It’s All for You

At the end of the day, the business continuity plan is never for me; it’s always for the organization. The core question is whether your staff is trained to respond and maintain critical functions when a disruption occurs, and whether recovery plans are in place if disaster strikes. It’s the planning that takes place on blue sky days to handle the unexpected storms of disruption. A few months ago, as I was evaluating a business, one of its leaders said, “Why do we need to add all of this information to our business continuity plan? I’ll add it for you.”

FEMA data shows 40% of businesses will never reopen after a disaster. Another 25% fail within one year. Businesses unable to resume operations within five days have a 90% failure rate within one year. Today’s disasters expose organizations to risks beyond natural disasters. The COVID-19 pandemic was only six years ago, and yet its ripple effects can still be felt today. Businesses face seen and unseen threats every day. Recently, IBM reported a 44% year-over-year increase in the exploitation of public-facing software and systems.

Creating a culture that accepts disruptions requires leadership buy-in and an organizational approach to respond and recover when disruptions happen.

When an organization assesses its risks and business impacts, it should be clear which critical functions to prioritize when a disruption happens. From there, an organization can establish how it will respond and recover to all types of disruptions/hazards.