Business Resilience DECODED
By Business Resilience DECODED
Business Resilience DECODEDJan 27, 2022
Supply Chain Resilience in the Wine & Spirits Industry
Episode 161: Supply Chain Resilience in the Wine & Spirits Industry
Supply chains continue to be a trending topic, and in this episode, we’re digging into managing and troubleshooting supply chains for the wine and spirits industry. We’re joined by John Liuzzi, the national director for business continuity for Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits, who is running a “dream team” of business continuity professionals in his industry to share his insights, plus how business continuity challenges differ in the public vs. private sectors.
Some key takeaways from this episode include:
Some of the top challenges John’s team is planning for include natural disasters, product availability, and inflation affecting pricing and sales.
They have tools to track everything, including weather all over the world since that can affect manufacturing and shipping, and social media mentions of their brand as well as their suppliers’ brands.
Having executive support is crucial for the success of your business continuity team. When the financial support and full trust is there, you can build an unstoppable business continuity program in your organization.
Connect with the podcast!
Email us: podcast@drj.com
Vanessa Mathews, host
Vanessa Mathews is the founder and chief resilience officer of Asfalis Advisors, where they are focused on protecting the legacy of the leaders they serve through business resilience. Before becoming an entrepreneur, Mathews developed global crisis management and business continuity programs for government and private sector organizations to include Lowe’s Companies, Gulfstream Aerospace, and the Department of Homeland Security.
Jon Seals, producer
Jon Seals is the editor in chief at Disaster Recovery Journal, the leading magazine/event in business continuity. Seals is an award-winning journalist with a background in publication design, business media, content management, sports journalism, social media, and podcasting.
KEYWORDS: Wine and spirits, beverage industry, business continuity, risk tracking, business continuity tools, supply chains
Leadership Risks You Need to Prepare For
Episode 160: Leadership Risks You Need to Prepare For
Leadership is a major factor in how smoothly your emergency management and business continuity plans are created and implemented, so in this episode, we are sharing some of the top leadership risks to prepare for in order to have a stronger team. The article Vanessa references for this episode is from Forbes on “Navigating Leadership Challenges in a Rapidly Changing World.”
Some key takeaways from this episode include:
Your ability to manage and regulate your own emotions during a crisis is crucial. According to Forbes, “EQ is so effective that the overall success of the business can improve by 37.2% in the first year” of improving EQ across leadership.
We need our teams to be rested, ready, and responsive during a crisis, which means we need to be invested in their wellness. Create wellness programs and incentives, invite guest speakers to speak to nutrition and fitness, and encourage workers to take breaks and time off.
Not being proactive about social issues is a major risk. You want to be clear on your stances before you are forced to make a statement or response, and you need to be able to point to your mission, vision, and values to back that statement up.
Connect with the podcast!
Email us: podcast@drj.com
Vanessa Mathews, host
Vanessa Mathews is the founder and chief resilience officer of Asfalis Advisors, where they are focused on protecting the legacy of the leaders they serve through business resilience. Before becoming an entrepreneur, Mathews developed global crisis management and business continuity programs for government and private sector organizations to include Lowe’s Companies, Gulfstream Aerospace, and the Department of Homeland Security.
Jon Seals, producer
Jon Seals is the editor in chief at Disaster Recovery Journal, the leading magazine/event in business continuity. Seals is an award-winning journalist with a background in publication design, business media, content management, sports journalism, social media, and podcasting.
KEYWORDS: Leadership, risks to watch, business continuity, leadership trends, emotional intelligence, training, social justice issues
Wildfire Preparedness and Emergency Management
Episode 159: Wildfire Preparedness and Emergency Management
While the top disaster threat in California is still earthquakes, wildfires have gotten a lot of attention over the last few years. We’re seeing wildfires affect more of North America recently, so in this episode, Leslie Luke, the deputy director of the Los Angeles County Chief Executive Office at the Office of Emergency Management, is here to share his expertise. Leslie covers the training and exercise objectives, communication skills, and community education that are all needed to prepare for and fight wildfires.
Some key takeaways from this episode include:
One of the biggest parts of wildfire preparedness is educating residents and the community about evacuation preparedness, which includes telling people to have their important documents and belongings ready to go as soon as they’re told to evacuate.
Many of the natural disasters hitting California are “no notice” events, so emergency management teams are reacting to them. That means training and exercises will revolve around evaluating the disaster and making decisions as quickly as possible.
From an emergency management standpoint, the jurisdiction wherever the fire originates is responsible for mitigating the fire. Teams should be ready to step in and help a smaller jurisdiction if asked.
Connect with the podcast!
