Skip to main content

Poland's tragedy raises an uncomfortable issue, not just for nations and armies, but for the private sector: planning for the unthinkable.

With the country in shock after its president, central bank chairman, air force and navy chiefs and other leaders were killed in a plane crash in Western Russia, Polish officials were quick to reassure Poles their government was still working.

The parliamentary speaker became acting president, and lower military commanders stepped into new roles. While a week of mourning was declared, Prime Minister Donald Tusk vowed that "the Polish state must function and will function."

Corporations, management experts say, need to do similar things if they are confronted with the sudden loss of a CEO or a leadership team. Even better, they should have developed a worst-case scenario succession plan before the crisis - something few businesses contemplate.

The idea of a plane crash wiping out a long list of key leadership figures resonates, to say the least, with Naseem Bashir, president of Edmonton-based Williams Engineering Inc.

In 2008, his predecessor, Reagan Williams, as well as two other key executives and two contractors were killed when the single engine plane Mr. Williams was flying crashed about 210 kilometres southeast of Edmonton.

Just five months earlier, Mr. Williams' father, Allen - the company's founder - had died in a plane crash near Golden, B.C., along with another company executive. His three-year-old granddaughter survived - hanging upside down by her seatbelt for hours inside the wreckage.

Planning to replace a CEO who might retire in a few years is one thing, Mr. Bashir said. But coming to grips with the instant loss of your company's leadership is another.

"It's like somebody hitting you in the head with a two-by-four twice. And you're stunned," Mr. Bashir said in a phone interview. "But that has to disappear pretty quickly ... There's a lot of people relying on you, and the rest of your team and the people that are left, to keep this thing going."

In addition to dealing with the personal aspects of the tragedy, Mr. Bashir said, those left to carry on had practical headaches to deal with - like the fact that no one remaining had signing authority for the company's cheques.

"We didn't have the password to get into our accounting system," Mr. Bashir said. " ... The person who had it was on the plane."

His advice for companies worried about being caught in a similar situation is to set up whatever contingency plans you can in advance. And be sure to agree on a communications plan, so that employees, families and customers get the information they need - and not five different versions of the story - before they come looking for it.

He said the company, which has about 200 employees, had its naysayers in the Alberta business community after the tragedies, but bounced back for its best year on record in 2009, before the economic crash.

"They said 'Those guys aren't going to survive, there's no way.' ... They won't tell you that. But it just gives you the energy to carry on."

Few companies, it seems, give much thought to these issues. A survey of Canadian managers released in 2007 suggested only 18 per cent had contingency plans in place for the sudden absence of top executives.

Montreal-based management consultant Richard Martin, a retired infantry officer in the Canadian Forces who served in Bosnia and Kuwait, said companies could stand to learn from the way armies are organized.

In a 1,000-strong battalion, a deputy commanding officer is standing by, ready and qualified to assume command at a moment's notice. Below him or her, are another six or eight company commanders, many of them ready to assume full command in an emergency.

"People get killed. And they expect it," Mr. Martin said.

Follow related authors and topics

Authors and topics you follow will be added to your personal news feed in Following.

Interact with The Globe