If you don't have something pre-defined, like [a time frame of] four hours or 24 hours, then you begin rationalizing. Otherwise, you'll have people in there working on the system, stating: 'Give me another hour and I'll have it fixed.' Meanwhile, we're 10 hours beyond when we said we'd invoke the plan. So whatever metric you decide on, it needs to be determined beforehand. That way, if a breakdown occurs, there's no decision; you just invoke the plan. |
If, for example, everybody goes in on the last week of December and tries to fill their gas tanks or take money out of the bank, there isn't going to be enough to go around. The supply system couldn't deal with an all-out assault like that under any circumstances. So you do have to be careful what you tell people because you end up with a manifestation of the very kind of problem that you're trying to guard against. |
This is not the time for some program manager to stand up and talk about what he or she knows or what they think is going to happen. You need to have somebody already on board that's part of the process [so] that you're giving out consistent information. |