Page 100 - 914INC - Q1 - 2013

Names You Need to Know WORK IN PEEKSKILL? The 9 Professionals You Must Not Ignore Where to Lunch (and Where to Play Hooky)
PUBLISHED BY WESTCHESTER MAGAZINE
PARTY TIME! Where to Hold Your Company’s Holiday Happenings
Meet the Local CEO Going Up Against AOL
Westchester’s
MOST INFLUENTIAL
WOMEN
COMING IN THE
QUARTER 2 ISSUE!
EDITORIAL FEATURES:
• 2013 Wunderkinds
• 10 Ways to Increase Sales: Top Sellers’ Secrets • 100+ Year Old Businesses
SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTIONS:
• Commercial Real Estate
• Focus on Yonkers Supplement • Professional Services Guide
Space Closing Date is April 5, 2013
For advertising information, call 914.345.0601 x138
or email sales@westchestermagazine.com
2 Clinton Avenue, Rye, NY 10580 westchestermagazine•com
98
so multiple people can perform any vital function. That way, if one person can’t get to work (maybe a tree blocked their driveway or they have to stay home with their kids who are out of school), another person can take over.
It is also essential, says Parker, to fill
staff in on business continuity plans. That means not only ensuring every employee knows exactly what he or she is supposed to do if there is a disaster, but also performing regular drills that force staff to walk through what happens in a crisis. “The group that has had the training performs better and recovers quicker because they have the con- fidence,” says Parker. “There is the sense that ‘I’ve had some training, I’ve had some back- ground now, I’m going to be okay through this and come out the other side.’”
You would think that with all the destruc- tion Westchester County has seen in the past few years, and with the great stakes of not doing so, all businesses would make disaster preparedness and business continuity a prior- ity. In reality, however, many do not.
Some businesses think it is too expen- sive or complicated to prepare for disasters or feel that they would rather take a risk than focus their limited resources on some- thing that might—or might not—happen. This idea is reinforced by the fact that we, as humans, don’t really seem to calculate risk well, says Parker. Just as studies show that smart, rational-thinking individuals believe they are less likely to get a divorce or have a heart attack than their peers, companies think they will be the ones somehow spared from disaster.
Our beliefs are also influenced by the current media climate. Superstorm Sandy notwithstanding, most disasters drop off the front page almost as soon as they appear, causing individuals to lose focus on needing to prepare for them. “We work during the halo of an event to reach out to people and try to galvanize them [once they] see what can happen,” says Parker. “But five days out, a news cycle rolls over. That is about the amount of time we, as organizations, have to convince people about the importance of being prepared. After that, people go back to default mode, and it’s very difficult to keep them focused.”
Tellone is a little more blunt about the situation: “I don’t think this is something you can convince companies they need to think about. They either do or they don’t, and they will either survive the next disas- ter or they won’t.”
Alyson Krueger is a freelance journalist based in New York City. She’s contributed to the New York Times, Village Voice, Wired, and the Jewish Daily Forward, among other publications.
Q1 2013
ZEITGEIST