| Viewpoint: you can take the horse to water but can you make it drink? Business continuity and the risk focussed company culture. By David Birch, operations director, BT CommSure. Similar to the strategic management fad in the 1980’s we now live in an age where everyone thinks they can offer advice on business continuity, and far too many executives think that once they have completed the planning phase they have embedded BC within their company. Perhaps the old adage, a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing, fits nicely in summing up this dilemma. In many respects what we are looking at here is individuals and companies getting lost in the strategic process of BC. Companies seem to be widely missing the point that all the strategic planning in the world will not help them without an ongoing tactical BC program. So, how do companies take steps to address this oversight? Well, the remedy to this lies in taking BC out of the hands of the few and placing it into the hands of the many. Essentially, this is a discussion about the creation of a business continuity culture, a reality in which BC becomes part and parcel of the company, rather than the domain of a particular person or function. The advantages of having an organisation with employees that have a much greater understanding and appreciation of risk really speak for itself. However, with all the new found BC specialists jumping on the bandwagon, surely the $64,000 question is ‘How does an organisation successfully promote such a phenomenon?’ John Sharp, CEO of The Business Continuity Institute, comments: “The successful embedding of a business continuity management culture within an organisation is primarily dependent upon it becoming an integral part of the organisation’s strategic and day-to-day management ethos in contrast to its traditional ‘bolt on’ role.” For years the industry has been calling for BC to reach a much wider audience, but how can we expect to achieve this when only a handful of individuals within organisations are BC savvy? This is where the problem lies and where organisations need to start on their path to a BC culture. In the first instance, companies must develop
a clear statement on where and how they view BC within their organisation.
This needs to be backed up by a comprehensive education programme
that will not only introduce the concept of BC but will clearly
demonstrate its real world applications. In turn, this should be
underpinned by a framework that provides both financial support
and a responsibility matrix. As an organisation that attempts to practice what it preaches, BT as a whole has taken clear steps to promote BC within its own culture. In 2000, it deployed BC management company wide, this was accompanied by the empowerment of a Business Continuity Management Council (BCMC), whose goal was to coordinate and oversee this process. The BCMC has determined that middle and lower management – who are directly responsible for key business processes – should all be trained in order to embed a BC culture. This has been backed up by a web based training programme, which has given employees competency in a range of BC skills, including business impact analysis and the development of BC plans. It is important to note that as companies communicate BC to a wider audience, it is critical that the audience in question is aware that BC is not the domain of just one business area – whether that be IT or facilities management. BC infiltrates every area of a business, and employees should be aware that it can play a role in every facet of their day-to-day activities. Although the need to further spread the BC message often revolves around creating awareness lower down the chain of command, we should not lose sight that changing company culture involves communication both up and down the corporate ladder. Promoting boardroom buy-in will play a major role in the development of the BC process and will set a precedent that BC features in the work of everyone across an organisation. The pressing need to develop BC company culture overlaps significantly with another topical industry issue; the necessity of extending BC throughout the supply chain. In essence, these two key issues are concerned with a similar goal i.e. incorporating a greater range of company stakeholders in order to further BC's efficacy. As the BC culture drive intensifies, a few words of warning should be heeded by even the most forward thinking organisations. Most importantly is that this process should proceed as an ongoing programme, laying down measures for reviewing and updating BC within an organisation. This needs to fully encompass the views and inputs of all stakeholders in order to be truly representative. However, before we all start shouting that we need a BC culture, let us not forget the scope of the task we are undertaking. Changing company culture is not like changing light switches. This is a complex, often intangible process, whose start and end date may not be easily defined. Equally, we should not forget the benefits, besides the obvious advantages of creating a BC focussed environment; there are the indirect benefits such as development of internal communication and employee relationships. The strategy of making BC planning a much more comprehensive process, which takes input from a wider audience, will naturally bring about a discipline that is more representative and effective within the organisation it serves. The BC world has seen a new dawn, and not before time, whereby we now recognise that in order for the discipline to become a reality of everyday business, rather than another passing fad, it must incorporate a far greater number and range of company stakeholders. In order to generate acceptance and behavioural changes amongst these parties, companies must be fully prepared to not only demonstrate the nuts and bolts of BC, but also, the practical implications it has for all roles and activities within an organisation. www.business-systems.bt.com/commsure/
•Date:
2nd May 2003 •Region: Worldwide / UK •Type:
Article •Topic: BC
general |
