■"What to Do Before Disaster Strikes," book review of The Resilient Enterprise (Yossi Sheffi) by George Anders, Wall Street Journal, 27 September 2005, p. D10.

Good review of a book that really seems to define resiliency fairly narrowly, despite its alleged systematic overview, meaning it focuses on recovering from disasters. In short, it presents a strategy that seems more active than it really is.

Don't get me wrong: I don't believe the vertical shocks can be prevented, so resiliency is a lot about dealing with the horizontal scenarios that emerge (meaning you deal with what you can control, not what you can't prevent).

It's just that, to me, and likewise Enterra, resiliency is a 24/7/365 management strategy that encompasses not just security and continuity, but performance metrics in general and compliance issues specifically.

Still, since Enterra doesn't lead with disaster recovery as much as some would like to see our marketing go, this book may be a good reminder that fear sells. Again, Steve DeAngelis likes to focus on the positive overall benefits and not get too caught up in the scenario-based sales job, and I respect that for a lot of reasons. As many studies have shown, and as this review points out, a lot of companies have wasted a lot of money getting ready for a host of fantastic threats and scenarios, so freaked were they by 9/11 and the Global War on Terrorism. Enterra's approach is like a good NFL general manager who focuses on drafting and signing the key players (left tackle, quarterback, tight end, strong safety, nose tackle, strong-side linebacker): focus on the crucial stuff and keep it both reasonable and real.

This is all about administering the system, not gearing up for every big scary scenario you can dream up.

That's the big criticism the reviewer offers of this book: the author seems a little too indiscriminate in his praise for companies that create a lot of redundancies and back-up systems without critiquing those that go overboard.

Still, I think I must buy this book.