Conference Room Disaster
Case Study Analysis

Assuming the day would have been a typical and normal working day was a complete incorrect assumption as the meeting in a crowded conference room is cancelled due to the ceiling giving way to a water leakage, flooding the working papers and electronics that were on the conference room table. Staff members rushed out into the dry hallways leaving the working papers and electronics on the conference room table to be drenched with water. The working papers are most possibly facing complete turmoil of the data that was to be discussed and the electronic equipment’s could be substantially damaged by the water flood. Many thoughts came to my mind such as did anyone save the documents on an external storage drive? Or, did anyone from maintenance perform a routine maintenance check of the water plumbing in the building? And, did the company leaders ever implement some sort of a Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) for when such disasters occur in working environments that encompass physical and intangible working documents and data? All these questions flooded my mind more than I could imagine the water to have flooded the conference room. These questions resulted from the problems that occurred and each problem that we faced could have had higher severity in damages. The problems that were incurred were due to prior problems that were built upon newer problems. The first problem that I thought of that could have existed was the routine maintenance checks of water plumbing that must be done annually for commercial properties. Since, there was no indication of such a check being completed it leads myself and the team members to assume that the water leakage could have been prevented if there was a routine maintenance check of the water plumbing. Subsequently, the first problem led to the next in which the company failed to exemplify a Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) to be in place for when such disasters occur in working environments. In describing as to how the staff members failed to save the working papers and electronics but instead evacuated the conference room to the dry halls exemplifies faults in the protocols of what to do during such disaster occurrences. Another problem that I thought was where was the adequate training that should have been provided by our company executives during such emergencies. We clearly failed to exemplify any type of training we may have received supported by our actions in evacuating the conference room to the dry halls. In conducting a business risk analysis, one should have the appropriate and adequate knowledge to identify future threats and weaknesses that can harm business operations as the water leakage disrupted our meeting. The company executives should take our incident as a learning opportunity to ensure we are well prepared for future disasters through adequate training and appropriate plan of actions that may be addressed in a Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP). Getting pass the incident, company executives and leadership roles should take the immediate criticism by the staff members such as myself or others in preventing future disasters by adopting a DRP plan that will ensure preventive measures are being taken by company executives, maintenance department, and those leadership roles implementing the plan for proper execution of the DRP to avoid such disasters. As part of decision making skills, management must explore every possible threat to their business functions however, it seems as though management did not make efficient and effective decisions that could have been prevented. Due to so many variables and factors that impact the decision making process such as costs, overhead time, and human resource it may be possible that our leadership team purposely did not go in depth in creating such DRP plans as they may have thought it would have been too costly or too many human resources may be inefficient for a low risk disaster. Regardless, alternative decisions could have been made in order to prevent such a catastrophe of data and equipment loss that now the company most likely will be incurring. References
Maurer, Rick. "Chapter 1." Beyond the Wall of Resistance: Why 70% of All Changes Still Fail and What You Can Do about It. Austin, TX: Bard, 2010. Print.
Hammond, John S., Ralph L. Keeney, and Howard Raiffa. Smart Choices: A Practical Guide to Making Better Decisions. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School, 1999. Print.