This guide is not intended to be a substitute for a carefully planned formal Business Continuity Management plan, but may assist in raising issues for consideration that might otherwise be overlooked in trying to continue the business.
1. Stakeholders: The expectation of clients/customers is that a business will have something in place to provide redundancy in the business functions and services provided to them. For the most part, they are not interested in the cause of a disruption: they are interested in how the business is going to continue to supply the service.
2. Objectives: It is important for an organisation to know its objectives to be able to determine those things that will have an impact on those objectives. In the case of a disaster / crisis, the only objective might be survival of the business.
3. Critical Functions: In developing a Business Continuity Management plan, it is necessary to conduct a business impact analysis to determine which functions of the business are critical to achieving the objectives of the organisation. By focusing on critical functions, the organisation's energy and resources will not be diverted to comparatively less important aspects.
4. Critical Vs Important: When considering the critical functions of a business, care has to be taken not to confuse critical with important. Many functions of a business will be important, but they may not be critical to the business achieving its objective. For example, the organisation may consider it important to provide staff with a canteen, but is it critical? Staff can bring their own lunches, or food can be outsourced in the short term.
5. Resources: To be able to maintain continuity during a significant event, the organisation will need to develop adequate resources. These resources include human resources in the form of sufficient numbers of staff, and appropriate staff. The resources may also include equipment such as heavy machinery or computers, necessary furniture, alternative accommodation etc.
6. Communication: In concentrating on taking steps to continue a business, it is all too easy to forget about communication. This communication could be with: staff in advising them of the organisations objectives and steps to recovery; or with the public in general in relevant circumstances.
7. Supply Chan: It may be the organisation is not directly affected by the disaster / crisis, but there could be an impact on the organisation's supply chain. It may be necessary to consider alternative suppliers - either immediately, or in the near future. Obviously, the supply chain aspect applies if the organisation is directly affected.
8. Leadership: Leadership is about being able to manage the stress levels and stay focused. Senior management need to be able to determine and establish priorities. Is about issuing unambiguous directives, which are a really interesting thing particularly in a crisis, and being able to monitor and assess results and responses.
9. Effective Coordination: Coordination is about knowing and using the resources. Those involved must be able to work as a team. It is necessary to have effective and timely communication, and be able to maintain situational awareness. It's about being able to understand what's going on. Being able to keep an eye on what's going on in each senior person's particular area.
10. Future Planning: It would be worthwhile keeping records of decisions / actions taken to address the disruption to provide guidance for the development of a formal Business Continuity Management plan after the business moves into recovery mode from the continuity phase. It may sound pessimistic, but if the business survives the disaster / crisis, the organisation should move to adopt sound business continuity management to improve resilience for the next event.
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