Riskonnect recently sat down with three prominent risk professionals to get their take on what it’s been like navigating the current crisis from the inside – and what they see coming in the next 18 to 24 months. Here’s a snapshot in their own words:
Bob Bowman, Sr. Director, Risk Management, The Wendy’s Company
“Virus, contagious disease, outbreak – including influenza and pandemic – were known risks [to us] for quite some time … Not this particular strain, of course, but responding to a known risk allowed us to have some response strategies already in place. In that regard, ERM really provided visibility into the risk ecosystem … What started from one point has expanded and triggered many other risks. Now we’re dealing with groups of related risks that are all in motion, that are all in play, that are all simultaneously impacting the organization.”
Beth Otto, Director of Integrated Leave and Disability, Schwan’s
“If leadership didn’t fully understand my team’s role before, they do now, whether through the reports shared daily with leadership and executives or the team’s ability to quickly answer critical questions. The number of employees quarantined at any given time, which business unit is being affected, which manufacturing facility is being hardest hit, how many employees do we have off of work, how many days have they lost away from work, or how many have been hospitalized …these are all things we are quickly able to access.”
Britt Roarx, Director of Property and Casualty Risk, Texas Roadhouse
“We took our entire restaurant and flipped the inside walls outside. Our parking lot became our dining room. Our team jumped into play and took a look at all the potential risk issues that are out there for having employees running around in a parking lot … We had to really look at what we were doing inside our four walls and see if that translated outside. We went 100% into change and what we could change for the better to keep our organization going. It’s powerful when you allow people to step up and do great things. The flexibility piece is very, very crucial … We were able to never miss a beat.”
For more on recovering from crisis with resiliency, check out our e-book, Life After Lockdown: A Playbook for Crisis Recovery, Resiliency, and Restarting Right, and find all of our crisis preparedness resources here.
