For the past five years, the media and dozens of organizations have advised people to prepare for emergencies. Sometimes, in their fervor to accomplish that mission, these groups approach the tone of begging about preparedness. The media repeats messages of urgency from groups such as the Salvation Army, the American Red Cross, churches, trade associations, and government agencies like the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and specifically FEMA. The plea that goes out from these churches, trade associations, schools, police and firefighters, etc. all promotes the same message to businesses, their employees and families. The method may vary, but the message, mostly based on need and fear, is always this: "Get Prepared NOW" for a disaster or emergency." Fear with a capital "F" has been wielded as the primary motivator.

With all the media attention, public service announcements and federal money spent on emergency preparedness, especially from the federal government since 9/11, one would expect a dramatic increase in the number of businesses and families that are well prepared for an unexpected event than were prepared prior to 9/11.

However, many surveys have shown just the opposite. Preparedness-related activities have remained fairly constant or declined slightly since 9/11. Further, the survey conclusions indicate that the overwhelming majority of American businesses and their employees have not responded to the media messages and have not embraced the need for "preparedness." This data suggests that the current approach to encouraging preparedness is ineffective, and a new method of communicating the importance of developing business and personal preparedness plans is needed.

The Emergency Preparedness Institute has created "The Preparedness Clock", developed and maintained as a symbol to monitor America's business and employees' preparedness for a catastrophe.

It is currently set at 40 minutes to the hour, (with 12:00 representing 100% preparedness) and will be reset one minute for each additional (or decreased) 3% of businesses and their employees, according to new surveys, that are reporting their levels of preparedness.