Latest Poll Suggests U.S. Businesses
May Not Be Ready for War

A new Gallup poll suggests that American businesses have done little to improve business, employee or data security since 9/11.

The poll indicates that fifty-seven percent of employees say their companies have not upgraded security for employees since Sept. 11, 2001. Another 27% say their companies have made only minor changes to improve employee security. Just 16% say their companies have upgraded their employee security a great deal over the past year. In spite of the increased threat of terrorist attacks as the United States goes to war, our business community does not appear to be taking added security measures. I think we should be doing more in this regard.

Thirty-eight percent of employees say that their companies have not upgraded security for their business records and other data since Sept. 11, 2001. Another 20% say their companies have made only minor efforts to improve data security, while 27% don't know if any changes have been made. Just 15% of employees say their companies have upgraded their business record/data security a great deal over the past 12 months. Again, these percentages are just about the same as those obtained last August.

Go here for more details about the Gallup poll.

Maybe one of our jobs as economic developers is to remind and help our businesses improve security during these uncertain times. Who else is shoulder this responsibility on the local front? As I suggested in earlier articles, economic risk management may be one of our new jobs. Economic security is a part of our jobs now. I would encourage you to think about this role and what your organization can do to help.

Risk is not new to economic development, but dealing with an elevated level of risk and uncertainty is new for most of us. I believe risk management will be more important to our future economic success. Those areas best equipped to anticipate, assess and minimize economic risk will be most likely to succeed going into the future. Is your area and are your businesses ready for the impending war with Iraq and possible events triggered by the war. Sadly, most of us must answer that we are not as ready as we need to be.

To learn more about how you can assess, plan for, and manage economic risk in your community, please call us at 440.449.0753, or send us an email at: dtia@ix.netcom.com. We would be happy to share our ideas with you. Recently, we introduced some new services that might help.