Making Business Safe

 

How can you prepare your business for a natural or man-made disaster? To find out, uschamber.com staff writer Sheryll Poe sat down with Alfonso "Al" Martinez-Fonts Jr., assistant secretary, Private Sector Office, U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Previously, he served in leadership positions with the San Antonio and El Paso, Texas, chambers of commerce as well as the American Chamber of Commerce in Mexico City.

 

 

Martinez-Fontz Jr.: We need to continue to raise business awareness of preparedness. The mantra is: "Make a kit. Have a plan. Be informed. Get involved." There are 30 million businesses in America, and about 23 million are single proprietorships, so individual preparedness is key. There are a few hundred thousand businesses that own or operate critical infrastructure. In fact, 85% of critical infrastructure-electricity, communications, water, food, banking, and transportation-is owned by the private sector. Those businesses have done a fairly good job preparing for disasters because they understand our infrastructure's fragility.

The remaining 7 million or so small and medium-size businesses are the so-called sweet spot of this campaign. It is difficult for them to focus on preparedness. Yet I would say what they have to do is not that difficult. Businesses are concerned about the bottom line-getting business and doing business. The reality is that the two most common disasters that businesses suffer from are fires and floods. Shouldn't businesses be prepared for these things?

 

 

Back up business documents, keep records in a safe place, employ fire prevention methods, keep your insurance up to date, and make sure that you have an employee call tree and a continuity of operations plan that doesn't sit on a shelf but that you have shared and practiced with your employees. Businesses should visit www.ready.gov/. One section of the Web site, ReadyBusiness, provides tips on making a plan to stay in business, talking to your employees, and protecting your investment.

 

 

We believe that general preparedness makes you ready. All of us have learned what to do about pandemics in the first grade: Cover your mouth when you cough, wash your hands, and stay far enough away from others so that you don't contaminate them.

 

In the event of pandemic influenza, the big issue for small businesses will be absenteeism. We expect somewhere between 30% and 50% of employees to be absent. Businesses should make a plan for employees to work from home. They should ask their employees what kind of computers they have and how they link to the company's network. Businesses should also have a plan for employees with children if schools are closed.

 

The U.S. Chamber has a National Security Task Force that provides DHS with feedback on a variety of issues. How do DHS and the task force work together? 

 

It's been a very effective partnership. For example, on the pandemic issue, we were participating with the Department of Health and Human Services on events across the country. Missing from these events were discussions about critical infrastructure. With the Chamber's help, we flipped the focus and discussed what the private sector is doing to ensure that critical infrastructure be up and working following a disaster. The Chamber generated remarkable turnout at the events, including 300 people in Boston. The Chamber and its task force have been a great resource for disseminating and gathering information from the private sector.

 

 

My colleague Bob Stephan (assistant secretary, Homeland Security for Infrastructure Protection) is doing great work in this area. Our goal is to prevent catastrophic loss of life and to manage the disruptive impact on the United States and global economies. Our strategy for achieving these goals is to balance resiliency with focused, risk-based prevention, protection, and preparedness activities. These are carried out through an integrated network of federal departments; state and local government agencies; private sector entities; and a growing number of regional consortiums, all operating together within a largely voluntary security framework. Public-private partnerships are critical for protecting our infrastructure.