The globe continues to grapple with countless crises — countries invade each other, hurricanes wipe out communities, terrorism persists — and the corporate world finds itself entangled in emergencies without an effective evacuation plan. The pattern is the same: corporations respond to each new crisis with horror, then move on, only to be shocked again when faced with the reality of the world in which they operate. It’s time to break this cycle. Corporations have a responsibility to protect their employees and their infrastructure — and it starts with planning.
The past few years are filled with lessons learned and reminders that the time to plan for evacuations is now — before the next crisis happens. Corporate leaders must prepare for the unthinkable events that are unfortunately becoming more frequent.
Preparing for a crisis starts with a comprehensive risk assessment to collect as much data as possible. Chart out a map of the world that contains the locations of all employees, partners, infrastructure and assets. Every single employee and every link in the supply chain should be represented on this map. After consolidating all the information, leaders can then leverage the map as a single pane of glass to determine who is located in an impact area during an emergency and how personnel and assets can be moved to and from those locations.
The next step is to test and simulate crisis response by running tabletop exercises. Gather all the relevant leaders around a table, lay out the map and run rigorous scenarios. If you have a headquarters in Kyiv, and the Russians just attacked, what do you do? Or what if an earthquake just hit your headquarters in Mexico? Running these simulations exposes gaps in an emergency response plan that might not be readily apparent on paper, allowing leaders to prevent potential issues before a situation unravels during a crisis.
While relying on government assets may seem like a more affordable option, it is often a recipe for disappointment.
During tabletop exercises, have the company’s insurance policy out and refer to it regularly to see what it will actually cover during extreme situations. Reading the fine print is imperative in understanding exactly what the policy will cover if you are stranded, injured, sick or isolated during an emergency; if insurance doesn’t cover natural disasters, war or other crises, leaders must look into alternatives for protecting their personnel and assets. No matter how robust, almost every global platform has restrictions around travel crises, such as natural disasters or terrorism. Executives must understand their policies thoroughly and be well-prepared for any event before it ever happens.
Mapping out the technologies and structures for efficient communication is invaluable during a crisis. Working through different scenarios allows leaders to develop and fine-tune their communications plan. Identifying the best platforms and strategies for different eventualities prepares companies to quickly spring into action whenever and wherever the next crisis hits. Communication is the first step to evacuating — without being able to quickly contact someone and identify their precise location, it’s impossible to get them the necessary transportation and resources to remove them from the threat.
Communication, tracking and situational awareness alone, however, will not save lives. Corporate America is often caught off guard because they equate intelligence alerts and the act of locating someone with the act of evacuating them; crisis response and emergency evacuation are related but separate and distinct. Safely removing personnel from danger requires people with training, pilot licenses, boating licenses and trucks — experts with the assets and skills to safely escort employees out of flooded towns and war zones. Corporate leaders must ask themselves if they can provide these resources internally. If not, they need to identify the vendors and partners who have the expertise necessary to perform complicated and sometimes dangerous evacuations.
While relying on government assets may seem like a more affordable option, it is often a recipe for disappointment. Government resources are stretched thin during crises, creating extended wait times and prolonged delays. With only so much equipment to go around, it can take a government more than a week to perform an evacuation that a private company could execute in a day. Any corporation that relies on the government to respond to an emergency and rescue its personnel is already behind. If government assets become available, utilizing them is a wise strategy, but relying solely on them is foolish.
It is extremely challenging to predict future events, but the time for surprises is past us. Growing geopolitical tensions and a changing global climate are making crises more of the rule than the exception — and leaders must adapt to this reality and prepare for it. The failure to plan and learn from past incidents puts companies at a severe disadvantage in supporting their people when they need it most. In 2024, there is no excuse for being caught off guard. Our lack of imagination about what’s possible is hurting corporations and stopping them from protecting their people and infrastructure.
