A two-day Business Continuity Planning (BCP) Workshop geared at reducing the risk of businesses to natural disasters got underway in Dominica on Monday.
The workshop is organized by the Dominica Association of Industry and Commerce (DAIC) in partnership with the Ministry of Commerce, Enterprise and Small Business Development.
Executive Director of the DAIC, said the idea of the workshop came about after the passage of Hurricane Maria which devastated the island in December last year.
“This idea was birthed after Hurricane Maria when we realized that so many of our businesses were affected and we saw that 90% of our businesses had some challenges in the beginning, but with Business Continuity Planning it really helps our businesses to restart and to be able to provide value for the customers,” she said while addressing the opening ceremony held at the Prevo Cinemall Ball Room.
According to her, Business Continuity Planning is a proactive approach to ensuring that risk associated with disruption of businesses can be reduced as much as possible, before, during and after a storm.
“Business recovery is a reactive measure in terms of ensuring that we can start back and take certain measures as soon as possible, but with Business Continuity Planning it ensures that we take a proactive approach,” Fabien noted.
She went on to say that following Hurricane Maria an assessment was done of the businesses, “and we saw that 55% of our businesses had plans, but of these businesses only half of them, their plans actually helped them in being able to restart their business as soon as possible or reduce their losses.”
Meantime, Key presenter Dav-Ernan Kowlessar, Head of Operations at the Caribbean Association of Industry and Commerce (CAIC) said the ability to continue and survive after a disaster means that, “we must stand for it because this is where we are.”
“We know our environment, we know the place that we are…,” he stated.
Kowlessar further stated that persons can’t avoid the disaster or the hazards, “but what we can do is mitigate the responses, mitigate the impact that it causes on us.”
Not only that. Meetings seldom start on time. I’ve attended a management meeting that started 1 hour 45 minutes late. First item on the agenda: the unreliability of the work force!
Dominicans are very good at having meeting, meeting to talk about the next meeting or the last meeting, meeting to talk about the refreshments for the next meet, it no wonder nothing gets done since you spend so much time talking about what and how to get things done, I think it’s just an opportunity for the educated to hear themselves talk since that what they are good at and milk the system while the industrious runs around Roseau trying to find them to sign or stamp a piece of paper to do their business.