Email us: podcast@drj.com
Vanessa Mathews, host
Vanessa Mathews is the founder and chief resilience officer of Asfalis Advisors, where they are focused on protecting the legacy of the leaders they serve through business resilience. Before becoming an entrepreneur, Mathews developed global crisis management and business continuity programs for government and private sector organizations to include Lowe’s Companies, Gulfstream Aerospace, and the Department of Homeland Security.
Jon Seals, producer
Jon Seals is the editor in chief at Disaster Recovery Journal, the leading magazine/event in business continuity. Seals is an award-winning journalist with a background in publication design, business media, content management, sports journalism, social media, and podcasting.
KEYWORDS: Wildfires, emergency management, disaster preparedness, california wildfires, climate change, environmental justice
How Prepared Is Your Business? | 5 Metrics & KPIs You Should Be Tracking for Business Resilience
Episode 158: How Prepared Is Your Business? | 5 Metrics & KPIs You Should Be Tracking for Business Resilience
We’ve spent years helping businesses rethink how to measure the effectiveness of their resiliency program. In fact, we have a 200 question input form that examines just this. While this podcast episode is not long enough to share all 200 questions, we’d like to offer five metrics or key performance indicators (KPIs) you can use to help you assess your business resilience.
Some key takeaways from this episode include:
What gets funded gets managed. When you can show how certain risks and initiatives are being reflected in a profit & loss statement, you’ll be able to get buy-in from leadership to closely track those initiatives and get more funding to support them.
Track your implementation. Do you have clear lines of authority and succession defined? Are procedures in place and are they communicated so that information can move across your organization?
What is your organization’s public information system, and do you have a crisis communications team or point of contact? How information is distributed to the public during and after a crisis is crucial for managing that crisis, and for your reputation.
Connect with the podcast!
Email us: podcast@drj.com
Vanessa Mathews, host
Vanessa Mathews is the founder and chief resilience officer of Asfalis Advisors, where they are focused on protecting the legacy of the leaders they serve through business resilience. Before becoming an entrepreneur, Mathews developed global crisis management and business continuity programs for government and private sector organizations to include Lowe’s Companies, Gulfstream Aerospace, and the Department of Homeland Security.
Jon Seals, producer
Jon Seals is the editor in chief at Disaster Recovery Journal, the leading magazine/event in business continuity. Seals is an award-winning journalist with a background in publication design, business media, content management, sports journalism, social media, and podcasting.
KEYWORDS: business continuity, business resilience metrics, key performance indicator, program assessment, program evaluation, preparedness training
The Seven Deadly Sins of Exercises | Replay
If your team is running exercises where everyone is just going through the motions, you’re missing some key blind spots in your processes. In this replay episode, Rick Christ, a senior consultant at Crisis Prevention and Response, Inc. and a FEMA Master Exercise Practitioner, lays out his seven deadly sins of crisis management exercises. From focusing on shiny objects to exercising too big, Rick covers the mistakes you might be making and how to avoid each one moving forward.
Resources mentioned:
“The 7 Deadly Sins of Emergency Management,” presentation by former FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate
Some of the key takeaways include:
Many times, we do exercises to make us look good, instead of exercising to failure. We need to make sure we’re conducting exercises that show us our blind spots and shortcomings so we can make them better, not so we can practice what we already do well.
Focus on small scale drills and functional exercises. When you’re running through an entire scenario, it takes forever to organize and you lose a lot of opportunity to fine tune the details. Run one section of the scenario several times, and iterate on it each time.
Looking at your risk assessment regularly is what will keep you on top of the game. It will show your capabilities, what you need to focus on in exercises, and how the news and weather are going to affect your business that day.
Connect with the podcast!
Email us: podcast@drj.com
Vanessa Mathews, host
Vanessa Mathews is the founder and chief resilience officer of Asfalis Advisors, where they are focused on protecting the legacy of the leaders they serve through business resilience. Before becoming an entrepreneur, Mathews developed global crisis management and business continuity programs for government and private sector organizations to include Lowe’s Companies, Gulfstream Aerospace, and the Department of Homeland Security.
Jon Seals, producer
Jon Seals is the editor in chief at Disaster Recovery Journal, the leading magazine/event in business continuity. Seals is an award-winning journalist with a background in publication design, business media, content management, sports journalism, social media, and podcasting.
KEYWORDS: emergency management, disaster preparedness, FEMA, disaster training, scenario exercises, crisis management
The Recent Affirmative Action Ruling, Campus DEI Efforts, and Diversity in the Emergency Management Field
In light of the Supreme Court recently ruling against affirmative action, in this episode we’re sharing clips from our past episodes on higher education. From the experience of leaders and students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU), to the future of security and DEI efforts on college campuses, we hope this episode spotlights the forward progress we’ve seen in higher education despite the SCOTUS ruling.
