Murphy’s Law

You have heard of IT, most if not all of you have experienced IT.  IT is “Murphy’s Law”, the one that says, “whatever can go wrong, will go wrong”, and often at the worst possible time.   In business, if fail to plan, we plan to fail.  And this even applies to the Murphy’s. 

Rarely have we seen any business plan address Murphy’s possibilities. I guess we all believe Murphy isn’t going to pay us a visit. Maybe that is why so many businesses don’t survive long term or through a crisis. 

In business, as in personal life, Murphy does exist and how you prepare for them will define the cost of Murphy’s education.  It is important to have the “What if’s” plans part of your business operating manual  (you know the one with systems, maps, checklists, flowcharts…).  There should be a special section near the end of the manual for various “potential” problems and bottlenecks that you might encounter.  They can include:

·      What if I am sick/injured for an extended period of time

·      What if my computer crashes or gets a virus

·      What if I want to have a child

·      What if my staff gets injured at home or at work

·      What if I get into a major financial crisis

·      What if my business plan doesn’t work out as planned

·      What if I get sued? 

And there are many others, depending on your business situation.  These situations can occur and as a realistic entrepreneur, you accept and understand the possibilities of these and other situations occurring and the need to prepare for the possibility of them happening. 

Let us share with you a quick story that happened recently.   On a recent trip out of town, Andy was momentarily distracted at a food hub in the Toronto airport waiting the shuttle to take him home.  Approximately halfway home, he noticed his wallet in his front pant pocket (always a good idea for men when traveling to have your wallet in your front pant pocket), was not there.    WELL….many options, for most this would be to panic! Andy’s was to accept what had happened because in reality not much could be done at that moment and freaking out (as most would do) wouldn’t solve anything. 

However, what happened next was what impressive.  Arriving home, Andy went into his office, pulled out his operations binder, opened the section to the “what if I lost my wallet”, took out the prepared package that included photocopies of all his id’s, credit cards and other valuable data.  Beside each copy was a phone number, e-mail address and mailing address for contacting people/organizations each of these documents. 

First step was to go through every pocket and niche in his carry on and computer bag, not there. Being a Saturday, Andy contacted the credit card numbers and had them put a hold on the cards (part of the checklist instruction steps).  Andy knew he would have to leave the government documents until the next working day.   He then contacted the Airport lost and found and left his contact number in the event someone found it at the airport.  Once done, he went and played with the kids.   Three hours later the airport called, he had left the wallet while paying for food on the counter; the cashier took the wallet, waited and at the end of the shift dropped it off at the lost and found.   Next morning, Andy went and retrieved his wallet and all contents were there, contacted the card companies (using the what if folder again) and life went on, as it always does.

What do you think would have happened if there wasn’t a “what if” plan on hand?  What negative impact can happen if this or other critical systems in your business gets impacted by “what ifs” and you don’t have plans in addressing them? 

We know Murphy exists, we accept that, but unlike most we have a system of what if’s prepared to meet the challenge head on when he comes visiting.  What about you? 

Andy & Dick