Salomon Smith Barney director of general services Thomas Moogan told an SRO crowd at the Roosevelt Hotel that as one of the World Trade Center's biggest tenants, his firm's crisis management operations needed to be in top form when the twin towers fell. But no previous plans imagined a disaster as horrific as the trade center bombings. Improvisation, he said, kept nearly all his firm's Downtown employees safe that day.
"A lot of people did the right thing that day," he said. "Some called their families and went home. Others stayed. There was no right or wrong." Among those who opted to stay Downtown and help with the evacuation were "people who could do well in a crisis. We have tagged them for further growth and further responsibility."
While Moogan stated that Salomon Smith Barney is committed to Lower Manhattan for the long haul, he acknowledged that the process of planning for future emergencies has been virtually turned upside down. "Downtown New York is not the same and will not be the same, but we made the decision that we're not going to leave," he stated. "Every one of our plans now has to include how to move 16,000 people if [a similar disaster] ever happens again."
While stressing the need for comprehensive contingency planning, Moogan added that operating strictly by the book is not always a virtue. "Routine is the last thing you need in a crisis," he noted. "And a lot of people tend to fall back on routine."
Added J.P. Rosato, CEO of C.S. Technology, "most organizations had plans in place. But they had no idea of the scope of the disaster they were going to see here." Typical contingency operations addressed one or two scenarios, but none attempted to stare down a total infrastructure meltdown.
Jeffrey Schlanger, CEO, security service group for Kroll Inc., echoed the need for employees to prepare for emergencies. "Planning is the most important thing. Everybody needs to know where they are in terms of risk and needs to know how they will cope." But having a plan in place is not enough. "Exercising, training and testing" are what keep a plan fresh, Schlanger said. "And we're not just talking about threats of terrorism. There are threats that have existed since the days of frogs and locusts."
Smaller firms in multi-tenant properties are not entirely without security options, Schlanger noted. "If you're going into a building coming new out of the ground, perhaps you can negotiate for a secure vertical path and protect yourself that way." Other than that, "do everything you can to back up your services," he said.
Hosted by Newmark CEO Barry Gosin and principals Scott Panzer and Neil Goldmacher, additional panelists included Robert Derector, president of Robert Derector Associates; Deutsche Bank managing director of global infrastructure Robert Healy; David Plumb, senior vice president of sales at SunGard Availability Services; and Stephen Wood, vice president of engineering services at Con Edison.
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