Don’t let the loss of single critical resource cause you to lose money Business Continuity Planning is the process of putting in place the necessary measures and plans to prevent disruptive incidents from damaging your business. One of the measures that needs to be taken is to remove, as far as possible, single points of…
Don’t ignore risks unless you know they won’t occur An item on Monday’s (5th December 2011) “You and Yours” on BBC Radio Four caught my attention. The item was on flooding and how it is becoming more common in the UK; despite the increased spending on flood prevention by the Environment Agency. Much was said…
Business Continuity is about knowing what to do when something bad happens There are many definitions of Business Continuity, but the essence is that people must know how to react when something untoward happens in the business. That way, they can take immediate action to: ensure everybody and everything is safe; prevent matters getting worse;…
How flooding in Thailand can affect a business in the UK A news item on Channel Pro leaves me wondering if Chaos Theory really does apply to Business Continuity Planning. Chaos Theory deals with situations in which a very slight change in the initial conditions can have a dramatic effect on the outcome of a…
A Risk Matrix should form the core of your Business Continuity Plan The image above shows an extract from Suffolk County Council’s Community Risk Register (CRR) in the form of a matrix. (Click to see a larger version) It shows the probability and impact of a number of potential events that might create an adverse…
Business Continuity Planning should be seen as an investment in the future of your business, but it can also help to reduce your costs. The other day, I was asked if the cost of introducing business continuity planning would be offset by a reduction in insurance premiums. This was the answer that I gave. Business…
The objective of business continuity planning is to protect the critical activities in your organisation from unnecessary disruption. But what is a critical activity? Criticality, for the purposes of business continuity planning, is determined by the degree to which the organisation would suffer if that activity were to be disrupted. The impact on the organisation…
Survey shows that small businesses need to take Business Continuity more seriously than they currently do The Chartered Management Institute (CMI) recently published its annual survey of disaster preparedness in the UK, and it doesn’t make good reading if you are a small business. Produced in association with AON, the Business Continuity Institute (BCI), The…
Planning for the continuity of your business after a disaster should be part of your day job Business As Usual is a term that is used to describe activities that form part of your normal day-to-day operations. This contrasts from those activities that change the way the business runs: such as enhancement projects, infrastructure upgrades,…
Does our increasing dependence on GPS expose our businesses to unnecessary risks? Does your Business Continuity Plan cover this risk? In a recent report, the Royal Academy of Engineering warned that the UK is becoming dangerously over-reliant on GPS satellite navigation. It goes on to recommend that businesses should have Contingency Plans for dealing with…
