http://www.financialweek.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080215/REG/886415246 

Financial Week
Weekender
February 15, 2008

These days, former Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael 
Brown spends much of his time giving advice about handling the 
unexpected. As chairman of the Cotton Cos., which focuses on business 
continuity, Mr. Brown advises employers on how to weather natural 
disasters. As the man vilified for the federal governments response to 
Hurricane Katrina, Mr. Brown has plenty of thoughts on how to survive 
career catastrophes, too.

Lets start off with what is probably the most common question you are 
asked.

Michael Brown: Sure (laughs).


Im sure youre ready for it. You were highly criticized during Hurricane 
Katrina for the governments response. What did you learn from that?

Brown: Well, one, to be patient. If you go back now and you compare what 
I was saying inside the administration and what I was saying at the time 
about the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, all of those 
things came true. The unfortunate thing was I happened to be in that 
very spot when what I predicted would come true came true. So you learn 
that if you believeI think this is true for a midlevel manager, its true 
for every CEOif you believe you are on the right path, you need to stick 
with it because youll be proven correct. You just need to learn to 
weather that criticism and do what you think is best.


Taking your experience there. Those were some hard knocks, especially 
during Katrina.

Brown: Oh, it was brutal.


How do you apply that to your work preparing workforces for disasters?

Brown: You must recognize that a disaster is just that: Its a disaster. 
And everything that can go wrong will go wrong. What you have to focus 
on is that every single person in that chain of command, every person in 
your organization, has to be prepared. If Im a mom-and-pop shop I need 
to make sure the four or five employees I have are ready, not just in 
that shop but at their home too. Ill ask a CEO, If disaster strikes, 
have you planned for employees working? Oh yeah, theyll say, we have 
these contingency plans, we have a very loyal workforce they are going 
to show up for work. And I just laugh at them.

Everyone will tell you: I have a risk manager, a safety manager, we have 
contingency plans in place for their business. What plans do they have 
in place for the workforce? Because if those people cant get to work, 
those other plans dont do them any good. One of the things that federal 
government does and state government does is they really try to drive 
home this concept of being prepared at home. I think businesses should 
do the same thing, regardless of the size. The better prepared employees 
are in the neighborhood they live in, the more likely they are to get 
back to work quicker, the more likely they are to be more loyal to you 
because youve helped them be more prepared in the neighborhood where 
they live.

[...]


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