Book excerpt: With the help of an implementation strategy, guidelines for minimizing development costs, and insight into a proven plan development methodology, Manager's Guide to Contingency Planning for Disasters: Protecting Vital Facilities and Critical Operations helps you to: * Establish a corporate contingency plan policy and strategy that will ensure timely completion of a plan with minimal disruption to operations. * Minimize plan development costs * Understand the importance of conducting briefings to communicate the proper mindset before the plan development process begins. * Save time and money by avoiding the consultant's traditional approach of extensive information-gathering that contributes little to the development of practical solutions Remember that you have good people on your management team who don't need a lot of detailed instruction on how to do things in an emergency situation. Precisely "how" they do anything will depend on the specific nature of the disaster and the extent of the damage. Addressing complex hypothetical disaster combinations does not make good business sense. Just prepare "what if" strategies for a worst case and rely on the judgment of your line managers to cope with less severe incidents.