Business Continuity Management (BCM) has moved higher and higher up the agenda of organisations since the COVID-19 pandemic. But what is Business Continuity Management and how do you make sure you get it right at your organisation?
In short, BCM is a set of policies, processes and plans designed to ensure that an organisation can maintain critical operations during a disruption. The overall objective is to ensure that organisations can uphold essential services at a tolerable predefined level, regardless of the disruption or its timing.
BCM policies, processes and plans are not reactive, but rather proactive measures that are put into place prior to a disruption based on an organisation’s risk appetite and potential threats, to safeguard operations brand reputation. BCM should be considered as a continuous cycle of measuring business continuity capabilities across an organisation, defining gaps, and developing an executable programme of continuous improvement.
A tailored Business Continuity plan can give a business a competitive advantage. Unprepared businesses must focus their energies on managing the disruption, while those that are more resilient can continue to focus on securing and even growing revenues.
The second edition of The International Standard for Business Continuity Management ISO 22301:2019 defines the purpose for BCM as to ´prepare for, provide and maintain controls and capabilities for managing an organisation’s overall ability to continue to operate during disruptions.´ It then goes on to list different organisational benefits including:
Beyond ISO 22301 there are a number of other standards that pertain to effective BCM that should be acknowledged and followed where appropriate by an organisation to increase resilience to disruptions. These include:
The Business Continuity Institute (BCI) refers to Business continuity Management as a framework embedded into an organisation to identify threats and the impact to operations they pose. A BCM plan is then created and continually validated with the goal of enabling you to re-establish business operations as quickly as possible in the event of a disruption. A number of 4C consultants are certified to FBCI, MBCI and CBCI level, based on their extensive experience and training as business continuity practitioners.
To find out more about BCM and COVID-19 you can view the 4C webinar From Compliance to Capability – what does “good” look like in a post-COVID era? on the BCI website.
Business Continuity Management is a governance issue that together with Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) and Incident & Crisis Management (ICM) interrelate and create organisational resilience. These are the three key pillars that should form part of any organisation’s resilience program as can be seen in the 4C Strategies Resilience Model below. The model also includes the key foundational attributes of any proactive resilience plan, namely cybersecurity and capability development.
Regardless of industry – public or private – all organisations can be subject to a major disruption at any time. Increased dependencies on IT and the security risks that come with it, as well as the growth in disinformation by antagonists, means the risks of incidents and major disruptions are greater and closer than ever before. Thus, building resilience is essential.
Major disruptions can be classed into the following categories:
Regardless of the disruption it’s important to follow the activity steps – as seen below – to manage the response. At each point it’s advisable to assess the organisation’s response before moving ahead.
The Exonaut® Business Continuity Manager, is a web-based and mobile solution designed to digitalise, test and invoke business continuity plans. Exonaut BCM forms part of the Exonaut readiness management platform, with fully integrated solutions for risk management, incident and crisis management, compliance management and training and exercises.
Request a demonstration of our Exonaut software solutions for your risk, business continuity, crisis and exercise management needs.
Whether you are looking to implement business continuity management methodology for the first time or wish to make BCM a part of everyday operations – something that has become more common since the pandemic struck – taking a lifecycle perspective is essential. This will ensure the organisation remains resilient even when operations change, new trends evolve or the political sphere alters.
Any BCM strategy must consider how business continuity policies will be implemented, controlled and validated at organisational and unit level to ensure success. The 4C BCM methodology is ideal for this.
At 4C Strategies we can help you get started with BCM or help you grow your BCM capabilities. With over 20 years of experience we offer a unique combination of expert consultant services with leading BCM/organisational resilience software to support your organisation. From the public sector, to international finance institutes to global manufacturers and telecom providers, we can help any organisation to be better prepared for the current or next major disruption.
Contact us to find out more.
Discover how you can build, verify and track your organisational resilience with our training and exercise services and Exonaut® software solutions.
