- Don Carlos Lee Gibson Jr, General Manager at Marietta Motors LLC and Westfall Towing in Marietta, Ohio, describes how structured emergency planning and day-to-day operational discipline reinforce each other in multi-sector management.
Preparedness as Operational Practice
Ohio, USA, 15th May 2026, ZEX PR WIRE — Most conversations about business continuity focus on catastrophic scenarios. Don Carlos Lee Gibson Jr approaches the topic differently. In his view, the same discipline required to maintain FEMA disaster certification or an OSHA safety standard is the discipline that keeps a dealership profitable on an unremarkable Tuesday in Ohio. The two are not separate categories of readiness. They are the same standard applied at different scales.
Gibson obtained both his OSHA 30 certification and his FEMA Disaster and Recovery certification in November 2024. For a professional already accustomed to managing multi-entity operations — including a combined automotive dealership and towing service — those credentials formalized a preparation mindset he had been applying throughout his career.
What Prepared Leaders Do Differently
Gibson points to documentation as the most undervalued operational tool in small and midsize businesses. Many organizations, in his experience, run on institutional memory rather than written systems. When a key team member leaves, the process leaves with them. The businesses that perform most consistently — through market pressure, personnel changes, and unexpected disruptions — are the ones with documented, enforced, consistently communicated operating procedures.
His career has tested this theory across several industries. In golf resort operations, the seasonal and event-driven nature of the business demands clear protocols. In healthcare-adjacent bookkeeping services, accuracy and audit readiness are baseline requirements. In automotive management, process gaps surface immediately in customer experience and financial performance. In each case, Gibson’s approach has been the same: build the structure before the pressure arrives.
A Framework for Everyday Preparedness
Gibson offers a straightforward approach for business owners and operations managers who want to improve their preparedness posture. Map every critical process. Identify which ones exist only in someone’s head. Write them down, standardize them, and test whether someone unfamiliar with the role can execute them using that documentation alone. Then review the list quarterly. The process does not need to be elaborate. It needs to be consistent.
For teams, he recommends regular tabletop exercises — not necessarily tied to disaster scenarios, but to any operational situation that requires cross-functional response. The goal is not to predict every problem. It is to build the habit of coordinated response before a real problem demands it.
About Don Carlos Lee Gibson Jr
Don Carlos Lee Gibson Jr is the General Manager at Marietta Motors LLC and Westfall Towing in Marietta, Ohio. He is a United States Army veteran and a multi-decade operations leader with career experience in military intelligence, golf resort management, business consulting, and automotive dealership leadership. He holds an OSHA 30 certification and FEMA Disaster and Recovery certification and is active in several community mentorship and volunteer organizations in southeast Ohio. More information is available at doncarlosleegibsonjr.com.
Try documenting one undocumented process in your business this week and share it with a team member who can test whether the documentation is clear enough to use without assistance.
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