Snowmageddon Lessons

Snowmageddon has come and gone but the shoveling out is still underway. How are you doing? All Mid-Atlantic businesses have been affected in some way by this epic winter snowfall. Our local office is in Northern Virginia and we are just getting back in the building via half-plowed side streets and maneuvering a partially cleared parking lot. What is your story? We all have one or two tales to share after such a historic storm. Did you have to make it into work despite the crippling amounts of snow and white-out conditions? Did you learn that you really can telecommute and “phone it in” or were you sitting impatiently at home waiting for the “all clear” to be given so you could get back to your office? Maybe you own a fleet of snow removal equipment, ah life is good, and busy, and complicated right now.

Whatever your business is, if you were directly in the path of Snowzilla or have major distribution centers or vendors in the geographically enormous, massively impacted region, now is the perfect time to evaluate and do a little after-action review and planning. Were you and are you still shut down or slowed down due to a lack of transit routes for you, your employees, your customers, your suppliers, and your distributors? How did you disseminate information to your “peeps”? Were expectations managed or do you have a hoard of angry and frustrated relationships to sort through and a diminished business worth and reputation to rectify?

Having contingencies and well thought out “emergency” plans for whatever life may dish up is an important tenant for any sound business. Being able to overcome adverse situations and quickly rise to the top and return to business is key to showing your employees and customers alike that you are in in to win it! Take some time to ponder lessons learned and make any necessary changes to diversify channels of distribution or supply chains, to bolster communications, and to overall improve your readiness to respond to a crisis. Whenever the next disaster hits it’ll be your business that is up and running like a champ. Be safe and enjoy the snow!