The media frequently report on extreme weather events battering coastlines and causing flooding, whether storms in the UK, hurricanes in the Caribbean, typhoons in South East Asia or cyclones in the South Pacific.  

Such events cause huge problems for emergency services teams, insurance companies, government environmental agencies, tourism operators, utility companies, boat-run businesses and those involved in farming or cultivating the land.

In the face of growing climate threats, what can such organisations do to be pro-active? Effective planning involves systematically looking at how the organisation can become more business flexible (BFL) and business resilient.

Under the adaptability aspect of BFL, this is about examining the evolution rate in response to the threat. In the natural world, dinosaurs were wiped out suddenly, because their evolution rate to the atmospheric change (meteoric impact releasing dust into the atmosphere then inhibited vegetation growth) was much too slow and their resilience too weak. Some other species e.g. ant species, small mammals, low light, simple plants and organisms feeding on seabed volcanic upwellings, had no such problem. Is your organisation evolving fast enough and what are the barriers to effective evolution?

Under the agility aspect of BFL, is your organisation pivoting quickly enough to the threats posed by extreme weather events? Are there early warning sensors in all the right locations? How can response teams move location quickly when the weather itself inhibits movement?

Under resilience, what measures need strengthening to ‘weather the storm’ and its effects on profit or customer demand?

Under managing options, what kind of options portfolio is needed to enable specific options to be deployed for specific extreme weather events?

By agreement, sleicest-consulting.org.uk can help review and recommend improvements by taking a systematic approach that more closely examines business flexibility and business resilience.

Simon Leicester

Consultant