I recently was facilitating a planning meeting for one of my clients. The topic of discussion and the focus of our planning efforts for the entire day was business continuity.
Oddly enough, the next day, a tragedy occurred in Milwaukee when a propane tank exploded at the Falk Corp., creating tragic personal and corporate loss.
The thing that impressed me most regarding what we heard on the news were the words of a Falk employee during a news interview. This employee basically said, “The loss of life is a tragedy and the loss of corporate assets and our ability to continue on with normal day-to-day business operations is hugely unfortunate, however, we have a great management team and we (the employees) have confidence in management’s ability to lead us through this tragic event.”
Wow, what a compliment to Falk’s leadership team. And although I don’t know much about the Falk organization, those kinds of compliments only come when leadership has earned, over time, the respect of the employee team. In this case, the Falk leadership team has likely earned the reputation of being fair, honest, good decision makers and good planners.
Why is business continuity planning importantω
The answer is obvious, of course. But the percentage of businesses with a written business continuity plan for their company is very small. In other words, many, if not most businesses, do not have a business continuity plan. In fact, it’s human nature to look on the bright side of things, suggesting that nothing bad, like a disaster, will ever happen within our company.
Business continuity planning helps us prepare for unforeseen disruptive events such as storms, power outages, phone lines downed, water damage, etc. In fact, last August, one of my clients suffered an unexpected disruptive event in their business. In the office suite next to theirs, a water line burst, creating a flood. My client had approximately six inches of water on the floor throughout the entire office at their corporate headquarters. Obviously this was a disruption, but fortunately, because they were prepared and well-organized, they were able to continue on with business, directing customer calls and other operations off-site without interrupting service to their customer base. Also, when looking at their profit and loss statement, you couldn’t tell that a disruptive event had hit their business. A sign of strong and capable leadership!
In creating your company’s business continuity plan, you’ll need to involve each department head. Also, engage additional non-management thought leaders throughout the organization in business continuity planning. Having one or two additional people from each department will help to ensure you’re not missing any critical planning elements.
Planning template
The following is a simple but meaningful template providing any leadership team with the basic planning categories as the foundation for creating a business continuity plan. By department, have your planning team respond to the following:
Mission critical business processes, priorities and/or functions
Align your business continuity planning with the business processes, priorities and/or functions having the greatest impact on your clients and on business operations. Identify your departments’ mission critical business processes, priorities and/or functions.
Greatest obstacles and/or inefficiencies
Identify the greatest obstacles negatively impacting your departments’ ability to ensure business continuity according to the above business processes, priorities and/or business functions.
Business process and functional priorities
According to each mission critical business process, priority and/or function, develop your plan for ensuring business continuity in the event of any unforeseen business disruption event.
Technology priorities
Identify the plan to ensure business continuity as it relates to technology and mechanical priorities within your department.
People priorities
Identify the staffing plan that would support the goal of ensuring business continuity within your department in the event we experience a business disruption. Consider internal and external staffing/partner resources for back-up and supplemental support.
Communications strategy
Develop a list of key contacts (and/or strategic partners) that will assist your department in the event of a business disruption.
Document the roles and responsibilities of each key contact (or strategic partner) in the event of a business disruption.
Document the communication priority map in the event of a business disruption event.
Once your leadership team has gained consensus with regards to the completed business continuity plan, be sure the following is true:
1. Every person in your company is aware of and understands the business continuity plan for their particular department.
2. The completed plan, when executed properly, ensures business continuity in the event of a disruptive event.
3. Your business continuity plan is reviewed regularly to test previous assumptions, and to reveal and accommodate changes in personnel, facilities, strategic partners, contact information, etc.
