Managing hurricane risk in the Gulf of Mexico
ABS Consulting
The 2004 and 2005 Gulf of Mexico hurricane seasons expanded the traditional definition of risk and asset management for the oil and gas industry. At the most important level, the industry did an excellent job of protecting the lives of people directly involved in operations. In addition, in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the industry expended an extraordinary effort in getting assets back on line. In spite of these efforts, both hurricanes had a significant financial impact on the performance of the industry due to the extensive asset damage, production loss and market disruption.

Mission Resilience: The New Imperative for High Performance in Public Service
Accenture
The unexpected has always been with us, and it always will be. What is changing, however, are citizens’ expectations about how well unexpected events are handled. Citizens want their public service organizations to achieve high performance by fulfilling their mission to deliver critical services regardless of the surprises and impacts of large or small disruptive events. In effect, they want their public service organizations to become more “resilient.” This Accenture point of view examines resilience as it applies to public service agencies. What can they do to more systematically anticipate, monitor, minimize, recover from and even prevent small and large disruptions? In the following pages, we look closely at what it takes to implement a formal mission resilience capability; the benefits that improved resilience can deliver; and how public service decision makers can begin to improve their agencies’ mission resilience and enable high performance.

Beyond disaster recovery: becoming a resilient business
IBM
As you probably understand all too well, today’s business environment is characterized by rapid, unpredictable change. Some changes bring opportunities for your business, while others bring challenges and sometimes even threats. But no matter what, your business has to be responsive and resilient— seamlessly taking advantage of opportunities while mitigating risks. Your IT infrastructure must be designed to help ensure the continuity of your business operations in the event of an unexpected disruption, and to secure data integrity. It also must help you comply with government regulations and integrate risk strategies to reduce costs, and it must be able to scale rapidly and automatically as the marketplace changes.

Delivery of Benefits in an Emergency: Lessons from Hurricane Katrina
IBM
This report focuses on the delivery of emergency financial benefits. These include payment of existing benefits delivered at a time of crisis, such as pensions, Temporary assistance for Needy Families (TaNF), and Social Security, as well as payment of emergency benefits relating to the disaster, such as emergency food stamps, unemployment insurance, and emergency cash assistance. This report seeks to build on the Katrina experience and on other avail- able models to show that it is within our reach to build an effective emergency benefits delivery system. Many parts of the infrastructure available for payment of existing benefits are also needed to ensure effective delivery of emergency benefits.

The Private Sector Needs to be Prepared — for Swine Flu and Other Crises
By Scott Weber, Partner at Patton Boggs and Council Senior Advisor 
Corporate America needs to be prepared for all hazards, all the time. The private sector owns 85 percent of the nation’s critical infrastructure and the government simply cannot protect it all –nor should it be expected to.