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John Copenhaver I was asked to write this article about something near and dear to me, an exciting and urgent undertaking that began last May: the Global Partnership for Preparedness - or GPP, to those for whom acronyms have become a steady diet! But before I share the what, who and how, I want to take a moment to tell you why. This partnership is about far more than the future of an industry. It’s about individuals. It’s about people’s lives. Not long ago, Brent Woodworth (Chairman of GPP) and I met some of them. A few days after Hurricane Charley, we visited Central Florida and helped to set up a network of small business recovery centers. In Port Charlotte, we encountered an elderly couple who owned an ice cream store. The business was devastated, and so were they. Their building was torn to pieces. On what was left of the door, a sign read, "Closed until further notice." And they asked us: "What should we do?" There were no words to express what we knew too well: It was too late. Yes, we can help. There are small business loans, there are disaster relief payments, but in the final analysis, few small businesses can survive the disruption of a natural disaster. In fact, over 40 percent of them don’t make it past the first year after the event. The time to help this couple was years before Charley’s winds began to gather over the Atlantic. Planning and preparedness could have reduced the impact of the hurricane on that store, and perhaps could have enabled their business to weather the storm. Sadly, this story was repeated many times across Florida - but much can be learned from these hurricane stories to help avoid these consequences in the future. In fact, the Global Partnership for Preparedness played a significant role in this effort. Most people think the government is responsible for helping people plan for disasters. Indeed, the public sector - from fire departments to FEMA - plays a critical role. But in this age of interconnectedness, one part of a community can’t expect to survive when others are destroyed. As the old saying goes, "You can’t sink half a ship." It doesn’t do much good to preserve public infrastructure when businesses are devastated. True preparedness can only be accomplished through partnerships. We’ve always known this was important. But in the new global landscape of risk, it has taken on added importance. This is quite literally a matter of life and death, and the private sector has to lead. Eighty-five percent of this nation’s critical infrastructure - power, water, communications, and other "lifeline" providers - lies in the private sector. And the private sector is dangerously fragmented and severely at risk - not just from a major disaster like a hurricane or terrorist incident, but from any of the literally thousands of smaller disruptions that occur every year. Those responsible for disaster preparedness and business continuity in the private sector often don’t talk to each other much, and when they do, they don’t have a common vocabulary. They don’t coordinate their efforts with public agencies. They don’t share best practices. There are exceptions to this general rule, of course, but not enough - while a handful of communities are leading the way into a new environment of cooperation and communication, the pace of the change they exemplify must accelerate until ALL communities are working together to prepare for the inevitable disasters to come. Working to foster this new environment, the Global Partnership for Preparedness will revolutionize the way the private sector plans for disasters - uniting the private sector worldwide in a comprehensive effort to be open for business whatever comes, whether it’s natural or manmade. We are a nonprofit corporation dedicated to reducing the economic and social impacts of disasters by advancing continuity management practices, promoting effective public/private partnerships and facilitating the effective use of private resources in mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery. We will work with four basic stakeholder groups - corporations, government agencies both domestically and overseas, NGO’s and international organizations. GPP will conduct research in several areas, such as business continuity techniques, risk identification and mitigation. We will provide policy analysis, encouraging dialogue and cooperation between industry and policymakers on issues like homeland security and emergency management. We’ll engage in advocacy for business continuity professionals in the private sector. We will provide professional development programs and sponsor pilot projects. GPP will serve as an information clearinghouse for best practices, standards and emerging trends and technologies. We will work closely with industry-leading user groups in this area, such as the Association of Contingency Planners (ACP) and the Contingency Planning Association of the Carolinas (CPAC) to make this happen. Working initially from our overseas offices in Brussels, Zurich and Sydney, we’ll work to improve international preparedness and recovery efforts. Our work began with a Small Business Initiative to help those hardest hit by disasters to be ready before they occur. We launched the pilot project in Charlotte, North Carolina, where we are working with CPAC to help small business owners plan ahead to deal more effectively with business disruptions that might otherwise put them out of business. This initiative will be followed soon by a similar effort in Los Angeles, California. We are working to provide written materials explaining all these initiatives in detail. But for me, it comes down to a simple fact. America isn’t yet ready. The private sector isn’t truly ready. And lives are at risk. We’ve seen it in the devastating wave of hurricanes this season. Chances are we’ll see it in storms this winter and flooding in the spring. And the tragic reality is that another terrorist attack is possible ... if not probable. It may well be too late to help that couple we met in Florida. But it’s not too late to get ready for the disasters that haven’t happened yet - but that we all know are on the way. What this country - in fact, what this world - needs is a partnership between the many stakeholders whose skills and experience can make a difference: a Global Partnership for Preparedness. It can be done. It MUST be done. And we will do it - together.
John B. Copenhaver is the President of the Board of Trustees of the Global Partnership for Preparedness. One of the nation’s leading experts in disaster recovery and business continuity planning, Copenhaver is a founding trustee of this foundation.
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