Episodes referenced:
Some of the key takeaways include:
Losing affirmative action could mean fewer students of color in emergency management and business continuity programs, which means a less diverse workforce for years to come. And it already wasn’t very diverse to begin with!
The highest priority in higher education institutions should be education. Safety is important, but ultimately the goal of a college or university is to educate its students. In our field, it’s our job to keep safety at the forefront so students can just focus on learning.
Putting together a committee for diversity and inclusion efforts is fine, but it’s not enough. The initiative and investment needs to come directly from the CEO of the company or the president of the university.
Resources mentioned:
Listen to Episode 146: Human Resources Strategies for Building Culture and Acquiring Talent with Marie Mann
Connect with the podcast!
Email us: podcast@drj.com
Vanessa Mathews, host
Vanessa Mathews is the founder and chief resilience officer of Asfalis Advisors, where they are focused on protecting the legacy of the leaders they serve through business resilience. Before becoming an entrepreneur, Mathews developed global crisis management and business continuity programs for government and private sector organizations to include Lowe’s Companies, Gulfstream Aerospace, and the Department of Homeland Security.
Jon Seals, producer
Jon Seals is the editor in chief at Disaster Recovery Journal, the leading magazine/event in business continuity. Seals is an award-winning journalist with a background in publication design, business media, content management, sports journalism, social media, and podcasting.
KEYWORDS: diversity, equity, inclusion, DEI, higher education, affirmative action, SCOTUS, campus safety, HBCU
Answering the Tricky Questions and Critics about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Episode 155: Answering the Tricky Questions and Critics about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
In this episode, we are continuing the conversation from our DEI Microsimulation at the DRJ Spring 2023 conference and addressing some lingering questions from the audience. Vanessa is joined by Lisa Jones, the BC general manager at Control Risks, and James Green, the co-founder of Illuminate Advisory. Together, Lisa and James are co-founders of the Resilience Think Tank Advisory.
Some of the key takeaways include:
If you feel like management is just “checking the box” when it comes to DE&I initiatives, address it with them strategically. Have conversations with them about what retention and recruiting look like without a diverse applicant pool and how it will affect the organization.
DE&I can become a very emotional and heated discussion, so consider the emotional intelligence of everyone involved before entering the conversation. Consider the ideas and perceptions that everyone is coming to the table with and use those to remove the barriers to entry.
Some folks may have disabilities they’ve chosen not to disclose. Create a culture of trust where people feel comfortable asking for things like being camera off on a zoom call, working from home on a particular day, etc.
Resources mentioned:
Listen to Episode 146: Human Resources Strategies for Building Culture and Acquiring Talent with Marie Mann
Connect with the podcast!
Email us: podcast@drj.com
Vanessa Mathews, host
Vanessa Mathews is the founder and chief resilience officer of Asfalis Advisors, where they are focused on protecting the legacy of the leaders they serve through business resilience. Before becoming an entrepreneur, Mathews developed global crisis management and business continuity programs for government and private sector organizations to include Lowe’s Companies, Gulfstream Aerospace, and the Department of Homeland Security.
Jon Seals, producer
Jon Seals is the editor in chief at Disaster Recovery Journal, the leading magazine/event in business continuity. Seals is an award-winning journalist with a background in publication design, business media, content management, sports journalism, social media, and podcasting.
KEYWORDS: Diversity, equity, inclusion, DE&I, brand reputation, talent acquisition, employee retention, company culture
What We Can Learn from the Silicon Valley Bank Failure and Leadership in Risk Management
Episode 154: What We Can Learn from the Silicon Valley Bank Failure and Leadership in Risk Management
The Silicon Valley Bank failure sent a strong ripple effect through the financials of several prominent companies, and instilled some fear that other banks might fail as well. In this episode, we’re joined by Chris Holmes, the co-founder and CEO of RiskVersity, to explain what happened with SVB, where we’re still feeling the effects, and what you need to know to protect yourself.
Connect with RiskVersity:
Some of the key takeaways include:
The Silicon Valley Bank failure is still having a ripple effect that affected small regional banks, but is now impacting systemically important banks (AKA banks that are “too big to fail”), showing that risk exists for all institutions.
Another ramification we might see is an impact on commercial real estate. Properties like strip malls and apartment complexes could see mortgage rates see exponential increases that will make already rising rental rates even less affordable.
Two numbers you should always pay attention to are your assets and liabilities. If you see the assets of your bank decrease while liabilities increase, it could be a sign they’re in trouble.
Sign up for our Four Corners newsletter for exclusive content, bonus interviews, and more.
Connect with the podcast!
