Background
The NCAA looked for a means to ensure they had a process to manage potential incidents and crises to their organization. They focused their effort on developing a plan for the Men’s and Women’s Final Four, with the desire to expand the plan to cover the other 21 sports the NCAA governs.

The Challenge
The Men’s Final Four attributes approximately 90% of the membership’s revenue, so the potential for a significant loss was very high. The NCAA had successfully staged the event without significant loss for years, but understood in today’s environment they needed to be prepared for any possible situation that could impact the Championship or the organization. They recognized the need to develop and practice Incident and Crisis Management capabilities to protect their organization and membership.

Inocon Solution
The Inocon Group was contracted to lead in the development of the NCAA Incident and Crisis Management Plan (ICMP) which was conducted in three parts. Part 1 was the developing the plan using Inocon’s ReadyPlan™ solution which is a logical, structured approach incorporating Prevention, Assessment, Management and Recovery stages to provide a robust, relevant and workable plan. The second part involved practicing the plan using the ReadySim™ methodology implementing a real-time approach to rehearse the plan developed in the ReadyPlan™ stage to ensure that the NCAA was ready. Thirdly, Inocon’s ReadyOp™ solution provided hands-on operational experience to assist in the development of the likely contingencies that the NCAA were likely to face in the shorter term and assisted in the development of the NCAA Operations Support Center.

Results
The NCAA were ’ahead of the game’ when it came to events from the war in Iraq to weather storms stranding teams unfolding as they had a plan in place which had been truly tested and had operational support mechanisms in place to minimize the disruption of these events to the NCAA. In addition NCAA leaders had increased confidence in the NCAA staff identified to asses, manage and recover from any incident or crises they might face.