Modern Business cannot avoid all forms of corporate risk or potential damage. A realistic objective is to ensure the survival of your organisation by establishing a culture that will identify and manage those risks that could cause it to suffer:

• Inability to maintain customer services.
• Damage to image, reputation or brand.
• Failure to protect the company assets.
• Business control failure.
• Failure to meet legal or regulatory requirements.

Business Continuity Management (BCM) provides the strategic framework to achieve this objective. This guidance note is accordingly designed to inform you what BCM is, why it is necessary now, and how your company can get started.

What is Business Continuity Management ?

BCM is not just about disaster recovery, crisis management, risk management or about IT. It is a business issue. It presents you with an opportunity to review the way your organisation performs its processes, to improve procedures and practices and increase resilience to interruption and loss.

"Business Continuity Management is a holistic management process that identifies potential impacts that threaten an organisation and provides a framework for building resilience and the capability for an effective response which safeguards the interests of its key stakeholders, reputation, brand and value creating activities". ~ Business Continuity Institute, the professional body for Business Continuity Management

Why now?

Simply because:

• Yours customers expect continuity of supply in all circumstances.

• Your employees and your suppliers expect you to protect their livelihoods.

• Yours company's reputation and brand is at risk if you don't.

• Yours shareholders expect management to be in control, and to be seen to be in control, of any crisis.

• It is implicit in good Corporate Governance and demonstrates best practice in business management.

And this is against a background which:

• The pressures on business generally are changing.

• Consolidation, re-structuring and increasing competition are now a fact of life.

• Fast Changing of Technology is transforming the business environment than it used to be.

These factors create new and more risks and exposures.

How?

As with most things, the only way to get BCM implemented is to get the process started now. It is easier than you might think. But before starting, here are some pointers which will help assure success:

• Involve everyone in the organisation.

• Ensure that your Business Continuity Management process mirrors the changing and developing organisational needs.

• Build on existing management procedures, particularly risk management, crisis management and contingency activities.

• Audit and maintain the BCM process continuously to ensure that it becomes an integral part of your company's culture.

Business Continuity Management is a vital element in meeting internal control / corporate governance requirements currently being demanded, in achieving business excellence and maintaining competitive advantage.