When preparing a contingency plan, the management team must consider all possibilities and potential target areas, and then cut the list down to what is reasonable, realistic, and practical. To start the review, the team asks itself two very hard questions:
- What is the one thing that could put us out of business?
Every organization has a weak spot or area of potential danger. Look for the one thing considered the most dangerous to your operation. Account for this happening in your contingency plan. If you work in the software business, a new code or program could put you out of business. - What is the one thing that could seriously damage our business?
There are other events that will not bankrupt you but can nonetheless do enormous damage to your ability to conduct business. Each of these must be accounted for in your contingency planning. Write specific situations and actions for these variations. An example might be when funding for a project is not approved by the board of directors.
A good technique is to conduct a think tank or “blue sky” session to get the management team to examine the problem. A weekend retreat in a nice creative environment would be a way to get the creative juices flowing and out-of-the-box thinking to occur. Think how powerful a two-question agenda could be for the participants. If you have already made a powerful a two-question agenda, then you can test it, and find the best and most potential target area for our business.
