The Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come Haunting Your Business

I’m here to scare you with a look at what has happened and how if we don’t change, our Christmas Yet To Come will be bleak.

Let's start with the Ghost of Christmas Past. It takes the form of the planning decisions made decades earlier for pretty much every aspect of our critical infrastructure. I’m not saying to change the infrastructure because you can’t. Even representatives from the power grid said, during a webinar I attended, that there isn’t enough money to fix everything that needs to be fixed because the power grid is too large. So their solution? Disclose that fact so you know about what they will not and cannot do so you can be prepared to deal with the problem they will not fix for you.

When Hurricane Helene was barreling towards WNC, I prepped…for 3-4 days without power and water. We lost more than that for far longer. I had no idea just how bad the infrastructure was. Decisions were made I was not privy to in my preparing, like how 20 years earlier, floods washed out the waterlines, but the new ones were dug slightly deeper, not 1,000-year flood deeper. I met a man who consults with power utilities in Florida and they are doing things to a 5,000-year flood level. It’s not about your last worst; it's about your next worst.

It's not just utilities that are critical infrastructure, it's also roads. The BQE in New York City is 20 years beyond its safe-use date. In 2006 there was some concerted effort to do something, but it was abandoned when the cost was deemed too much and other priorities existed. Since then, what amounts to band-aids have been put in place but that only extended the useful and safe life to 2029. That's three years away. The cost has only gone up since 2006. If you knew how much of the trucking supply chain relies on the BQE...And the time to fix it is going to create more than a disruption. Again, the decisions of the past are here to haunt your business. The supply chain is part of your ecosystem.

I just laid out how you can’t rely on the utilities or roads to be properly taken care of. How about insurance? That’s the Ghost of Christmas Present.

There are three factors that come into play. The first two are how much premiums cost and whether the insurer even stays in the market at all. Why are they pulling out of the market? In catastrophe prone areas, insurers are paying claims out 3x as much as they bring in. That’s unsustainable and bad business.

The third factor is all about you. Do you have the correct coverage? Have you met all the prerequisites for making a claim? When you make a claim that they deny, your premiums will increase. How’s that for a kick in the bank account? Less than 10% of businesses invest in securing their operations. They are all waiting for something to happen to them before investing but insurance may not help you.

The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come will show you go-fund-me’s set up after disasters as your only option. It will show you your employees who can’t afford to pay their bills (or buy Christmas dinner or gifts) since they have been let go. The Ghost will show you your business death.

You can change the outcome. Do not be in the 90% of business owners who have done nothing. Be the change that changes it all – invest in business continuity so you can control everything within your power to remain a success, get the funds and help you need because you did everything right in advance.

My Christmas miracle is making people see that business continuity is a leadership strategy…and then doing it. Not budgeting for it. Not planning on it. Doing it. All of us win. All of us are blessed. Everyone.