| What are the keys to business continuity awareness and up-take? By David Honour, editor, Continuity Central. From 23rd to 29th March, the Business Continuity Institute and supporting companies, individuals and organisations will be working hard to raise the awareness of the discipline through various activities and announcements associated with Business Continuity Awareness Week. This is an annual worldwide initiative led by the BCI with the express aim of “gaining maximum exposure for the discipline and for the role of the professional practitioner in delivering effective business continuity management”. Business Continuity Awareness Week is a laudable scheme, and one which Continuity Central is offering its full support, but by itself it is unlikely to have a widespread impact. The task of awareness building has been a slow and steady process over the past 15 years since BC as we know it had its birth. Growth in awareness was accelerated by the Y2K issue and by the horrific events of September 11th 2001 but, even so, awareness is still at best patchy, with many people still vaguely associating business continuity with the protection of IT systems. The depth and over-arching nature of true business continuity management is unappreciated by the vast majority of businesses. This is especially true in the small and medium size sector, where the mention of business continuity is more than likely to result in a blank stare. TWO SOLUTIONS The first key to awareness is the supply chain. The vast majority of BC professionals are employed by large companies with extended supply chains. Many suppliers within the chain will not have BC plans, thus placing other more prudent companies at risk. If the large company at the head of the supply chain was to insist that a condition of awarding any contract to its suppliers was the demonstration of tested and auditable business continuity plans, then BC would effectively be pushed down the supply chain, especially If suppliers were pressured to do the same, ensuring that their suppliers have auditable business continuity plans etc etc. Of course, the practicalities of this would not be simple; boards would have to be convinced that the effort was worthwhile; purchasing managers would have to be won over and BC managers would have to shoulder additional responsibilities and workloads. But the results would be worth the effort. The supply chain would be more reliable and business continuity awareness would take a leap forward. The second key to awareness building is the business banking sector. All banks are aware of business continuity, but very few make business continuity an important stipulation when assessing the financial status of new and existing business banking clients. Imagine going to a bank and asking for a business development loan. Quite rightly, the first thing that you will be asked for is a business plan – to convince the bank that their money will be in safe hands and that the risk of default is low. No business plan means no finance. How strange then, that the same does not apply to business continuity plans, the very thing that can protect the bank’s investment and ensure against bad debts. I believe that as a matter of course banks should be asking clients to show that effective business continuity plans are in place before making financing and investment decisions. No BC plan - no finance should be an additional mantra. Again, this would have both overheads and benefits. Banks would have to educate managers about the importance of BC and would have to spend time and effort on updating processes and procedures. But the benefits are substantial - higher business survival rates, reduced bad debts and business continuity awareness vastly increased in the small-to-medium size sector. Any more ideas? E-mail the editor
•Date:
21st March 2003 •Region: Worldwide •Type:
Article •Topic: BC
general |
