(Seriously) What should DL have done?
Jul 24, 2024, 12:19 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Pleasant Prairie, WI USA DL FO (until 2/04), NW silver '03, NW gold '04+'05 Plat '06+ (thanks, Leo!), DL SkyClub
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Posts: 2,250
(Seriously) What should DL have done?
Being FlyerTalk, we know that there will be two concrete camps: those who expect airlines to work miracles and those who are what some have labeled "apologists." The truth is that in the chaff there will be some wheat and truth and best practices may come from sorting this out with an open mind.
This was not just a software meltdown. It was an operational and customer service crisis. Those of us frequent flyers (I'm 5400 miles away from two million miler status) know that there will be hiccups when flying. Weather issues, crew shortages, ATC restrictions and so on. It's unrealistic to expect that the airline will function flawlessly at all times. But when failures happen the critical factor is what is done about it. Some people will have extreme reactions in both directions. I will offer a hopefully reasoned approach based on an amalgam of sound business practices.
First, tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Oddly enough, a few years ago DL had a policy of being truthful about the reasons for flight delays. That seems to have evaporated over the years. But this is beyond an isolated situation. Instead of deflection, "We screwed up" is a good start followed by truthful admissions of why.
The next -- and more elusive -- issue boils down to a time-tested legal maxim, "What do you do to make the customer whole?" This will seldom be literally entirely possible. It's not unprecedented, of course. Flying a lot out of MKE I can testify to situations where NW and UA resolved cancellations and IRROPS by rebooking on YX direct flights that got me to my destination earlier (and with warm chocolate chip cookies). I saw NW resolve a mechanical on a MSP-MKE flight by putting us on a MSP-MSN flight and adding an intermediate stop at MKE. Another mechanical was a last flight out MSP-MKE on a 757. Red coat said NW ops was trying to find a new plane and then figure out how to rebook everyone without timing out the crew. I knew that an inbound from LAS that was landing was the exact same 757 configuration which would mean no wasted time with changing seat assignments. She called ops and voila, crew and pax all trotted down to the gate where the LAS inbound landed. I've seen stranded passengers "rescued" by sending in larger aircraft. And many other recoveries that were resolved by the human factor as opposed to algorithms.
I don't think there's a "one size fits all" solution or solutions but one possibility might be resurrect and strengthen the old "Rule 240." It may take legislation to accomplish this but in the event of, say, an emergency, then all carriers would be obligated to honor each other's tickets regardless of whether there's an interline agreement. The issuing carrier would be responsible for squaring things with the other carriers.
And then sometimes companies do well to go above and beyond the minimum. I had an AMC car with 100,000 miles on it. The fan blade broke loose and flew into the radiator, a freak occurrence. AMC's response? "Forget that it's out of warranty. Fan blades aren't supposed to break loose." And AMC paid for the repairs.
My take from 49 years of flying DL is that they have systemically reduced and eliminated the human element, relying too much on technology to recover without understanding that there's no viable backup when the technology fails. Where are Plans B and C? Where are the experienced employees who knew the back doors and workaround? They should assure that there can and will be system failures. (A friend who was a network reporter was showing me the latest and greatest newsroom and studio IT system. I asked him what happens when it barfs. We walked over to a closet in the sports department in which there was a stash of typewriters, ribbons and carbon paper!)
And then there's empowering people to do what needs to be done. Years ago at DCA a UA GA was trying to figure out how to accommodate passengers on a cancelled DCA-ORD flight. In rainy weather they were going to put us in cabs to BWI and try to find seats on BWI-ORD flights. I suggested that it would be easier and cheaper for them to put some of us on a YX DCA-MKE flight and then voucher for a couple of rental cars. Nine of us were willing to car pool this way and UA did it.
So, I suggest the first piece is telling the truth. The next is to empower people to make decisions to do whatever is reasonable to get people where they need to be, even if it means buying tickets on other carriers, vouchering for rental cars, what have you. And it needs to be an all hands on deck situation which means when there's a meltdown executive staff should be trained to jump into the trenches to pitch in. For its part, DL can't fail to plan and then eliminate the people and backup systems. All the extra miles, meal and hotel vouchers and E-credits don't help get people where they need to be.
