Blindsided is the authoritative guide to crisis management. This "how to" handbook gives essential advice that every manager needs to know when a crisis hits. Written by CMI Founder/CEO Bruce Blythe, it's a fascinating, easy-to-read guide that draws on Blythe's 20+ years of experience as a pioneer in crisis management.

  Disaster plans tested



NEW YORK- It's doubtful if top executives of any of the companies housed at the World Trade Center complex ever foresaw the kind of catastrophe that occurred Sept. 11 when terrorist flew hijacked jetliners into the twin towers. NEW YORK- It's doubtful it top executives of any of the companies housed at the World Trade Center complex ever foresaw the kind of catastrophe that occurred Sept. 11 when terrorist flew hijacked jetliners into the twin towers.

But when the unthinkable happened, companies like Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and Fireman's Fund Insurance Co. immediately began implementing disaster plans that enabled them to take care of employees and to resume business within a matter of days, or even hours.

Therein lies a lesson for companies of any size.

"Every business has to ask itself, if something like this happened would it be able to continue," said Bill Malik, vice president and research director for Gartner, a Stamford, Conn., business research and consulting firm. With good planning, "the answer is surprisingly often, yes, Without a business continuity plan, the question is: How lucky are you?"

Officials of both Morgan Stanley and Fireman's Fund say they were extremely fortunate that horrible day. The vast majority of their employees survived. All but six of some 3,700 Morgan Stanley employees made it to safety. All of the 225 Fireman's Fund employees made it out alive.

Both companies were lucky in that their offices were in the south tower, the second to be hit, and were below the impact point. But both companies also had disaster plans that were immediately put into action.

So when the first plane stuck the adjacent north tower early on Sept. 11, Rick Rescorla, Morgan Stanley's chief of security, immediately ordered the staff to begin evacuating. Using a bullhorn he walked the floors and told people to ignore the advise of the New York Port Authority security, which was using the public address system to tell people the tower was fine and to stay put. His actions likely saved hundreds more lives.

"The majority of Morgan Stanley people were out, or almost out, when the second plane hit," said company spokesman Brett Galloway, Rescorla, who was the last Morgan Stanley person out of the building after a terrorist bomb attack on the building in 1993, didn't make it this time.

While most companies' disaster plans have detailed provisions for relocating offices and backing up electronic data on off-site computer systems, disaster recovery experts says that a company's first and most vital concern must be its employees.

"As a general rule you must address the people side before you address the business side," said Bruce Blythe, chief executive officer of Crisis Management International in Atlanta.

Within an hour or two of the first plane crash, both Morgan Stanley and Fireman's Fund had call centers set up for employees to check in and to handle inquiries form friends and relatives. Emergency centers were set up to help workers. Psychologists, psychiatrists and social workers were on hand for counseling.

Twenty-four hours after the attack, 200 Morgan Stanley people were still unaccounted for, so teams of people began calling and visiting their homes to try and track down everyone.

Other members of the two companies' disaster response team turned their attention to getting business operations up and running again.

Morgan Stanley has maintained an emergency office site a few blocks from the World Trade Center since 1993. Although New York financial markets were closed for the rest of week, Galloway said that Morgan Stanley could have resumed securities trading the morning after the attacks.

At Fireman's Fund headquarters in San Francisco, where it was about 6 a.m. when the first plane hit, company officials took over all planning for alternative operations so the company's New York executives could make sure their people were all accounted for.

"What we didn't want to have happen was have information technology or real estate be an issue" for the New York management team, said David Kliman, vice president of administration and one of two executives who led the disaster recovery effort for Fireman's Fund.

Fireman's Fund had a twofold task: assessing how and where to relocate its New York offices, and taking care of customers in the World Trade Center complex and nearby that would have insurance claims.

Before the day was over, Fireman's Fund officials had determined they could relocate most of their employees to offices of the company or some of its affiliates, and placed orders for office furniture and 250 laptop computers. By Wednesday, MCI and other companies were installing additional telephone and data lines.

Similarly, Morgan Stanley was able to make plans to relocate the bulk of its people within the first couple of days and order needed equipment. When securities trading resumed on Sept. 17, the office was fully functioning and handled the bulk of the company's trading activities within five years.

Both Morgan Stanley and Fireman's Fund now face the challenge of finding and equipping new long-term office space. But that won't be nearly the challenge they faced in the first few hours and days after the World Trade Center was destroyed.

"It was an incredible experience," said Kliman, the Fireman's Fund Executive. It's one we wouldn't like to go through again,"

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