Most West Midlands firms are ill-prepared for even the most minor office disaster, a study has found.
The Chartered Management Institute discovered 51 per cent of the region's businesses had no action plan in case their computer network failed or several senior managers left at the same time.
The study showed companies preferred to hope disasters would never strike rather than devise a strategy to deal with them if and when they did.
Gemma Bird, from the Chartered Management Institute, said: "In the worst case scenario, a company could go bust if they don't have a disaster plan."
The study found the banking sector and organisations with a turnover greater than £11 million were most likely to have a disaster management plan. If there was a disaster management plan, how ever, it was rarely if ever tested.
Just 52 per cent of the 440 firms included in the study tested their disaster plans more than once a year.