DL touts itself as a premium airline with a great on time record, etc. But when the systems failed there was no viable backup plan and they were left with a colossal operational -- and customer relations -- mess. Software and computers fail. That's why there's a closet with typewriters and carbon paper.
This was not just a software meltdown. It was an operational and customer service crisis. Those of us frequent flyers (I'm 5400 miles away from two million miler status) know that there will be hiccups when flying. Weather issues, crew shortages, ATC restrictions and so on. It's unrealistic to expect that the airline will function flawlessly at all times. But when failures happen the critical factor is what is done about it. Some people will have extreme reactions in both directions. I will offer a hopefully reasoned approach based on an amalgam of sound business practices.
First, tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Oddly enough, a few years ago DL had a policy of being truthful about the reasons for flight delays. That seems to have evaporated over the years. But this is beyond an isolated situation. Instead of deflection, "We screwed up" is a good start followed by truthful admissions of why.
The next -- and more elusive -- issue boils down to a time-tested legal maxim, "What do you do to make the customer whole?" This will seldom be literally entirely possible. It's not unprecedented, of course. Flying a lot out of MKE I can testify to situations where NW and UA resolved cancellations and IRROPS by rebooking on YX direct flights that got me to my destination earlier (and with warm chocolate chip cookies). I saw NW resolve a mechanical on a MSP-MKE flight by putting us on a MSP-MSN flight and adding an intermediate stop at MKE. Another mechanical was a last flight out MSP-MKE on a 757. Red coat said NW ops was trying to find a new plane and then figure out how to rebook everyone without timing out the crew. I knew that an inbound from LAS that was landing was the exact same 757 configuration which would mean no wasted time with changing seat assignments. She called ops and voila, crew and pax all trotted down to the gate where the LAS inbound landed. I've seen stranded passengers "rescued" by sending in larger aircraft. And many other recoveries that were resolved by the human factor as opposed to algorithms.
I don't think there's a "one size fits all" solution or solutions but one possibility might be resurrect and strengthen the old "Rule 240." It may take legislation to accomplish this but in the event of, say, an emergency, then all carriers would be obligated to honor each other's tickets regardless of whether there's an interline agreement. The issuing carrier would be responsible for squaring things with the other carriers.
And then sometimes companies do well to go above and beyond the minimum. I had an AMC car with 100,000 miles on it. The fan blade broke loose and flew into the radiator, a freak occurrence. AMC's response? "Forget that it's out of warranty. Fan blades aren't supposed to break loose." And AMC paid for the repairs.
My take from 49 years of flying DL is that they have systemically reduced and eliminated the human element, relying too much on technology to recover without understanding that there's no viable backup when the technology fails. Where are Plans B and C? Where are the experienced employees who knew the back doors and workaround? They should assure that there can and will be system failures. (A friend who was a network reporter was showing me the latest and greatest newsroom and studio IT system. I asked him what happens when it barfs. We walked over to a closet in the sports department in which there was a stash of typewriters, ribbons and carbon paper!)
And then there's empowering people to do what needs to be done. Years ago at DCA a UA GA was trying to figure out how to accommodate passengers on a cancelled DCA-ORD flight. In rainy weather they were going to put us in cabs to BWI and try to find seats on BWI-ORD flights. I suggested that it would be easier and cheaper for them to put some of us on a YX DCA-MKE flight and then voucher for a couple of rental cars. Nine of us were willing to car pool this way and UA did it.
So, I suggest the first piece is telling the truth. The next is to empower people to make decisions to do whatever is reasonable to get people where they need to be, even if it means buying tickets on other carriers, vouchering for rental cars, what have you. And it needs to be an all hands on deck situation which means when there's a meltdown executive staff should be trained to jump into the trenches to pitch in. For its part, DL can't fail to plan and then eliminate the people and backup systems. All the extra miles, meal and hotel vouchers and E-credits don't help get people where they need to be.
DL touts itself as a premium airline with a great on time record, etc. But when the systems failed there was no viable backup plan and they were left with a colossal operational -- and customer relations -- mess. Software and computers fail. That's why there's a closet with typewriters and carbon paper.
