Tairāwhiti businesses are being encouraged to strengthen their resilience through practical workshops delivered by Trust Tairāwhiti.
More than 50 businesses, including sole traders, business owners and leadership teams, have taken part in the three-hour sessions.
Trust Tairāwhiti is the district’s regional tourism and economic development agency, governed by an independent board of trustees appointed by Gisborne District Council.
General manager economic development Hayden Green said the workshops gave businesses practical tools to help them adapt to change and potential disruption.
“Participants identify the risks facing their business, consider how they would maintain essential operations during a disruption and begin developing a practical business continuity plan.”
Resilience was particularly important for Tairāwhiti businesses because of the region’s exposure to environmental and economic challenges, he said.
“Tairāwhiti businesses operate in an environment where severe weather, transport disruptions, infrastructure constraints and changing economic conditions can have an immediate impact.
“Recent events have reinforced that disruption can happen quickly and may continue for some time.”
Companies that had considered, tested and planned for change were better placed to continue providing services and recover quickly, Green said.
Emerre and Hathaway Insurance Brokers director Glen Hannah said having the right systems in place had always been a priority for the business, so he attended the workshop to see whether there were any gaps in preparedness.
“For us, it was actually coming back and finding out there are other big major events that could affect your business that aren’t actually insurance-related, so it was a bit of a learning curve for me.”
Despite experience with disasters such as the 2011 Christchurch Earthquakes, Cyclone Gabrielle and Cyclone Bola, Hannah said the workshops highlighted resilience risks beyond natural disasters, particularly cyber security.
“That’s probably one of the bigger risks that I wasn’t 100% sure of until Ian Parker [the workshop facilitator] spoke about it.
“The first thing I did when I got back to work was actually talk to our general manager and mentioned to her that we want to button this down and make sure we’ve got everything in place for system backups.”
Following IT advice, the company began using Cloud storage rather than relying on physical hard drives, he said.
Another focus was ensuring power, communication and connectivity remained intact during emergency events.
“What we found with Gabrielle, one of the major concerns was communication, and so we ended up actually in vehicles driving in different directions from the CBD of Gisborne to talk to communities to find out what was going on and where the major losses were.”
Using generators and Starlink had made communication and business operations more sustainable, he said.
Hannah advocated that other businesses plan ahead and be prepared.
“I seriously think anyone who’s in business in this district should go to this.
“For me, being prepared is key, and some people can laugh it off and say, ‘Oh no, that will never happen’, but it’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when it happens,” he said.
Green encouraged all businesses to identify essential parts of operations and consider how disruptions could affect them to provide practical systems to support recovery.
Plans should be regularly reviewed and accessible to others, rather than relying on a single person, he said.
“This is particularly important for sole traders and small businesses.”
Preparation makes a significant difference, he said.
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.