DHS: Ready for Business launch today...

The Department of Homeland Security launches the Ready for Business Campaign at the US Chamber of Commerce today.

The extension of the Get Ready site for business is supported by the following organizations:

* ASIS International
* Business Executives for National Security
* The Business Roundtable
* International Safety Equipment Association
* International Security Management Association
* National Association of Manufacturers
* National Federation of Independent Business
* Society for Human Resource Management
* U.S. Chamber of Commerce

The private sector is responsible for securing the infrastructure that they own and that is vital to our nations economy. Then why haven't the large owners of commercial real estate invested in pervasive preparedness initiatives to "Get Ready" for business disruptions? The simple answer is that they don't have enough incentives to do so.

Unfortunatley for the people who happen to be tenants in the largest commercial office buildings, the landlords believe that it should be everybody for themselves. And as owners of stock in Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITS), your question should be: What is the company doing to better protect our corporate assets (buildings, malls, manufacturing plants, hospitals) from a myriad of operational risks, including catostrophic events such as tornados and terrorism?

If the DHS "Ready for Business" campaign does nothing more than get owners feeling guilty about their level of committment to preparedness, then it has done the first part of the job. The rest will be left up to business itself to demand that their leased facilities are more secure, have properly trained staff to handle incidents of any kind and exercises to test and learn on a continuous basis.