Importance of Emergency Planning and Preparedness

IMPORTANCE OF EMERGENCY PLANNING AND PREPARDNESS
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What are CATSA’s key factors for success?
(a. Introduction, b. 5 key points, c. Strategy, Structure, Systems, Conclusion)
a. Introduction: The not-for-profit organization namely Canadian Air transport
Security Authority (CATSA) was set up after the 9/11 attacks to mitigate the risk
factors related to the security of the passengers of Canada. It was a government
initiative and is responsible for screening all passengers as well as non-passengers
in the airport vicinity area.
b. Key points: CATSA maintains the 5 key points to attain the success of delivering
the strategic objectives. They are as follows:
 They keep a record of the number of passengers who have already been
screened
 They maintain the screening effectiveness
 They maintain the screening consistency
 They minimize the passengers waiting time by effective screening
 Thus, the customer satisfaction factor is also maintained
c. The company has 3 strategic objectives. They are:
 They maintain a flexible operational flow to target the resources to threat
 Financial flexibility to make the plans flow smoothly
 Maintain proper security systems
 Understand actionable information and respond to threats
 Partnership building and communication with other organizations to
facilitate the security agenda of Canada
Structure of the organization is simple. At the topmost position Brian Fleming is the chairman.
Under the chairman constitute the board of directors. Below is the President, Jacques Duchsneau,
who is the key person of the management and maintenance of the operation of CATSA. Under
him there are 4 heads – The VP and COO, Mark Duncan, the VP and CFO, Michael
McLaughlin, the VP of Law and Policy and corporate strategy, Ian MacKay and lastly VP of
corporate affairs, Randall McCauley.
System is quite manageable. CATSA collaborate with RCMP and CSIS in continuing the
process. At first the intelligence team delivers information to the team present at airport. The
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total area of the airport and airport vicinity is divided into nine layers. Each layer constitutes
strict checking manually as well as through machines by the security officers. This strict the
potentially hazardous activities.
Concluding lastly, the vast system has been simplified with rectifying the loopholes of the whole
system. Thus, making Canada airport a better secured environment.
If you were the COO, where would you focus your efforts? Focus on the biggest issue for
the COO. Complete the Evaluation of CATSAs current data collecting activities in a table
format using Exhibit 4.
(headings – a. Information, Source, Pre-BI format, Frequency, new column- Evaluation)
Summary, design...
The current focus would be tackling of the business intelligence information due to the
technological and organizational obstacles. The BI tools are hard to use and training employees
also encompass a huge amount of investment. Again, organizational difficulties are lack of
understanding the importance of BI. Topping that, proper preparation for BI and definition of
business events are missing. The business information is also too transparent. Amongst all the
above, biggest issue would be lack of interest in understanding the importance of BI by
employees. Focusing on these points and trying to improve the same may increase the chances of
developing a better organization holistically.
Information Source Pre-BI format Frequency Evaluation
Describing
incidents
Screening
officers/airport
authority/local
police/RCMP/CSIS
1-page form
sent to CATSA
communication
center
Occurrence
always
Utmost
required as
this can
maintain the
standards and
unseen
hazards can
be checked
Records of
certificates
and
equipment
Screening officers Papers and
certificates
held by
officers and
filed by
CATSA and
screening
contractors
When
installed
The papers
and their
checking are
important as
this proves
authenticity
of the
personnel,
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