The business continuity team as a profit center
In the process of making our inbound call assurance service known to the business continuity world during the last few years, we have had the pleasure of engaging in conversation with a great many of business continuity managers. A good number of you have expressed disappointment and frustration with the level of acceptance that executives have accorded your efforts, especially when it comes to the budgetary process. This need not be the case. Business continuity planning is important and it needs to be more than an inward facing activity that focuses on the continuation of internal processes. Business continuity needs to look at the external world that interacts with it; it needs to understand why they do so and it must focus on how to continue that interaction in the face of unusual or disastrous circumstances. After all, it makes little difference how well our internal processes function if those who interact with us are unable to do so. More importantly, there needs to be an understanding of who that world is, what their needs are, what those needs mean to us and how they interact with us. This level of understanding leads to a different kind of focus, one that not only ensures the continued economic vitality of our own organizations but also that of those who interact with us. So, who are all those people? They are people. Just like us. They are our customers and our suppliers. They too, can be faced with disastrous circumstances and while not necessarily in our geographic proximity, those circumstances can affect us as well. Do they have the kinds of business continuity expertise that you possess? In many cases the answer will be ‘No!’ Why is that? Many organizations are faced with extreme pressure to produce revenue on a daily basis to ensure their survival. Those efforts leave them little time to contemplate events that may seriously impact their continued well being. Or perhaps, they simply haven’t developed an appreciation for the importance of business continuity planning. You can change that. You can make your and your team's expertise and tools available to your customers and suppliers and, in doing so, you can help to ensure their continued economic viability as well as your own. And, in doing so you can turn business continuity into a profit center in its own right with a healthy budget and a seat at the executive table. Contact Mike Bemis at mike.bemis@voiceserv.net
•Date: 14th Feb 2007• Region: US/World •Type: Article •Topic: BC general |
