Forum highlights business continuity during disasters

MANILA, Philippines - Several of the country’s top corporate executives and entrepreneurs gathered together yesterday for the Top Leaders Forum: Building an Asian Private Partnership to Make Corporations Safer Against Disasters at the SMX Convention Center.

The forum, a joint project of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction and SM Prime Holdings, was initiated by SM Prime president Hans Sy as a first step in emphasizing the importance of business continuity and disaster resilience within the Asian private sector.

Upon the invitation of the UNISDR and SM Prime led by Sy, managers from different business sectors discussed concrete approaches to make their corporations more resilient against disasters. They also devised plans of action to make their supply chains and employees safer against floods, typhoons and earthquakes that caused more than US$274 billion of economic losses last year in Asia.

Jerry Velasquez, senior regional coordinator of the UNISDR Asia Pacific, said a continuity plan would allow businesses to provide the needs of their customers and mitigate risks posed by disasters.

While disasters may not hit a company directly, they may affect its suppliers and in turn put its business operations at risk, he said.

“You could have a supplier that brings you raw materials. If those supplies are cut, you are also in trouble,” Velasquez said on the sidelines of the Top Leaders Forum.

During the same event, Price Waterhouse Coopers organized a Business Continuity Management (BCM) simulation, while AXA Philippines presented its last report on its BCM program.

Participants in the forum included AXA Philippines Wynnford Medrano and president and CEO Rien Hermans, Kokusai Kogyo Holdings Co. Ltd. president and CEO Sandra Wu, First Gen/Energy Development Corp. chairman Federico Lopez, Manulife Philippines SVP and COO Margarita Lopez; Anna Maria Garcia, president of SM Supermalls; Roberto Claudio, vice chairman for international relations of the Philippine Retailers Association; Roel Refran, chief operating officer of the Philippine Stock Exchange; Ramon Isberto, public affairs chief of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co.; Lizanne Uychaco of SM Investments Corp; Edgar Hapa, director of Globe Telecom; Olive Collantes-Ramos, managing director of DHL Supply Chain; Dennis Velasquez of BDO Unibank Inc.; Jorge Mendiola of SM Retail; Rolando Soliven, assistant vice president of Philippine Investment-Management Inc.; Jeffrey Lim, executive vice president of SM Prime Holdings Inc, and Peter Perfecto of the Makati Business Club.

The forum’s morning session introduced the UNISDR Private Sector Advisory Group created in 2011 and explored how business continuity planning can be an effective way to make businesses more resilient against disasters in Asia. 

The afternoon session had technical panel discussions opened to a large group of experts to discuss concrete actions to strengthen the resilience of businesses against disasters.

Sandra Wu Wen-Hsiu, president of the Kokusai Kogyo Holdings Co., Ltd., said the best incentives for coming up with a continuity plan is a more solid business and the public’s confidence.

“The return is you will have a solid business. The clients will trust you and rely on you because you have the solid infrastructure business plan or continuity plan (BCP). People will give you more business,” Wu said.

Wu said the failure to prepare for disasters could spell the end of one’s business.

“At the end of the day the largest risk is you’re totally out of business,” she said.

SM Prime Holdings Inc. president Hans Sy also shared how his company coped with typhoon “Pepeng” in 2009.

 Takahiro Ono of Mitsubishi Corp. also presented a study by the Asian Disaster Reduction Center which showed that some Asia Pacific firms do not know what a BCP is.

Of the 272 businesses surveyed, only 32.7 percent have a continuity plan while another 32.7 percent do not know anything about BCP.

The survey, which covered firms from 21 countries, said 24.3 percent of the respondents do not have BCP while 10.3 percent are still developing them.

Last year, the Philippines ranked third among 173 countries in terms of vulnerability to disaster risks and natural hazards in the World Risk Index released by the UN University Institute for Environment and Human Security.

The study said the Philippines is “heavily affected by extreme natural events” due to its exposed position in the Pacific Ocean. The country is only lower in rank than Vanuatu, the country with the highest risk and Tonga, which ranked second.