Rembrandt's lessons
INSIDE VIEW
Although 9/11 pointed to the need for more defined Business Continuity Planning (BCP) measures, exactly half a year
later, a hostage scenario in the Rembrandt Tower, Amsterdam, demonstrated that BCP must also be flexible. Perhaps
more than any other type of crisis, a hostage situation demands quick, instinctive decision-making. At times, that can
mean a departure from BCP procedures and, in the case of the Rembrandt Tower, it can even conflict with police orders
Gutdecision
Appointing leaders
Niels Cornelisse - instinctual decisions
When a man with a gun entered
Rembrandt Tower at 9:15 a.m., it
took several minutes for word to spread
to each of the Rabo Securities offices,
on the 2nd, 5th, 6th and 17th floors.
'Once it hecame clear that something
was wrong, it was difficult for people to
accept police orders to stay in the build
ing. People were afraid and wanted to
get away from the situation,' says Niels
Cornelisse, Security Manager for Rabo
Securities. Police also advised that no
one was to move between floors and
that all communication was to be han
dled via fax and phone. 'We quickly
designated a contact person on each
floor who was responsible for commu-
nicating police orders,' says Cornelisse.
At one point, the gunman demanded
that the hostages place signs with cryp-
tic messages in the windows on each
floor of the tower. As the communica
tion link between police and staff, Cor
nelisse told the police what the man was
ordering. 'They told us not to put the
signs in the windows. Of course, this
put us in a difficult situation; on the one
hand a man with a gun and on the other
hand the police who have expertise in
this kind of situation. The people inside
the building were afraid, tension was
rising and at a certain point I had to teil
the people to obey the gunman.'
'Even after 9/1 1 most of our disaster
recovery plans were focused on evacuat-
ing the building,' says Cornelisse. 'No-
body had ever contemplated a situation
where you would be trapped at the cri
sis scene for nine hours.' Since the Rem
brandt Tower situation, BCP has been
revised to support both instantaneous
and prolonged crisis situations. 'Now
people are prepared for the fact that in a
crisis, order flows and responsibilities
can change completely,' concludes
Cornelisse. 'We've realized that it is of
utmost importance to have designated
contact people so that when crisis hits,
those people are prepared to fulfill a
leading role.'
26 I The Word I