No, I’m not your mom. I’m not going to lecture you about keeping your room neat. But I am going to talk about the value of working hard to keep your premises tidy.
If you’ve had the fire marshal in to inspect your site, you probably noticed that he is looking at a couple of key things – what can burn easily, where is it, how safe is it for your people. That means he is judging what you have lying around. If it’s easily combustible, he’s going to look harder. If it’s spread all over the place, he’s not going to be happy. If you are blocking (or impeding) exits, he will write you up.
The same goes for the inspector from the insurance company. But instead of writing you up, he will rate you up. Your insurance premiums go up. You won’t be happy.
So, here are some quick tips:
- Go out in the back right now (or into the plant or the warehouse) and look around.
- What’s lying on the floor that should or could be stored away properly?
- What could catch fire easily? Is there a better place or way to store it?
- Is anything blocking the exits? Staff need to get out fast and easily when you are evacuating quickly. Firemen need to get in quickly when they are trying to save your business.
- If you have lots of combustibles, do you have the right trash containers? Do you empty them regularly?
You might want to call up the fire department or your insurance company to have them inspect your site. They can and will offer useful guidance on how to protect your business. And I’m not just talking about fire. Floods, electrical distribution, staff health and safety – these and even more are valid topics for review. But remember, they WILL make recommendations, most of which you will have to do.- Talk to your staff about the value of tidiness. Clearly, well kept premises mean a safer work environment. Businesses with well kept premises are also more likely to survive a disastrous event such as a fire or flood. This can only be good for you and your staff.
Well, maybe I am sounding a bit like Mom. But, as my Mom used to say, “You’ll thank me when you’re older”.
93% of companies that lost their data center for 10 days or more due to a disaster filed for bankruptcy within one year of the disaster. 50% of businesses that found themselves without data management for this same time period filed for bankruptcy immediately. 
Companies that aren't able to resume operations within ten days (of a disaster hit) are not likely to survive. 
6% of all PCs will suffer an episode of data loss in any given year. Given the number of PCs used in US businesses in 1998, that translates to approximately 4.6 million data loss episodes. At a conservative estimate, data loss cost US businesses $11.8 billion in 1998. 
31% of PC users have lost all of their files due to events beyond their control.
34% of companies fail to test their tape backups, and of those that do, 77% have found tape back-up failures.
60% of companies that lose their data will shut down within 6 months of the disaster.
Every week 140,000 hard drives crash in the United States. 
Simple drive recovery can cost upwards of $7,500 and success is not guaranteed.
Less than 50% of all organizations have a business continuity plan, 43% of companies that do have a business continuity plan do not test it annually, 80% of companies have not developed any crisis management to provide IT coverage sufficient to keep the business functionally effectively, 40% of companies that do have crisis management plans do not have a team dedicated to disaster recovery. 
30% of all businesses that have a major fire go out of business within a year. 70% fail within 5 years 
American business lost more than $7.6 billion as a result of viruses during the first six months of 1999.
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