Jul 24, 2024, 2:55 am
#2
Join Date: Oct 2011
Posts: 62
So, I suggest the first piece is telling the truth. The next is to empower people to make decisions to do whatever is reasonable to get people where they need to be, even if it means buying tickets on other carriers, vouchering for rental cars, what have you. And it needs to be an all hands on deck situation which means when there's a meltdown executive staff should be trained to jump into the trenches to pitch in. For its part, DL can't fail to plan and then eliminate the people and backup systems. All the extra miles, meal and hotel vouchers and E-credits don't help get people where they need to be.
DL touts itself as a premium airline with a great on time record, etc. But when the systems failed there was no viable backup plan and they were left with a colossal operational -- and customer relations -- mess. Software and computers fail. That's why there's a closet with typewriters and carbon paper.
DL touts itself as a premium airline with a great on time record, etc. But when the systems failed there was no viable backup plan and they were left with a colossal operational -- and customer relations -- mess. Software and computers fail. That's why there's a closet with typewriters and carbon paper.
What Delta needed was a substantial, long-term investment in its IT infrastructure, including (a) developing robust systems and (b) creating comprehensive contingency plans for major failures that are regularly tested with simulated failures. Companies like Google, Meta, and Amazon do not rely on "typewriters" or "carbon paper" or having their executive staff "jump into the trenches" to deal with system failures; instead, they continuously invest vast amounts in their IT services so their systems are highly resilient, and they regularly conduct dry runs of rigorous disaster recovery plans, so their systems can quickly and efficiently recover with minimal manual work.
Southwest saw the consequences of neglecting IT in the 2022 holiday meltdown. Delta is seeing it this year. The solution is pretty clear: IT must be treated not as just a cost center, but as a top-tier strategic priority, second only to safety. (Though the two should not be in tension, as a resilient IT system improves safety.) This means hiring and empowering the right people—experts from top-tier tech companies instead of MBAs—and ensuring they have enough resources to accomplish their goals. No airline IT system is going to be as resilient as Google's, but Delta can and should get a lot closer to Google-level resiliency from where it is right now.
Last edited by Bbcei; Jul 24, 2024 at 3:20 am
Jul 24, 2024, 7:05 am
#3
Original Poster
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Pleasant Prairie, WI USA DL FO (until 2/04), NW silver '03, NW gold '04+'05 Plat '06+ (thanks, Leo!), DL SkyClub
Programs: DL Plat/ Million Miler, AS, Hilton, Marriott Bonvoy, Piggly Wiggly Pig Points
Posts: 2,250
This is not helpful. Yes, telling the truth and empowering local employees to be flexible is great for dealing with a canceled flight at your local airport. But at Delta's scale, these measures are utterly insufficient for addressing a massive systemic issue like the CrowdStrike-induced outage.
What Delta needed was a substantial, long-term investment in its IT infrastructure, including (a) developing robust systems and (b) creating comprehensive contingency plans for major failures that are regularly tested with simulated failures. Companies like Google, Meta, and Amazon do not rely on "typewriters" or "carbon paper" or having their executive staff "jump into the trenches" to deal with system failures; instead, they continuously invest vast amounts in their IT services so their systems are highly resilient, and they regularly conduct dry runs of rigorous disaster recovery plans, so their systems can quickly and efficiently recover with minimal manual work.
Southwest saw the consequences of neglecting IT in the 2022 holiday meltdown. Delta is seeing it this year. The solution is pretty clear: IT must be treated not as just a cost center, but as a top-tier strategic priority, second only to safety. (Though the two should not be in tension, as a resilient IT system improves safety.) This means hiring and empowering the right people—experts from top-tier tech companies instead of MBAs—and ensuring they have enough resources to accomplish their goals. No airline IT system is going to be as resilient as Google's, but Delta can and should get a lot closer to Google-level resiliency from where it is right now.
What Delta needed was a substantial, long-term investment in its IT infrastructure, including (a) developing robust systems and (b) creating comprehensive contingency plans for major failures that are regularly tested with simulated failures. Companies like Google, Meta, and Amazon do not rely on "typewriters" or "carbon paper" or having their executive staff "jump into the trenches" to deal with system failures; instead, they continuously invest vast amounts in their IT services so their systems are highly resilient, and they regularly conduct dry runs of rigorous disaster recovery plans, so their systems can quickly and efficiently recover with minimal manual work.
