The global COVID-19 pandemic, wildfires associated with climate change—the crises are different headlines, but for Josiane Simon, national crisis management and business continuity leader at BDO Canada, they could be the same story.
For Josiane, the lede is unchanged: BDO can help small and medium sized businesses mitigate the impacts of crises.
COVID brought the need for business resilience to the forefront—in the space of a week or two, events that seem unlikely can have a major impact. Every organization—government entities, not-for-profits, publicly traded companies, private companies—is impacted by these kinds of events. What Josiane and her team do is relevant to all businesses.
The organization
In anticipation of a next wave of COVID-19, the management of a power plant wanted to ensure operations could be maintained in the event of staff unavailability.
Specifically, management of the power plant needed to have enough staff available to manually resolve issues with dams, releasing valves, or auditing circuits.
“But, it’s a universal issue,” Josiane says. “Other types of events bring similar challenges.”
For example: The 250 blazes in Canada in the summer of 2021 result in similar consequences for a variety of organisations—prolonged unavailability of critical facilities because of road-access challenges or workforce shortages that result when staff from a certain region have been evacuated from their homes.

The challenge
Operational agility is a task for any organization, especially any impacted by health or weather-related crises like those to emerge in recent years.
BDO helps organizations adapt to a changing operational environment.
“Any situation that will destabilize your organization, that will create staff insufficiency, we have a response so you can react and respond as soon as possible,” Josiane explains.
BDO also helps resolve challenges that don’t change with technology or other advancements.
“Even in a highly automated context, power-generation operations still need boots on the ground to perform tasks that require specific technical abilities,” Josiane says.
The solution
To help the power-plant operator ensure sufficient staff for critical on-site operations in a small, lean business unit, BDO produced a gap review and business continuity strategies to address identified vulnerabilities.
Our all-hazards approach is an integrated form of business continuity planning that is consequence-based and considers all possibilities―and perspectives.
“We work hard to understand the client’s context so we can propose solutions that are adapted to that context,” says Joelle Lepine, a BDO Risk Advisory Consultant who worked with Josiane on this case.
“We arrive with our hard hats and our boots―site visits are important so we can understand exactly how they operate. We review existing process-flow charts and plans. We may work with other professionals—engineers, for example—to get a deeper sense of operations and client needs,” Josiane adds.
“After understanding the challenge faced by the power plant operator, our team proposed a strategy developed in workshops with key resources. The first step was to run various ‘staff-unavailability scenarios’ to assess the impact on operations and identify vulnerabilities. Then, we found solutions to mitigate those vulnerabilities,” Josiane says.
An example: If one member of the team has a positive COVID test―and has contact with the rest of the team—that team might not be able to access the facility for a number of days.
“Sometimes, operations are not well-documented. Organizations rely on the knowledge of a set of key individuals,” Josiane continues.
The solution: Facilitate discussions on internal processes, document the steady state, and identify which deviations should be implemented in case of disruption—foster the internal knowledge transfer critical in a crisis through the creation of training sessions and guides.

BDO determined which power plant operations were mission critical, and put a decision-making, employee-enablement tool in place to help the operator resolve any situations that could arise.
Some risk advisory services copyright their clients’ strategies and plans. BDO makes sure clients can own the solutions and that the information is available in a crisis.
Management at the power plant now has an overall strategy for any staff-unavailability situation―it can be adapted to whatever event emerges.
The outcome & benefits
BDO’s all-hazards approach allowed the power-generation client to:
- Identify mission-critical activities
- Determine the required minimum service level for each activity
- Establish minimum staffing requirements
- Identify where detailed procedures and cross-training is necessary
- Develop creative solutions to address gaps and vulnerabilities

Effective business-resilience strategy depends on reliable intelligence. We work with you to identify gaps and address them with creative solutions.
BDO can help your organization to be more agile in a crisis―and stay away from the headlines. Take control of your story.
Contact
If you’re a manufacturer and would like to discuss shifting your operations, our team would be happy to help.
John Asher, CPA, CA, CIA, CISA
Western Lead, Risk Advisory Services
Josiane Simon, M. Env., CRM
Vice President, Risk Advisory Services