Risk Management & Contingency Planning
The heart of Risk Management is planning for the unexpected. On February 23rd of this year, I had a personal lesson in the unexpected. On a semi-routine hospital visit, I ended up having emergency open-heart surgery (not to worry, I’m fine now and back to 100%).
While this event was traumatic, the biggest shock, wake-up call, whatever, came a month or so after my surgery. I was at home talking with my wife about what she went through. She confessed that one of her worries was when she realized she only had $43.00 in her checking account and wasn’t sure where to go for more money for expenses. Oops, not my best hour as a Risk Manager!
Yes, she now knows where to go, and what to do in such an emergency again. But this knowledge did not help her in the crisis. The point here is that you need to play the “What if….” game BEFORE something happens.