Leave the darkness and cold behind you. Don’t look back. Keep going forward towards sunny place.

- When things in life are not going easy and comfortable as we expected they should, we sometimes feel as if something is out to get us. That’s definitely not the case. Don’t lose faith in life.

- When in doubt, gently lay your hand over your heart and hear your heart beating softly and quietly. No matter how hard it seems, don’t give up. There’s always something in life that keeps you there.

You’ve got evergreen contract and insurance policy of your life in order. Nothing to fear. You will get there.

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(C) Copy right- Sabina Kim. All rights reserved.

All of our videos can be found on the Double-Take website here or on the DBTK group on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/group/dbtk

Order A Time to Kill from Amazon for $5.59

Other Kindle Books of Interest
A Time to Heal

A Time for War, A Time for Peace

A Time to Sow

A Time to Harvest

A Time to Hate

One should always keep in mind the impact of the "Big Important Things" (BITs) on the supply chain, customers, the competition and your industry.

Those involved in strategy and planning must understand how BITs create enormous risks and opportunities.

One can only react to BITs, they cannot be created or eliminated by an organization.

BITs would include, but not be limited to:

• Natural and man made disasters - hurricanes, fires, earthquakes, explosions, flooding.
• Massive economic changes - depression, recession, inflation, currency devaluation, massive layoffs
• War and Terrorism - security measures, logistics, international trade limitations
• Government policies - trade barriers, laws and regulations, economic sanctions, embargoes
• New technologies, - trends and tendencies inside and outside of the industry
• Environmental or health issues - contamination, unsafe products, epidemics
• Legal issues - pending or current lawsuits, documentation and reporting, legal precedents
• Significant global changes in demand or supply - shortages, increased demand
• Energy costs - trends and tendencies

Contingency plans should be created, worst-case and best-case scenarios developed, and efforts made to lower the risk profile or strategically position the company to take advantage of possible changes in the business environment.

How to use BITs to identify areas of risk and opportunity 

1. Analyze each of the following elements independently;  strategic raw materials, suppliers, logistics, major customers, the competition, your company, and finally your industry (local, national and internationally).
2. What is the probability that a BIT would affect each element (impossible, low, medium, high, inevitable) and when (short-medium-long term)?  "My supplier is the only manufacturer in North America of the widgets we need, they are located on the western Florida coast and annually are affected to some degree my hurricanes and flooding.  There is a high probability that a major hurricane will hit them in the short to medium term."
3. Use a "what if" line of questioning for those high risk or high impact areas.  "What if a major hurricane hit my supplier and disrupted their production?
4. What are possible scenarios to reduce your risk, or take advantage of the opportunity.  "Do I have alternative suppliers in place, extra inventory, insurance, how can I protect my customers, who else will this affect and how?
5. Review this process at least twice a year to take into account changes in the probability of the BITs and modify the contingency plans or strategies accordingly.

Related Links

Analyze and Plan Using 7 Simple Questions

How to Systematically Analyze Any Situation for Better Decision Making

9 Steps to Better Decisions