Mother Nature       1

Marlins                   0

Weather APPS are great for consumers’ convenience but costly for businesses.  By now you’ve probably heard how the Florida Marlins boosted the egos of professional meteorologists when they soaked their field and fans Opening Day.  Three executives, using weather APPS, forecasted dry skies for their stadium.  Mother Nature dumped on them.  They then scurried to close the retractable roof but it was too late.

Stop beating up on the Marlins’ executives’ decision.   It wouldn’t take a Billy Bean statistician to calculate that there are tens of thousands of businesses who continue to make the same costly decision: I don’t need to a pay a professional weather consulting service because I have an APP for that!

When is a weather APP appropriate for you?  If inconvenience is the only liability you have to a bad weather related decision, go for the APP!  Sure, it’s not fun to be caught without an umbrella but so what?  It’s not affecting your profit and loss statement.  You’ll likely get a great return on your investment (ROI) plenty of times when you stuff a jacket in your golf bag or throw in extra tee shirts for a trip to an unseasonably warm northern city.

Here are a few examples from the 3 primary considerations businesses need to examine when weighing the professional meteorologists at their call against the APP in their pocket.

Hard Costs:    Business shut downs, delayed inventory &  production,  wrong inventory for retail, materials such as concrete, asphalt, etc., airport closings, labor…..

Soft Costs:  Unnecessary cancellations of  school, rescheduling community ballgames, delaying re-opening of roads and other projects that aggravate your citizens, scrambling to move outdoor events indoors when possible….

Reputation:  Opening Day is seen as the best PR opportunity for every professional team.  After all, it feels like everybody’s batting a thousand before the first pitch. Technically, it’s .0000 but you get our meaning.  Warren Buffett is famous for hammering home the benefits  of protecting one’s brand.  The Marlins learned that lesson the hard way.  Do you want your chief executives growing your business or trying to save face for the company with broadcasters, Twitter followers and blog posts?

Private weather consultants are not necessary for every company.  However, after Opening Day, it’s definitely time for business executives to re-examine how Mother Nature could affect their bottom line.  You can’t change the weather but you can change how the weather affects your business.  We know.  We’ve been doing this for nearly 30 years for major league ball clubs, defense contractors, airports, schools and more.  It’s based on a simple concept:  Your pain drives our protocol. If Mother Nature can cause you great pain, get the right solution before the next storm.  That’s how businesses align their risk mitigation investments with a positive bottom line.