Southwest saw the consequences of neglecting IT in the 2022 holiday meltdown. Delta is seeing it this year. The solution is pretty clear: IT must be treated not as just a cost center, but as a top-tier strategic priority, second only to safety. (Though the two should not be in tension, as a resilient IT system improves safety.) This means hiring and empowering the right people—experts from top-tier tech companies instead of MBAs—and ensuring they have enough resources to accomplish their goals. No airline IT system is going to be as resilient as Google's, but Delta can and should get a lot closer to Google-level resiliency from where it is right now.
Jul 24, 2024, 7:43 am
#4
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: KATL
Programs: DL DM/2MM
Posts: 2,050
Delta should've paid pax to postpone their travel. Seriously.
Instead of throwing more people into the Next Group of Stranded Travelers lottery hopper, they should be incentivizing people to delay any non-essential travel to allow all of the stranded people a fighting chance or making it to their destination.
I find it insulting that Delta is touting "you can cancel your trip and receive a voucher" as if it's some sort of magnanimous gesture, when that's just SOP that anyone can take advantage of at any time.
Whatever incentive they could give to postpone plans pales in comparison to the compensation and operational loss - not to mention reputation hit - that they're currently experiencing.
Instead of throwing more people into the Next Group of Stranded Travelers lottery hopper, they should be incentivizing people to delay any non-essential travel to allow all of the stranded people a fighting chance or making it to their destination.
I find it insulting that Delta is touting "you can cancel your trip and receive a voucher" as if it's some sort of magnanimous gesture, when that's just SOP that anyone can take advantage of at any time.
Whatever incentive they could give to postpone plans pales in comparison to the compensation and operational loss - not to mention reputation hit - that they're currently experiencing.
Jul 24, 2024, 7:49 am
#5
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too many “backup plans” would involve front-line customer-facing people actually getting creative
as in OPs examples, “creative” would likely involve an affected customer coming up with a workable idea and sharing it with the airline staff — who, sadly, would likely be too overwhelmed to even begin to think about how to implement it
I also agree 1000% that bringing back Rule 240 or an equivalent method by which Airline A can push distressed pax to Airline B would go a long way toward alleviating some of this chaos
as in OPs examples, “creative” would likely involve an affected customer coming up with a workable idea and sharing it with the airline staff — who, sadly, would likely be too overwhelmed to even begin to think about how to implement it
I also agree 1000% that bringing back Rule 240 or an equivalent method by which Airline A can push distressed pax to Airline B would go a long way toward alleviating some of this chaos
Jul 24, 2024, 7:54 am
#6
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: DTW
Programs: DL - PM, (NW - Plat), AA - Gold, Marriott - Plat, Avis - First
Posts: 966
1. Invest in IT systems, redundancies
2. Practice disaster recovery scenarios / war games
3. Invest in more crew scheduling resources and staffing; realize this a critical dependency to your operation
4. Collaborate with the pilots union and the FAs to come up with policies and procedures that comply with the PWA and all FARs to help better enable easier IRROPS recovery (e.g. deadheading crew members can fly when there is a missing crew, getting commuting pilots at outstations to cover when no crew)
5. Evaluate all the crazy scheduling/routing/staff situations when you have numerous pilot/FA/tail swaps at hubs throughout the operating day; how does this lead to meltdown situations
6. Evaluate where to "firewall" some fleet/tails and hubs; e.g, limit the scenarios of when ATL goes down, it brings down the network
7. (the item above) when massive IRROPs, encourage people not to travel; allow full refunds, not just credit/vouchers, or maybe a credit on top of the refund/voucher
8. I am sure there are a lot more
2. Practice disaster recovery scenarios / war games
3. Invest in more crew scheduling resources and staffing; realize this a critical dependency to your operation
4. Collaborate with the pilots union and the FAs to come up with policies and procedures that comply with the PWA and all FARs to help better enable easier IRROPS recovery (e.g. deadheading crew members can fly when there is a missing crew, getting commuting pilots at outstations to cover when no crew)
5. Evaluate all the crazy scheduling/routing/staff situations when you have numerous pilot/FA/tail swaps at hubs throughout the operating day; how does this lead to meltdown situations
6. Evaluate where to "firewall" some fleet/tails and hubs; e.g, limit the scenarios of when ATL goes down, it brings down the network
7. (the item above) when massive IRROPs, encourage people not to travel; allow full refunds, not just credit/vouchers, or maybe a credit on top of the refund/voucher
8. I am sure there are a lot more
Jul 24, 2024, 7:57 am
#7
Join Date: May 2006
Location: New to BWI as of 2021; say hi if you're in the area!
