Dow | Feeding America | Grainger | Office Depot | PricewaterhouseCoopers

The Power of Strong Relationships

In the midst of catastrophe, a company can tap existing partnerships and develop new ones to help people in need

When Dow, a diversified chemical company, learned of the Asian tsunami in December 2004, it looked to longstanding NGO partners like Habitat for Humanity to help rebuild homes in Indonesian villages. Through a mutual partner organization, Dow also was introduced to a new partner, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), an inter-governmental organization that promotes humane migration and provides humanitarian assistance to migrants in need, including refugees and internally displaced people. Working with IOM, Dow donated and distributed 2,000 mattresses made with Dow materials to families in Indonesia that had lost their homes, allowing them a measure of comfort following the devastation. Dow was so impressed with IOM’s logistical capabilities and understanding of displaced persons that the two groups agreed to collaborate on a second, more expansive project to build temporary homes on the remote island of Nias.

Dow’s knowledge of the many steps involved in bringing a product to fruition also contributed to the success of the mattress distribution and home construction programs. While Dow provided the raw chemical materials, it relied on a number of long-established customer relationships to develop, ship and distribute a variety of home furnishing and building products. Local employees oversaw progress in affected areas and collaborated closely with on-site IOM and Habitat representatives, which helped keep relief efforts on track.

Dow’s efforts demonstrate that while planning ahead and having strong relationships in place prior to a disaster is generally the best course of action, it’s still possible to create and manage productive new relationships in the midst of catastrophe. “By cooperating with the right partners, we were able to respond quickly to provide the people of Aceh with the things they really needed to rebuild their lives," said Candra Bambang, Dow’s Indonesia Country Manager.

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Creating a Network of Supplies

Pre-staging supplies to disaster areas helped get necessary supplies to those in need

Formerly America’s Second Harvest, Feeding America learned a very valuable lesson from the 2005 hurricane season – it is never too early to prepare. Together with its nationwide network of certified partners, it put into place an unprecedented disaster relief program to immediately respond following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Feeding America had pre-staged grocery products in key locations throughout the Southeastern part of the U.S. This planning allowed member food banks, food rescue organizations and disaster teams to have immediate access to needed grocery items following the disasters. These efficiencies translated into 2,587 truckloads of donations and 83.5 million pounds of food and grocery items distributed throughout the Gulf Coast, providing nearly 65.2 million meals to hurricane victims.

Feeding America leads the most comprehensive charitable food rescue and distribution organization in the country. “We utilize our partners to carry out relief and recovery work to prevent logistical bottlenecks after a disaster. This allows us to focus on our core competencies," said Diane Letson, Director of Food Sourcing, Feeding America. “We are then able to act quickly and tackle every distribution challenge to ensure that people receive the necessary food and supplies immediately following a disaster."

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Training Volunteer Employees in Advance

A volunteer program with an established NGO partner can help ensure that a company’s relief efforts yield maximum results

For employees at Grainger, a distributor of facilities maintenance supplies, the phrase “ready when the time comes” took on a whole new meaning when Hurricane Katrina struck. Before the hurricane, Grainger had partnered with the American Red Cross to train employees to staff emergency call centers as part of the NGO’s “Ready When the Time Comes” disaster preparedness program. As a result of these efforts, Grainger had a cadre of well-trained, experienced employee volunteers ready to man Red Cross phone lines at Chicago and Denver chapters for more than 450 hours. The program made it possible for employees to personally assist people affected by the disaster, even from afar.

Grainger employees also made significant contributions to the American Red Cross’ disaster relief fund, which the company complemented with a unique 4-to-1 employee matching gift program. Recognizing the dire needs of local business that accompany a calamity of this scope, Grainger also lent support to the Baton Rouge Area Foundation, which is dedicated to helping small businesses based in Louisiana recover and grow. The company donated $1 million, along with in-kind donations, to these efforts.

"The business community can be an enormous resource for providing disaster relief, not only with money and products but also with its greatest asset: hard-working, dedicated people," said Grainger CEO Richard L. Keyser. "By providing our volunteer employees with training in advance, we were able to become part of the solution when disaster struck."

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Protecting Your Most Important Assets

Helping small- and medium-sized companies prepare for disasters

The massive destruction and dislocation caused by Hurricane Katrina carried with it a lesson that disaster planning needed to be more comprehensive than anyone previously thought. Yet many small- and medium-sized businesses assumed disaster planning and preparation to be both complicated and expensive. In 2005, Office Depot, a leading global provider of office products and services, weathered four major hurricanes at its corporate headquarters in South Florida and across nearly 100 stores in the Gulf region. As a result, Office Depot gained real world experience in disaster planning and recovery, and with those “lessons learned” in mind, the company launched an educational campaign dubbed Disaster Preparedness: Advice You Can Depend on to Weather Any Storm.

The campaign was launched prior to the 2006 hurricane season and consisted of an online brochure, free online seminar and broadcast media tour with Office Depot’s internal expert, as well as simple tips and recommendations for how companies can protect their most important assets--their people and their data.

In times of disaster, it is not business as usual. Focus must be on getting business operations back and running quickly and helping employees navigate personal issues. Office Depot recommends establishing a clear process for how employees can contact one another in the event of a disaster and then periodically reviewing these plans with the employees. This type of preparation and support will come back to the company in the form of loyalty. The key is to build a business case that outlines value beyond simple risk reduction. Simple tasks such as backing up data on a regular basis and storing it in alternative ways can improve the cost-efficiency of business operations and technology investments.

“Planning is essential,” said Tom Serio, Director of Global Business Continuity Management for Office Depot. “Ultimately, it is about business survival. A contingency plan can ensure that your business operations won’t come to a halt when faced with unexpected events. It doesn't have to be a million dollar solution, just a common sense one that protects you, your employees and your business."

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Creating a Call Center for Employees

Up-to-date company databases can help track and account for employees

A system of logs, databases, and employee preparedness allowed financial services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to account for all of its New Orleans employees within 48 hours of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Before the hurricane, PwC had set up an automated emergency check-in procedure for its employees. The process allows employees to check-in via phone, company e-mail (including BlackBerry), and personal computers. Wallet cards, refrigerator magnets and ID badge stickers serve as constant reminders.

In the wake of Katrina, PwC also was able to locate employees through company travel logs and, when necessary, through activity on company-issued laptops and credit cards. The company even tracked and located retired employees through up-to-date records, and helped employees who were not in the affected regions locate their relatives who were.

Once all employees were accounted for, PwC was able to provide short-term housing assistance for staff who needed it and longer-term financial relief to those most devastated by the disaster.

"Before PwC could even begin to provide the support we had available -- temporary housing, temporary funding, cell phones for communication, rental cars -- we had to locate our staff and establish contact," said Stephen Malloy, PwC's Crisis Assessment Team leader. "By planning ahead and establishing a proactive method of contacting our people in an emergency, we were able to quickly account for all of our staff even under the worst of conditions. It was a very stressful, emotional time for our people and their families, and we were glad we could be a source of information and support for them."

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