Good Business Planning

I have been under piles of work this week, missing out on all the news of the most recent airline/tour operator to collapse but the full magnitude literally dawned on me this morning. 90,000 passengers stranded, multinational effort to bring them back, and people who didn't buy through a tour group or with a credit card have to pay to 'rescue' themselves.

I think there are two sides to this, the amazing cooperation between airliners to send planes out to bring people back, but also the way that a company can close, so suddenly, with so much unfinished business. Would it have been cheaper to have a multinational effort to help XL wind down? Would it have been easier on all involved?

My customers and suppliers mean absolutely everything to me, not to my social enterprise, but to me personally. I can't let them down. So although we are by no means thinking about it I am forced to wonder how I would close, how I would manage that, because it is always a possibility. How should a social enterprise do this differently?

Should we set up an emergency fund? To make sure we don't let customers down, that we meet our charitable obligations and pay all our bills to suppliers, help them cover capital investments made largely for our lines? Should we plan for a fall-out period, time to communicate, prevent confusion, donate excess stock, and make sure that everyone is aware of the hows and whys so that other groups can learn from our mistakes?

Our outlook is positive, would it be detrimental to the tone of the business to talk about and plan for something that we work so hard to ensure won't happen? I think we have to. I think a responsible social enterprise should plan a responsible exit - whether that be selling to a non-social enterprise parent or closing down.

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