An Unexpected Lesson in Operational Resilience
I’ve just returned from a week aboard P&O Cruises’ Ventura, where we encountered some spectacular weather, missed a port and arrived home a day later than planned. It was a fascinating experience, not just because I love a rough sea, but because I had the opportunity to watch a large organisation adapt to circumstances that were changing almost daily.
Our first disruption had nothing to do with the weather. Ongoing strikes, demonstrations and civil unrest in France meant that our planned visit to La Rochelle was cancelled. P&O arranged for us to spend an additional night in Santander instead, giving passengers more time to explore the city.
Then the Atlantic decided to join in.
As we left Santander, Storm Austen was making its presence felt. Rather than heading directly across the Bay of Biscay, the captain explained that we would travel west along the northern Spanish coast before turning north towards Southampton. This was intended to give us a more comfortable crossing. If what followed was the better option, I would rather not imagine the alternative.
We encountered swells reportedly reaching seven metres overnight. From my cabin at the front of Deck 10, the spray was reaching the windows, and the ship would rise before dropping into the next trough with an enormous bang and shudder. At times, it felt rather like being on a roller coaster, although one with a buffet and afternoon tea.
I have always enjoyed rough seas and have developed very good sea legs over years of cruising. They certainly received some additional training on this trip. Walking along a corridor became an exercise in timing, particularly when I put one foot forward just as the floor dropped away. Crossing the ship against its movement was another challenge, and I became particularly fond of the handrails on the stairs. The lifts were making some impressive noises in their shafts, so I decided the stairs were the better option.
Not everyone shared my enthusiasm. Some passengers were frightened, others were struggling with seasickness, and moving around the ship was particularly difficult for people with reduced mobility. The swimming pools developed waves of their own and eventually had to be drained because of the risks they presented. Outside decks were closed, and passengers were encouraged to take additional care when moving around. We then encountered further difficult conditions as we approached the English Channel, and our arrival in Southampton was delayed by a day.
Throughout all of this, what impressed me most was not the ship’s ability to withstand the weather. It was the way P&O’s people and operations adapted to the disruption, and the enormous organisation working behind the scenes to make that possible.
I have worked in travel and transport, including environments where keeping people moving safely depends on detailed procedures, contingency planning and communication between different teams. I understand how much work goes into preparing for situations that may never happen, and how important those preparations become when something does go wrong. However, watching this from the perspective of a cruise passenger was particularly interesting.
A cruise ship is effectively a small town, with thousands of passengers and crew, accommodation, restaurants, bars, entertainment, housekeeping, medical facilities, engineering and a considerable amount of logistics operating within a relatively confined space. When conditions change, the consequences extend far beyond the bridge.
Changing the ship’s route affects arrival times and port arrangements. Delaying its return to Southampton affects passengers travelling home and those waiting to board the next cruise. Coaches, baggage handling, terminal operations, supplies and potentially crew travel arrangements all have to be considered.
P&O operates coach services bringing passengers to Southampton from different parts of the country. A delay of this size has implications for both the passengers returning home and those preparing to start their holidays. Crew changes may also involve flights and onward travel, while the port must accommodate a revised arrival and turnaround schedule.
I cannot say exactly how P&O managed every one of these arrangements behind the scenes, but the number of potential dependencies is considerable. This is something I find particularly interesting about business processes. An organisation can have excellent individual departments, but those departments rarely operate independently. A decision made in one part of the business can change what several others need to do.
When everything is running normally, the connections between different parts of a business can be almost invisible. During a disruption, their importance becomes much easier to see, particularly when the business has to keep operating while everything around it changes.
Despite the conditions, Ventura continued to operate its restaurants, buffet, bars, housekeeping and other essential passenger services, although activities and access to some areas had to be adjusted for safety.
The catering teams deserve particular recognition. Working in a galley during heavy seas presents challenges that most of us never have to consider. There are hot surfaces, boiling liquids, sharp equipment and heavy items to manage, all while the floor is moving beneath you.
The waiting staff were carrying food and drinks through restaurants while the ship pitched and rolled. In the buffet, I watched crew members offer to carry plates and drinks to tables for passengers who were having difficulty moving around safely.
Some of the newer crew members were clearly struggling with the movement themselves. I saw people pause, steady themselves and take a moment before continuing with their work. Yet they remained friendly, helpful and reassuring. For passengers who were frightened or feeling unwell, that made a considerable difference.
The captain provided regular updates about the weather, the route and the expected arrival arrangements. The crew maintained a calm atmosphere, even when the ship was moving quite dramatically.
