# 1451
In my post-paramedic career I spent nearly 20 years as a computer software designer/business consultant. Essentially, I'd be hired to go into a workplace, learn how the business ran, and develop software to make it run better. Back when I started, the IBM-PC didn't exist, and I wrote software in BASIC for the CPM and WANG operating systems.
Looking back, we did some amazing things with hardware (and computer languages) that seem almost laughably pre-historic compared to today. My first `big iron' was a WANG 2200LVP, with 12 terminals sharing 384K of RAM. Each Terminal has maybe 26K of RAM to run programs, and I wrote tens of thousands of lines of code in Wang BASIC to run on them.
While these early forays into computer technology were expensive, and produced limited results, companies that started early had an advantage over those that didn't. The first pioneers were big corporations, but soon even Mom & Pop enterprises could read the writing on the wall.
By the early 1990's, you either computerized, or you were unable to compete.
Today there is a new message on the wall, and it is being read mostly by big corporations.
It reads : Prepare now for a pandemic.
Big business, and by that I mean mostly multi-national corporations, understand that their very survival could depend on being ready, and resilient, during a crisis. And the mother of all crises would be a severe pandemic.
They understand that entities that fail to prepare will likely flounder, and perish, during a major crisis. The costs of preparing may be high, but they pale compared to the costs of bankruptcy.
Unfortunately the value of this sort of preparation hasn't soaked into the consciousness of many medium and small business owners. Even though they run just as big of a risk of ruin as the mega-corporations during a crisis.
With computer technology, it was relatively easy to show an ROI (Return on Investment); you could point to increases in productivity and efficiency (not always realized, of course) through computerization. Besides, computes were `sexy', and everyone wanted one.
But with pandemic preparation, unless a pandemic actually happens, it all appears to be money out the window with no return. There is nothing `sexy' about having a pandemic plan. And that makes it a hard sell for a lot of business owners.
The Federal Government has a plan, and so does the military, every state in the Union, along with most large corporations. They've done the risk-reward analysis and have determined that their very survival depends on being prepared to handle a challenge such as a pandemic.
With the long-term survival of their business at stake, they've determined the costs of preparation are justified.
This is a realization that small and medium sized businesses need to make now, if they too are to survive a crisis. Every business, large or small, need's an `All-Threats' survival plan, with special emphasis on dealing with a pandemic.
No, it won't be easy, or cheap. And you may not see a return on this investment this year, or next year, or even the year after that.
But at some point, disaster will strike. Whether it be a pandemic, a flood, a hurricane, or some other incident. Having a realistic and workable disaster plan is imperative.
It's a simple concept, really.
Businesses that prepare in advance will have a better chance of survival.
Those that don't.
Won't.
