POTENCIAR: The 10-Phase Model For Managing Security, Risks & Crisis

By Gerardo Andrés Moreno Yépez

A POTENCIAR © model is a tool for everyone that allows us to visualize and achieve a better future, based on the management,

administration, and solution of the different types of problems, risks and crises that we face permanently in all life activities in individual, family, social, business, as a countries and humanity. The model integr

• Language: English
• Publisher: ibukku, LLC
• Release date: Sep 18, 2020
• ISBN: 9781640866621

Book preview

THE AUTHOR

Psi. Andres Moreno Yepez, MBA. Consultant, Trainer, Lead Auditor, has worked for international certification bodies, including SGS Ecuador, COTECNA Swiss Company, AENOR, SGS NORTH AMERICA (Canada, USA, Mexico). He is an implementer, trainer, and lead auditor in management systems ISO 9001: 2015, OHSAS 18001: 2007, ISO 45001: 2018, ISO 14001: 2015, among other international standards and on issues related to Human Talent. In 2020, he works as a consultant, trainer, and auditor of the Potenciar Model (Guide 1224: 2019); and certified by OSHA Academy No.590655 - USA.

He has dedicated nearly 20 years of his life to the investigation of the technical management of crisis types; a subject little understood and treated academically in many places all around the world. He had the opportunity to be invited by Professor Ian Mitroff of the University of Southern California to learn about the academic and research activities carried out at this University in the field of Crisis Management. It states that the management systems regulated at the international and national levels only administer and help in the management of crisis types; however, these systems are not complete and have specific gaps that are complemented by the Potenciar model of security, risk, and crisis management for continuity, innovation, and development.

Thanks

To my father Gerardo, to my sisters Susy and María Eugenia and the memory of my mother, Martha.

A deep thanks to my family, Monica, Valeria, Pablito, and Rosita.

In a special way to Mariana Moposita for her contribution

1. Introduction

We are all interested, or we should be interested in safety and how we can improve it in the different areas and activities of our lives.

The security and technical management of risks and crises must be managed at the micro and macro levels of society, such as individual, family, community, and national scope. We should all know and understand what is related to the technical management of risks and crises because we are interested or should be interested in the continuity of our own lives and the improvement and development of the private and public organizations that contribute to economic and social development in our countries. However, the question that we could initially formulate is, what do we do, and what can we do individually and collectively in a technical, systematic, scientific, and academic way to achieve these objectives of security, continuity, and development?

Every day we listen and read in news, newspapers, radio, magazines, words that have become part of everyday life such as crisis, risks, security, dangers. We can also observe and listen regularly situations of misfortune, accidents, disasters, situations of unrest and damage, with large losses of tangible and intangible, which involve economic losses, loss of image and even human lives; they are news and events that flood the spaces of the media in a wide and permanent form.

Accidents, risks, disasters, and emergencies are part of the day-to-day. Complaints and problems due to the economic situation in which we live, acts of corruption we hear, thefts, conflicts, and political issues, abuse of minors, and several others, are situations inherent in our own lives. These are types of crises that we experience all the time in their different forms of expression and phases of management.

With this global pandemic caused by Covid-19, we have been able to experience the impact of a typology of crisis worldwide, which has resulted in much damage and destruction, the loss of thousands of lives, and the paralysis of the economy worldwide. This is a typology of crisis that has revealed its devastating effects, and for which there has been little preparation worldwide, even until the date of publication of this book, there has been no world leadership to be able to handle it technically and adequately.

It is very necessary to understand that the most important thing is to find the cause of the creation of Covid-19, to take actions that again prevent the creation and spread of viruses like these worldwide; or other types of crisis that can have devastating effects worldwide. As with global warming, it is necessary to anticipate the devastating effects of these types of global crises.

Through time, we have listened to and observed permanent security recommendations in the media and the news. But what can we do to manage every time and with better techniques those situations of risks, crises, and security that are permanently in our lives? How can we do to handle, manage, and arrange those situations that threaten the continuity of our lives, activities, and the continuity of the operations of the organizations in which we live and work? I want to project ourselves to a better future, which will allow us to develop the best resources as individuals and social groups, as Ecuadorians, as Latin Americans, or North Americans, Europeans or Citizens from anywhere in the world. As citizens of the world, these are some of the questions that we should answer and recognize the process of crisis management within our lives.

Other questions we could ask are: what tools and techniques do we use consciously or unconsciously to manage or arrange the different types of hazards, risks, and crises that we live in day to day? Do we handle these techniques and tools consciously or unconsciously? What kind of support should we have to understand each time and in a better way, the situations that threaten our future and existence? Many aspects that we should question could be the beginning of a change in the security levels we experience.

Since 1997, it has been in my interest and subject of study the technical and scientific management of what in general terms we call crisis, risks, continuity, dangers, and security. With the passing of years, these words have become more prevalent in our lexicon, and they have become more generalized to all types of activity that we perform individually and collectively as a society. At that time, when my interest and motivation for technical risk and crisis management began, I worked in the pharmaceutical industry. This German company was considered as the leading company in Ecuador for its strong sales, innovative products, and fast-paced growth, which had developed incredibly in the country. Despite how large and powerful it might have seen at the time, the company was undergoing threatening situations and types of crises. Many of these inevident events predicted the loss of tangible and intangible assets and resources as a result of a flawed business problem-solving and management process, which was gradually leading the company to the high level of leadership and its privileged position in the pharmaceutical sector. There were unconscious defense mechanisms that prevented the highest executives from seeing the shortcomings in the decision-making process; a set of denials and rationalizations prevented seeing the types of crises the company was experiencing due to the absence of a proper management process in its different phases.

Formerly, it was highly problematic and practically impossible a technical management of risk and crisis management (focused on before they happen) to avoid losses of tangible and intangible resources since the senior executives could not understand the importance of an appropriate management procedure and did not visualize the importance of the scientific application of these new techniques and its effects on the continuity of operations. Nonetheless, shortly after this situation, the different types of crises in this multinational pharmaceutical corporation exhibited their destructive phases and the impact associated with the company losses. One of them was the departure of the main executives from the organization, including the general manager and senior managers. They felt ‘unnecessary’ the consideration and application of risk and crisis management techniques in the organization’s operations. These first-level executives did not visualize the sequence of the phases in the types of crises presented that the company experienced permanently over time, and the managerial and company risks that they had created.

Later, I joined an MBA Program – a master’s in business management. The academic curriculum did not address or included the topics of technical risk and crisis management in any way, and my objective was that these issues were known as an essential and strategic foundation of the executive or general management at all levels and in all types of organizations or businesses in both public and private sector.

By 2003, there was already an initial concern about the Occupational Health and Safety issue. It began to be