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Planning Resilient Infrastructure Systems by Alexander Hay
July 12, 2021
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Are you Future Ready?

Risk. You face it every day. You may have even found ways to leverage it to propel your business forward.

But there are some risks – the ones that present a threat to your organization’s very survival – that cannot be turned to your advantage. To manage those, you need customized, enterprise-wide strategies that are designed to help you reach higher ground, even in the face of rising tides.

You need to be future ready. You need Southern Harbour.

More than 40% of businesses do not reopen after a catastrophic event.

The indirect effects of a disaster can do the most damage.

How an organization reacts determines how it recovers.

Southern Harbour At Work

Survival 1
Survival 2
Survival 3

Survival is your first order of business.

Resilience is your first line of defence.

Disruption may be inevitable but rebounding from it isn’t. That’s where resilience comes in.

Severe weather, civil unrest, rapid technological change and other cataclysmic events are no longer outlier occurrences. Surviving – and thriving – in the face of them takes fortitude, an enterprise-wide grit that allows you to maintain equilibrium even in the face of unprecedented turbulence.

It takes resilience.

The idea of operational resilience isn’t new. It’s been around since 550 BC, though the name was adopted from Ecology in 1973. What is new is the acknowledgement that resilience can’t be an afterthought. It needs to be an intrinsic part of an organization’s strategic plan.

Thanks to the work being done by Southern Harbour and our partners, governments, multinational corporations, major utilities and leading-edge tech companies are making resilience a priority. Isn’t it time you upped your resilience game, too?

We’re the calm before, during and after the storm.

With the right resilience plan, no crisis is insurmountable. Make that the right customized resilience plan. So our engineers, planners, researchers and analysts start with a holistic assessment of your specific needs and build a solution from there. We provide only tailor-made strategies that take into account the critical needs and culture of your organization. These are not one-size-fits-all solutions. They are comprehensive, integrated and seamless. What’s more, Southern Harbour keeps a watchful eye on your bottom line, too. In fact, many of the measures we implement mean little or no net change in capital investment for new or upgraded works.

Trust is the bedrock of our business.

When it comes to resilience planning, who you know is just as important as what. That’s why so many organizations – governments and private businesses alike – place their trust in Southern Harbour. We have nearly two decades of hands-on experience and a well-earned reputation for total discretion. The processes we use for building powerfully robust organizations are transparent and fully auditable.

Alexander (Alec) Hay

Alexander (Alec) Hay,
Founder & Principal

Alec Hay knows what it means to adapt well in the face of a threat. A decades-long career as a military engineer taught him that planning for a crisis is the best way to survive one. Now he leverages resilience strategies that have been honed and tested in high-stress regions around the world to help ensure our complex infrastructure networks can bounce back after a blow.

No project – or project environment – is too challenging. Alec’s insights have shaped everything from the construction of humanitarian aid routes in the Balkans to intelligent buildings in the High Arctic.

He is also actively involved in advancing academic research around infrastructure resilience and protection planning. He is an adjunct professor at the University of Toronto’s Centre for Resilience of Critical Infrastructure, where he shares his expertise with the next generation of resilience experts.

What our clients are saying.

Zurich Canada

Zurich Canada has been working with Southern Harbour Ltd. (SHL) for a few years now. SHL focuses on being at the forward edge of capability in the risk world and is not a checklist or commoditized service company. In our working relationship, we have seen that they are very focused on the individual needs and culture of Zurich Risk Services Canada. They demonstrate an evidence and verified objective analysis process, which fits well with the Zurich Risk Services philosophy. They have shown and used innovative techniques and technology, and we consider them to be industry practice leaders. SHL has shown and delivered absolute discretion and competency for our Zurich customers. Ultimately, Zurich Risk Services Canada has found a special niche with SHL when we are faced with more complex risk assessments; advisors for unusual operations, major development strategies and other high-value operations.

Chris Snider, Head of Risk Services Canada

Our Partners

RiskLogik
Risk Nexus
Wartell Consulting
Decision Partners
Register of Security Engineers and Specialists

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