By Nicholas Nelson
In business, there are what I call “microquakes” and “macroquakes,” The former are low-intensity events, rarely felt beyond their epicenter (the place of business or area in which it occurs). These might include, say, electrical fires, theft, and pipe bursts—events that are causes for interruption, but are generally infrequent and bring no damage to life and little to no damage to the property’s foundation. These are also rarely felt by employees or customers. Microquakes, in short, are simply small inconveniences to be dealt with and moved past, with minor (if any) interference to overall operations.On the other hand, we have macroquakes. The size and intensity of these events are tectonically significant, meaning business direction, objectives, strategies, and tactics can often shift as a result. They may come in the form of a global health crisis, a market collapse, significant natural disasters, supplies or workforce shortages, war, changes to trade policy, industry-shifting innovations, and so on. These influence the survivability of a company and are true drivers of operational change.
