Gill South: Earthquake a test of leadership

Peter Townsend helped to secure an emergency fund for small businesses after the quake. Photo / Christchurch Star

When the earthquake hit Christchurch on September 4, the rest of New Zealand watched as Cantabrians struggled to cope.

Two months later, the city is in recovery mode and there is plenty more work to do.

Natural disasters such as these tend to be a test of leadership - it did wonders for Mayor Bob Parker. One of the most high-profile business leaders who stepped up among the chaos was Peter Townsend, chief executive of the Canterbury Employers' Chamber of Commerce.

After appearing on National Radio's Morning Report on the Monday after the quake, and explaining how crucial it was to keep small businesses afloat, he received a phone call from Finance Minister Bill English asking what he could do to help.

They agreed to distribute an emergency fund to small businesses. That support is just coming to an an end - but the $10 million helped 2000 businesses and 6600 staff stay liquid.

"That was crucial support with keeping people's businesses going," says Townsend. "It was delivered pretty much on faith; people didn't have to fill out application forms."

Townsend's aim in the days after the quake was to be a "reference point" for chamber members and non-members.

"We managed to access our building. We had a call centre, we ran surveys, we set up a website with other entities. It was a critical role for us to play."

Canterbury businesses learnt it was important to have an alternative site where they could relocate in an emergency, and have access to necessary technology.

Townsend says it was gratifying to see the business community coming together. "Business owners picked up each others' bricks, shifted stock for each other - that was good leadership management," he says.

"People who you would never imagine coming the the fore did, and people who you would have thought would step up didn't. It was really surprising, a really interesting aspect of it."

Although everything was moving fast, Townsend remembers urging his staff to learn from the experience.

"We were in a crisis situation - there was a hell of a lot of damage; I just kept telling my people, 'Make the most of what's going on'. People did respond, they pushed themselves to the limits, it was a really powerful experience.

"It's amazing what you can do on adrenalin, and it's incredible how much can be achieved with good people. The scariest part for this community is when the adrenalin runs out, the politicians leave and we have to care for each other."

Townsend is now in the next phase of crisis management.

"We are fully involved in the recovery - we are desperately trying to get people to re-engage with the city and community."

While the immediate response by Christchurch people has been to keep money in their pockets, because they are not sure if insurance will cover their damage, he hopes the locals will now get out and spend.

"It is about reassuring all interested parties that it's business as usual. If ever we needed visitors, it's now.

"Every day we make some progress. Around 95 per cent of businesses are back to business as usual."

There are a number of lessons to be learned from the Christchurch quake, says Ian Forrester, managing director of business continuity provider Plan-b.

Forrester says that immediately after the earthquake, companies which had a detailed plan suffered a lot less stress and were able to continue work so customers didn't notice the interruption, even where offices and premises had been destroyed.

emerged from rubble

One lesson from the crisis was that it does not work well to have staff working from home for a period of time after a disaster, says Forrester.

"You have schools closed so the kids are home, dogs are barking, people are knocking on the door. The ability to work from home is flawed when something happens. To be at home and not working on a team does not work."

Businesses need to have other places to put staff in an emergency, says Forrester. The business continuity expert urges management teams to sit down once a year and decide who will do what in a crisis. A basic one-page plan is all they need, he says.

"Keep it simple and don't try and plan for every single event," he advises.

At this meeting, the senior team should look at two scenarios. One is a civil disaster which is affecting everyone, such as a pandemic. The second is a disaster which is affecting only your business - a power outage or a serious flooding, perhaps. If you are under-prepared for the latter, customers will just walk away, says Forrester.

"Customers are a whole lot more tolerant when it's a country-wide thing," he says. "When your organisation is affected and everything else is 'blue sky', they will go somewhere else."

Another lesson from Christchurch is to make sure you have a good insurance broker: "They are often your lifeline between the insurer and yourself. The broker is the person who will help you put your claim together."

When something like an earthquake happens, the management team has to realise that it's a disaster that affects not only the business, but also the people in the business. "They are more worried about their own survival."

Businesses should identify beforehand who will be the best at keeping the business going in a time of disaster, says Forrester.

"It's probably someone one or two steps down from the CEO, almost a military style leader, so the chief executive can focus on running the business, being the front of the business, talking to staff when under pressure and customers.

"The person running the show and getting things going again is [usually] one of the operational people."

Customers want to hear from the person fronting the business, he says. They are not going to listen to a mid-level manager, but will look for a chief executive or chairman of the board.

Gill South is an Auckland freelance writer.