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Saturday, October 8th, 2005
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10:53a
Written By:
Daniel Gifford
Official counts now say that the death toll in Louisiana is over a thousand. While this is much less than what the mayor originally predicted, it is still the largest amount of fatalities caused by a storm in the region since 1893, when a category 4 hurricane killed between 1,100 and 2,000 people. I would not be surprised if the death toll continues to rise, as many areas are still unexplored.
For more information see http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/3387305
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11:26a - How should a business respond to Hurricane Katrina?
Post by Sigmund Solares
Chief Executive Officer
Intercosmos Media Group, Inc.
The following is a draft email that I am thinking of sending to our customers to re-assure them that our company is well positioned and their domain names are safe with us in a post-Katrina world. Some questions that I have for you:
1. If you were or are a customer of directNIC / Intercosmos Media Group, Inc. / Zipa, L.L.C. what additional questions, comments, or criticisms would you have, after reading the following email?
2. If you are a business owner, do you think you are prepared to handle a disaster such as Katrina hitting your area? What additional preparations do you plan to make?
Intercosmos Media Group, Inc., dba directNIC.com is Thriving Post Hurricane Katrina
Recently I received an email from a customer who was worried about domain names that he registered at http://directNIC.com because of the problems in New Orleans. Let me make one thing perfectly clear: Every other business in New Orleans may fail; nevertheless, Intercosmos Media Group, Inc., (operators of http://directNIC.com) will continue on successfully in New Orleans and/or elsewhere without interruptions to our clients.
New Orleans has never been known as a pro-business location. Despite this, we have thrived in the Crescent City. Prior to Katrina we were one of the most successful businesses in New Orleans. A few days after Hurricane Katrina hit, only two offices had their lights powered on the main street (Poydras Street), in the heart of the CBD. Those two offices were Bell South and Intercosmos Media Group, Inc. It was no accident that we continued to operate.
At Intercosmos, we did nothing special to prepare for Hurricane Katrina. We had already prepared for dozens of prior hurricanes and we already had our disaster preparations in place. The following is a very short summary of how we have prepared for any catastrophe:
1. Require Excellence from Employees. A small excellent team can accomplish anything. If you have the right team, then you can survive and actually thrive during any disaster. We have spent years putting together the right team of employees to operate under any circumstance.
2. Built an Excessively Large War Chest. At Intercosmos, we have never borrowed money to facilitate growth. We always focused on increasing liquid assets while maintaining steady profitable growth. For this strategy, we just followed Bill Gates who likes to keep a large amount of cash on hand for a rainy day. Because of this we are well positioned to weather any storm or series of storms.
3. Secured a $3 Million Line of Credit. We secured this line of credit despite the fact that we had and still have no intention of using this line of credit. The line of credit is merely a safety net.
4. Lots of Insurance. We are insurance junkies at Intercosmos. Nevertheless, as a result of Hurrican Katrina and our preparedness, we will have fairly limited claims to make.
5. Telecommuter Plan in Place. Prior to Hurricane Katrina hitting, close to 50% of our employees had telecommuting agreements in place with the company. When any hurricane hits and employees evacuate, we plan for employees to telecommute through the use of Internet-based (VoIP) phones, wireless internet and laptops.
After Hurricane Katrina hit:
1. Increased levels of redundancy. Now we have servers in 4 secure, distant facilities instead of just in two facilities.
2. Increased profitability and cash on hand. Our business does not rely on areas hit by Katrina. Well over 99% of our business comes from individuals and businesses outside of Louisiana. As a result, we were actually more profitable in the month after Katrina hit than we were in the month prior to Katrina hitting.
3. We started to use an 8,000-square-foot building that we have in another state as a re-location work space for employees. Employees who cannot work in one of our buildings in New Orleans can work as a telecommuter or from our other office.
What can you do to help?
We are passionate about our city. We want to see New Orleans rise again. However, our fate is not tied to New Orleans. We are trying to raise awareness of problems in New Orleans because we want the rebuilding effort to succeed and not get tied down in politics as usual. If you would like to help us on this mission, we ask that you join in the conversations at the message board we launched at http://nola.us.
Sincerely,
Sigmund Solares
Chief Executive Officer
Intercosmos Media Group, Inc.
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