Email us: podcast@drj.com
Vanessa Mathews, host
Vanessa Mathews is the founder and chief resilience officer of Asfalis Advisors, where they are focused on protecting the legacy of the leaders they serve through business resilience. Before becoming an entrepreneur, Mathews developed global crisis management and business continuity programs for government and private sector organizations to include Lowe’s Companies, Gulfstream Aerospace, and the Department of Homeland Security.
Jon Seals, producer
Jon Seals is the editor in chief at Disaster Recovery Journal, the leading magazine/event in business continuity. Seals is an award-winning journalist with a background in publication design, business media, content management, sports journalism, social media, and podcasting.
KEYWORDS: Silicon Valley Bank, bank failure, bank bailout, risk leadership, risk management, interest rates, commercial real estate, leadership development
Growing and Developing the Leaders in Your Organization
Episode 153: Growing and Developing the Leaders in Your Organization
Developing leaders in your organization is mutually beneficial for your employees and the organization. In this episode, Debbie Maples, the VP of global safety and security at Salesforce, joins us to share why developing leaders is more important than ever, and how you can empower the leaders in your organization.
Some of the key takeaways include:
Leaders can be born or made, it’s not necessarily one or the other. Some people do have natural leadership abilities, but whether they do or not, it’s our responsibility to nurture the leadership skills in everyone.
If you’re really good at what you do, it’s easier to do things yourself, but that’s also the selfish choice. Share your knowledge freely and empower the people around you with those skills.
We are living in unprecedented times that will only get more complicated in the future. We need to build teams with specialized leaders that can handle unpredictable situations.
Sign up for our Four Corners newsletter for exclusive content, bonus interviews, and more.
Connect with the podcast!
Email us: podcast@drj.com
Vanessa Mathews, host
Vanessa Mathews is the founder and chief resilience officer of Asfalis Advisors, where they are focused on protecting the legacy of the leaders they serve through business resilience. Before becoming an entrepreneur, Mathews developed global crisis management and business continuity programs for government and private sector organizations to include Lowe’s Companies, Gulfstream Aerospace, and the Department of Homeland Security.
Jon Seals, producer
Jon Seals is the editor in chief at Disaster Recovery Journal, the leading magazine/event in business continuity. Seals is an award-winning journalist with a background in publication design, business media, content management, sports journalism, social media, and podcasting.
KEYWORDS: Leadership, leadership development, leadership skills, security leaders, business continuity leaders, business resilience
Behind the Scenes of a Human Resources Case Study for a Retail Organization
Episode 152: Behind the Scenes of a Human Resources Case Study for a Retail Organization
Vernetta Purcell-Morrow, the director of human resources for the Mecklenburg County Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) Board is back to share her experience hiring Asfalis Advisors to conduct an human resources audit. We’ll cover why Asfalis Advisors was selected, the findings from Vanessa’s team, and the results of their proposed solutions.
Some of the key takeaways include:
Audits can incite some fear and tension, but choosing a team you trust that is going to be honest while being supportive is crucial to keep up morale during the process.
No matter how much you want to improve, it doesn’t feel good to hear all the things you need to improve. Go into this process with a growth mindset and keep your key stakeholders in mind.
If your company is trying to reach leadership to become a vendor, do your research on the company. Leaders are looking for people whose company values align with theirs, and who understand their mission and vision.
Sign up for our Four Corners newsletter for exclusive content, bonus interviews, and more.
Connect with the podcast!
Email us: podcast@drj.com
Vanessa Mathews, host
Vanessa Mathews is the founder and chief resilience officer of Asfalis Advisors, where they are focused on protecting the legacy of the leaders they serve through business resilience. Before becoming an entrepreneur, Mathews developed global crisis management and business continuity programs for government and private sector organizations to include Lowe’s Companies, Gulfstream Aerospace, and the Department of Homeland Security.
Jon Seals, producer
Jon Seals is the editor in chief at Disaster Recovery Journal, the leading magazine/event in business continuity. Seals is an award-winning journalist with a background in publication design, business media, content management, sports journalism, social media, and podcasting.
KEYWORDS: human resources, HR audit, staffing shortage, retail, employee engagement, core values, mission and vision, company audit
Retail Industry Challenges – Staffing, Employee Burnout, Customer Behavior, and Community Engagement
Episode 151: Retail Industry Challenges – Staffing, Employee Burnout, Customer Behavior, and Community Engagement
Today we’re joined by Vernetta Purcell-Morrow, the director of human resources for the Mecklenburg County Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) Board. In this episode, Vernetta shares her experience with supporting community engagement programs as a company, and the unique challenges that came with being an essential retail business during the pandemic, staffing shortages, and more.
This episode is brought to you by OnSolve, the leading platform for crisis event management. Download the 2023 OnSolve Global Risk Impact Report at https://OnSolve.com/GRI.
Some of the key takeaways include: