Organisational Planning

Prioritisation and Deployment of Resources

Legal and Contractual Frameworks

Integration of the Three Objectives

Target Research Outputs

Objective 1: Organisational Planning

1. Resilience Management Framework

• Resilience Management brings together risk management and business continuity planning into common framework; combining a strategy of managing identified risks with an ability to respond effectively to any crisis, irrespective of whether of not that event had been previously identified as a risk.
• The Resilience Management framework is being developed and tested during the current case study phase.
• Target audience: both business and research communities.
• Methodology to be presented at both academic and end-user conferences such as Lifelines forums, SOLGM conferences etc, and practitioner conferences for risk management and business continuity planning professionals.
• Methodology to be published initially in academic journals, and in the longer term, as an accessible book for business owners and managers.

2. Metrics for quantifying resilience

• Metrics are needed so that organisations can demonstrate and value their resilience strategies, and create a business case for improving resilience. Given that many organisations rely on benefit/cost type assessments for investment prioritisation, there is also need for advice on how extreme events should be accommodated within this framework.
• Techniques to be developed and formalised over the next 2 years, and applied in at least one case study.
• Initial target audience will be the research community, with longer term potential for wider application if methods can be demonstrated as adding value.
• Methodology to be published in academic journals.

3. Best Practice principles for improving resilience

• Best practice principles and ‘real-world’ examples to be identified and promoted throughout the research programme. In particular the case studies and research into the performance of organisations following actual hazard events (such as the Boxing Day tsunami and Greymouth tornado) will provide source material for this research output.
• Target audience will be the business community, industry sector representative organisations, and the insurance industry. This will also provide source material for those involved in promoting greater organisational resilience such as MCDEM, local government, the Institute of Directors, and banks or industry groupings involved in supporting small and medium sized enterprises (SME’s).
• Principles to be published in academic journals and presented at both academic and end-user targeted conferences.
• Principles and examples of best practice to be compiled into a format ready for web or booklet publication, and integrated into education packages targeted at current and future business owners/managers (e.g. through introduction in the MBA curriculum or small business education course run by financial institutions and the Institute of Directors).

Objective 2: Prioritisation and Deployment of Resources

1. Analysis of Information Flows and Requirements during Response and Recovery Activities for the Road Network

• Significant challenges exist for collecting, collating, and communicating information about the real-time status of the road network in times of major disruption.
• Initial focus will be to understand current information flows during response and recovery. From years 2 onwards, focus will then shift towards how these information flows could be improved.
• This research output comes directly out of the road network case study and as such all deliverables will be targeted to be of maximum benefit for that sector, for example through workshops with industry players and reports that support their ongoing response and recovery planning activities.

2. Generalising the Methodology so that it is Repeatable

• Taking the techniques and principles developed for the road network and looking at how they might be applied more generally to other types of networked infrastructure and industry sectors.
• Two different audiences for this output. It will be published for the research community via journals and academic conferences. For New Zealand industries we will promote the framework at industry sector targeted conferences, at the National Lifelines Forum, and via a handbook targeted specifically at potential industry end-users.

3. An Optimisation Procedure for Prioritising Works on Networked Infrastructure

• Networked infrastructure provides unique challenges in optimising in real time response and recovery activities as the importance of any one particular link will be dependent on the availability of alternative links across the network. The prioritisation will need to capture the relative impacts that closure of different parts of the network have on the community. The optimisation procedure will be developed in years 3-5 of the research programme.
• Tangible outputs will be prototype software for demonstrating how response and recovery activities could be improved for the road network.
• Primary audience for publication of the technique will be academic journals and conferences, with industry conference presentations focused on demonstrating the implemented solution for the road network.

Objective 3: Legal and Contractual Frameworks

1. Suggested Clauses for Contracts

• Our objective is to provide tangible outputs that provide immediate solutions for asset owners and operators, for example through draft standard clauses or specifications relevant to response and recovery activities that can be added to conventional procurement contracts.
• These clauses would be promoted to industry via focused workshops and conference presentations, and through Standards New Zealand.

2. Best Practice Construction Procurement Strategies for Response and Recovery Activities

• The identification of best practice principles and examples is the major thrust of the research programme over the first 3 years.
• Best practice principles to be written up and published as a set of construction industry guidelines, and promoted to the construction industry through targeted workshops and conferences. The principles will also be published in academic journals and presented at academic conferences.

3. Strategic Review and Recommendations where appropriate for Industry Wide Action

• Where significant industry wide issues are identified, the researchers will prepare discussion documents and facilitate workshops with industry players to promote discussion and change. In particular, linkages will be sought with CAE and MCDEM change initiatives.

Integration of the Three Objectives:

1. Bi-annual mini ‘State of the Nation’ report

A discussion paper or newsletter that captures observations and learnings from the research programme to-date, which provides a starting point towards monitoring trends in resilience management. Example content might include:

• What are the general observations and trends we are seeing in the business community?
• How prepared is the business community if a large event were to happen today?
• What are the positive and negative indicators of resilience management progress?
• What are the little things that organisations could do more of?
• What are the bigger fundamentals that organisations need to put in place?

2. Getting Ideas into the Business Community

• To encourage broad take-up of the research results, the findings will be presented at a variety of forums, including national and international conferences, market sector specific forums, and coverage in local and national media. The goal is to improve awareness in the end-user community about resilience management principles, for them to recognise their relevance and applicability to their own organisations, and to take up and implement some the research findings.