Despite the increasing incidence of somewhat spectacular natural and intentional disasters, the evidence clearly shows we are poorly prepared - either as individuals or as communities (or nations). Aside from helping my clients become better prepared, is there something we should be doing as a consulting firm to prepare?

Most people are optimists, believing that the worst will not happen to them. However, ask anyone who has recently been through an earthquake, weather related disaster, flood, near-miss of a terrorism incident or the regional economic devastation of an oil spill (for example). They will tell you also that they didn't think they needed to be prepared - or as prepared as they later realized. Your consulting firm is no different. How ready are you to withstand the impact, and recover from, a similar unexpected event?

From the simple (power surge that fries your hard drives and on-site backup systems, or a flood of your facilities) to more complex (outbreak of flu that keeps you or your staff out of work for several weeks, or a lawsuit that prevents you from using a technology or IP on which your practice is built), you need to have thought these events through. No one thinks it will happen to them and neither do you. It is time to lay out the events from which you can currently recover and ones you are unprepared for.

Tip: Take a cue from Ready.gov for business. Use these checklist and suggestions to help your own business as well as those of your clients. Who knows, you might even develop a new practice area in managing risk and disasters for a new groups of organizations.

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