I spoke to some passengers who were experiencing their first cruise and explained that I had crossed the Bay of Biscay many times without encountering conditions like these. It was worth reassuring them that this wasn’t a typical experience.
The crew were doing something similar on a much larger scale. They were providing information, reassurance and practical help while continuing to operate the ship.
It is easy to discuss business continuity in terms of systems, procedures and contingency plans. Those are important, but they depend on people who understand their responsibilities and can adapt when circumstances change.
One of the most practical decisions P&O made was to provide passengers with an additional 100 minutes of complimentary Wi-Fi. Passengers already received a free allowance, but some had used theirs. With our arrival delayed by a day, people needed to contact family members, employers, hotels and transport providers to change their arrangements.
People had different circumstances, and there was no single solution that P&O could provide for everyone. By giving passengers access to Wi-Fi, the company enabled them to make their own arrangements.
I thought this was a particularly good example of understanding what customers actually need during a disruption. P&O could not remove the delay, but it could make dealing with the consequences easier.
There is a useful business lesson here. Helping customers does not always mean taking responsibility for solving every problem on their behalf. Sometimes the most effective approach is to provide the information, resources or flexibility they need to manage their own circumstances.
It is also a reminder that an improvement to the customer experience does not necessarily require an elaborate system or an expensive solution. A relatively straightforward decision can remove a considerable amount of frustration.
As a passenger, I wasn’t concerned about which department was responsible for changing the route, arranging port services, coordinating coaches or keeping the restaurants operating. I wanted to know that the ship was being operated safely, that information was being communicated and that I would eventually get home.
That is how customers experience businesses. They generally don’t see or care about the internal structure, reporting lines or the different systems being used. They experience the combined result of everything the organisation does. This is why understanding the connections between business processes matters.
A small business might depend on one person who knows how everything fits together. As the business grows, responsibilities are divided between employees, departments, suppliers and external partners. Unless those connections are understood, it becomes easier for information to be missed or for a decision in one area to create an unexpected problem elsewhere.
That doesn’t mean every business needs complicated procedures or an enormous business continuity plan. The appropriate level of preparation depends on the organisation, the risks it faces and the consequences if something goes wrong.
However, it is worth understanding which activities depend on others, who needs to know when circumstances change and what customers will experience if normal arrangements cannot continue. Sometimes a simple conversation between the people involved will reveal more than an elaborate process diagram.
Operational resilience is the ability of an organisation to continue delivering its important services, or restore them appropriately, when something disrupts normal operations.
It is not necessarily about preventing every disruption. Some events are outside an organisation’s control, and attempting to eliminate every possible risk would be neither practical nor affordable. The important questions are how prepared the organisation is, how it responds and how well it understands the consequences of its decisions.
For P&O, the circumstances involved severe weather, a missed port, changes to the ship’s route and a delayed arrival affecting thousands of people. For a smaller business, the disruption might be a supplier failing to deliver, a key employee being unavailable, an important system going offline or a sudden change in customer demand.
The scale is different, but there are similarities in the decisions that need to be made. Does the business understand which activities are essential? Do the people involved know what to do when something changes? Are suppliers and customers kept informed? Can normal services continue, even if some activities have to be adjusted? And perhaps most importantly, does the business understand how the disruption will affect the people who depend on it?
These are useful questions even when everything appears to be working perfectly well. They don’t automatically mean something needs changing, but they can help an organisation understand where it has flexibility and where it may be more vulnerable than expected.
A final thought from the Bay of Biscay
I came away from the cruise impressed by how P&O and its crew handled an exceptionally difficult few days. I cannot judge every operational decision made behind the scenes, and I am sure coordinating the disruption involved challenges that passengers never saw. What I can judge is the experience I had.
The captain kept us informed, the crew remained reassuring, familiar services continued wherever it was safe to provide them, and practical help was available when passengers needed it. There was a great deal happening beyond what I could see, and that was perhaps the most interesting part of the experience.
Good business processes are not simply about making everything run efficiently when circumstances are normal. They also help people understand what needs to happen when those circumstances change, who else is affected and how to respond without losing sight of the customer.
As for me, I thoroughly enjoyed the Atlantic’s contribution to the holiday. An unexpected extra day aboard meant another opportunity to enjoy the buffet and afternoon tea, and I arrived home with even stronger sea legs. Although I did decide that taking a shower while the ship was pitching through seven-metre swells was one operational risk I didn’t need to take.