Programs: UA GS
Posts: 490
What's the issue with DL and rebooking on other airlines? Not related to the recent CrowdStrike situation, but I've had a couple of recent instances where a UA flight went sideways, DL had space that the agent could see (and I could see too), the agent was willing to rebook me on DL, but DL just wouldn't confirm the seats. My experiences seem like they're cut from the same cloth. Is DL just unwilling to rebook passengers on OAL in the US, and vice versa?
Jul 24, 2024, 8:00 am
#8
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: KATL
Programs: DL DM/2MM
Posts: 2,050
There just isn't enough capacity out there in the entire market to accommodate all of the pax that DL is stranding.
The only solution is for DL to acknowledge that they cannot currently meet all of their obligations to all the people that they've sold tickets to, and to incentivize people away from non-essential travel.
Jul 24, 2024, 8:03 am
#9
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: ATL
Programs: DL DM, 2 MM, UA Silver (thanks Marriott!), Marriott Ambassador
Posts: 311
One thing I am not quite 100% clear on, as an old-timer (well I am really not THAT old, but flew a lot as a kid, and my Dad was a true road warrior back in the 70s and 80s - based in ATL - so guess who we flew a whole lot??)...
I understand the concept of interline agreements, but it seems in the past couple of decades, those are a lot more fuzzy and limited than I remember as a kid. Why is that? Back in those days, when we had physical printed tickets (that were basically treated like cash, and could be traded and redeemed like cash at an airline ticket counter..), you could basically show up with a ticket on ANY airline (with maybe the exception of PSA in California, IIRC) and apply that ticket's value (or segment values for the segments you had remaining in it..), toward travel on any other airline's flights, no questions asked for the most part, and it seemed EASY. They would take your ticket and the back office would sort it out among the involved airlines later somehow. When did this change and why did it change? It seems I remember this after deregulation as well, so i do not think it was that. It seems like going back to this would benefit everyone.. Transfer whatever value your tickets still have left to other carriers, within the 1 year ticket validity dates..
I understand the concept of interline agreements, but it seems in the past couple of decades, those are a lot more fuzzy and limited than I remember as a kid. Why is that? Back in those days, when we had physical printed tickets (that were basically treated like cash, and could be traded and redeemed like cash at an airline ticket counter..), you could basically show up with a ticket on ANY airline (with maybe the exception of PSA in California, IIRC) and apply that ticket's value (or segment values for the segments you had remaining in it..), toward travel on any other airline's flights, no questions asked for the most part, and it seemed EASY. They would take your ticket and the back office would sort it out among the involved airlines later somehow. When did this change and why did it change? It seems I remember this after deregulation as well, so i do not think it was that. It seems like going back to this would benefit everyone.. Transfer whatever value your tickets still have left to other carriers, within the 1 year ticket validity dates..
Jul 24, 2024, 8:11 am
#10
Join Date: May 2016
Location: ATL
Programs: DL GM, Marriott Titanium
Posts: 1,274
Not an expert (but as a shareholder I would suggest):
- IT investment
- drills to practice disaster scenarios
- training and empowering new hires to use DLTERM/more powerful functions than the user interface, to allow them to have more creative solutions in IROPS
- looking at network planning to re-evaluate how many flights need to touch ATL versus other hubs (it seems like ATL is increasingly becoming a single point of failure in the network)
Jul 24, 2024, 8:16 am
#11
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: ATL
Programs: DL DM, 2 MM, UA Silver (thanks Marriott!), Marriott Ambassador
Posts: 311
too many “backup plans” would involve front-line customer-facing people actually getting creative
as in OPs examples, “creative” would likely involve an affected customer coming up with a workable idea and sharing it with the airline staff — who, sadly, would likely be too overwhelmed to even begin to think about how to implement it
I also agree 1000% that bringing back Rule 240 or an equivalent method by which Airline A can push distressed pax to Airline B would go a long way toward alleviating some of this chaos
as in OPs examples, “creative” would likely involve an affected customer coming up with a workable idea and sharing it with the airline staff — who, sadly, would likely be too overwhelmed to even begin to think about how to implement it
I also agree 1000% that bringing back Rule 240 or an equivalent method by which Airline A can push distressed pax to Airline B would go a long way toward alleviating some of this chaos
Jul 24, 2024, 8:23 am
#12
Join Date: Jun 2024
Posts: 312
Well, I agree that in crisis mode, many agents are too overwhelmed to have the time to get creative... However, developing a creative culture is a mindset that DL should start begin to foster within its ranks. This starts with hiring people who possess good judgment and who you trust to do the right thing (within reason) all of the time. Give them more leeway to "bend the rules" and encourage them to do so as part of being effective in problem resolution when necessary.. If this culture and mindset is developed and encouraged within the ranks when things are going well, it will spill over to the crises as well.. Too many staff these days don't know how to resolve a situation unless they can color by numbers.. That's not premium..
