Natural Disasters and Business Disruption

Harvey Stone
Triple Bottom Line Times
Santa Fe, NM, USA

As we move further into the 21st century - businesses in the electronics industry will face increasingly turbulent times. This paper focuses on one particular kind of turbulence: so-called Acts of God, i.e. natural disasters like floods, droughts, waves, fires and other extreme weather events. While all businesses have always been subject to these disasters, they are occurring to an unprecedented degree in both quantity and intensity.

Consequently, it is increasingly critical for all types and sizes of businesses to understand more fully 1) what "Act of God" means; 2) the way human and business activity exacerbates the number and intensity of natural disasters; 3) the financial costs related to natural disasters; 4) leading-edge methods by which businesses are protecting against these natural disasters; and 5) the ways businesses are capitalizing on natural disasters to enter new markets and generate new revenue. Furthermore, it is important for electronics companies to be aware of the growing business-disruption threats from issues related to the Earth's carrying capacity issues that are not directly linked to natural disasters, but are greatly exacerbated by natural disasters.

The 21st century will be a period of increased turbulence electronics corporations and other businesses. One major source of this turbulence is natural disasters: floods, fires, droughts, hurricanes and so on that are growing in number, intensity and resultant damage. Increasingly, businesses are taking into account the many risks related to natural disasters. They are implementing measures to minimize the damage. And they are building new businesses or new divisions to capitalize on the many business opportunities that are related to natural disasters.