While his South Brisbane-based information and knowledge management consultancy was close to flood levels, besides power outages, it was relatively unaffected.
This allowed Glentworth to focus its efforts on assisting other businesses get back up and running.
"SMEs have perhaps been the hardest hit and we've been working with other organisations to support local initiatives," Mr Glentworth said.
As a key advisory and support capability to the Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA), Glentworth has been working with government, telcos and IT companies on the logistics required to help Brisbane businesses get back online and operating.
"While we assisted in project management behind the scenes to coordinate local business recovery, Local and State Governments have done a very good job at organizing information flow through mainstream and social media," Mr Glentworth said.
"Thanks to this, the post flood recovery has been smooth.
"Besides cleaning up the mud and sludge, our biggest challenge in Brisbane is economic recovery, but unlike some of the countries in the developing world in which I've worked, we are very fortunate in Queensland to have such good resources.
"My heart goes out to people, including my relatives, in the Lockyer Valley because their losses have been so much greater than economic."
In order to guard against natural disasters, Mr Glentworth recommended businesses examined the way in which they stored information, the knowledge required to use this information and how it could be accessed in a time of need.
"A flood like this doesn't happen everyday, but it's a reminder that when things go wrong, they can go terribly wrong, which is why it's essential for all businesses have a disaster management plan in place," Mr Glentworth said.
"Disasters don't have to be on a grand scale to be devastating.
"They can come in the form of fires, robberies, individual health issues or staff inappropriately accessing information and making inaccurate decisions that affect lives."
In order to safeguard against potential disasters, Mr Glentworth recommended storing information off-site.
"For many businesses, their knowledge is their greatest asset, so it's important to protect it," he said
Mr Glentworth said knowledge management was the discipline that focused on capturing, organizing, filtering, sharing and retaining key corporate knowledge as an asset.
"Organisations can learn from this crisis to enable better preventative and response procedures in the future," he said.
As well as its efforts to restore Brisbane's local economy, Glenworth has made cash donations of more than $2,000 to the flood appeal.
For further information, please contact the AIIA Queensland Flood Appeal LinkedIn Group AIIA Queensland Flood Appeal.