Jul 24, 2024, 8:27 am
#13
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: ATL
Programs: DL DM, 2 MM, UA Silver (thanks Marriott!), Marriott Ambassador
Posts: 311
I agree and would submit that this is the culture DL used to have, but it's largely disappeared over the last 5 or so years. It was on its way out prior to the pandemic, but the mass retirements of senior employees (both frontline and behind the scenes) who had experience and knew where the bodies were buried has fundamentally changed a lot.
Jul 24, 2024, 8:36 am
#14
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Here are some additional suggestions:
In addition to the incentive pay for crew, do this for other customer service positions: GAs, redcoats, phone agents, etc. Many phone agents work from home (I think), so encourage them to even take partial shifts of an hour or two when they're available during a meltdown. While I understand that overtime can't be required, especially without advanced notice, try to get as many hands on deck as possible, including management people who might have started with DL in customer service positions. Surely some of them once knew DTERM and can learn the basics of point and click quite quickly.
Imagine what the optics would have been if CNN could have shown Ed Bastian (or interview a customer about this) at ATL among the DL folks in vests who showed up to try to help at hubs. All levels of salaried employees up to the CEO (but of course not anyone who knows about IT/crew scheduling) should be spending time trying to help when a crisis of this type happens, even if they're only able to apologize and thank customers. Maybe better would be for Ed to postpone his junket to Paris and show his face at ATL until it's clear that the meltdown is truly over; hopefully this will be in time for him to make the Olympics closing ceremony.
It probably doesn't matter, but I find the Tom Brady role to be offensive. For the money he's getting, he should also be spending lots of time doing vest duties at ATL. Do something marginally useful instead of pretending to advise DL on strategy.
In addition to the incentive pay for crew, do this for other customer service positions: GAs, redcoats, phone agents, etc. Many phone agents work from home (I think), so encourage them to even take partial shifts of an hour or two when they're available during a meltdown. While I understand that overtime can't be required, especially without advanced notice, try to get as many hands on deck as possible, including management people who might have started with DL in customer service positions. Surely some of them once knew DTERM and can learn the basics of point and click quite quickly.
Imagine what the optics would have been if CNN could have shown Ed Bastian (or interview a customer about this) at ATL among the DL folks in vests who showed up to try to help at hubs. All levels of salaried employees up to the CEO (but of course not anyone who knows about IT/crew scheduling) should be spending time trying to help when a crisis of this type happens, even if they're only able to apologize and thank customers. Maybe better would be for Ed to postpone his junket to Paris and show his face at ATL until it's clear that the meltdown is truly over; hopefully this will be in time for him to make the Olympics closing ceremony.
It probably doesn't matter, but I find the Tom Brady role to be offensive. For the money he's getting, he should also be spending lots of time doing vest duties at ATL. Do something marginally useful instead of pretending to advise DL on strategy.
Jul 24, 2024, 8:40 am
#15
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After the fact - not much they could have done since they were totally and hilariously under-prepared.
Risk planning and mitigation should've been in place prior to this occurring, and scenarios should've been practiced/gamed to see how the systems and organization could respond.
Along with that, corporate culture and empowerment of individual end line employees has to exist to support being creative and be supported from the top down... and that is missing from the exec leadership.
Risk planning and mitigation should've been in place prior to this occurring, and scenarios should've been practiced/gamed to see how the systems and organization could respond.
Along with that, corporate culture and empowerment of individual end line employees has to exist to support being creative and be supported from the top down... and that is missing from the exec leadership.