What is the purpose of your
business, should it die with you or should it continue regardless of the
disasters or tragic events that may present themselves? What have you determined
to be a disaster for your business? If you are not prepared then the answer to
these questions become difficult and in some instances illusive.
Even more so
for your staff, customers, vendors, and other stakeholders who are depending on
your brand to function. Business continuity and operational resilience (BCOR)
in the 21st century is not optional it is a must. It is a
demonstration of your commitment to service excellence and the high regard you
have for your stakeholders. If you have
not prepared for critical incidents then you leave your operations and
reputation to chance. This approach increases the negative impact that such
events may have, and could possibly even lead to the complete failure of your business.
As the old Negro spiritual says ‘’let
the church role on, my Lord, let the Church role on” it suggest that regardless
of the crisis the doors of the business will and must remain open. The delivery of service is key and the
customer is king. This message rang loud a clear on November 9, 2014, when The Bahamas was gripped with the tragic news of a plane crash that took the
lives of several persons amongst them Dr. Myles Munroe and Dr. Richard Pinder.
Notable
names locally and globally, renowned in the religious and motivational speaker
spheres. Also of note for this writer was the fact that these two gentlemen
were numbers ‘1’ and ‘2’ respectively in the same organization. Thus in one act
a multimillion dollar operation, with stakeholders and services from all over the
world lost its leader and the apparent successor. Painful and tragic on many
fronts, but this untimely dilemma demanded that the those left must now move
into high gear to respond, recover and resume operations.
A BCOR Program if properly
developed and implemented is made up of several smaller plans outlining
strategy, process and tactics. A good BCOR Program is dependent on preparedness
and a group of people within an organization that is educated, trained, ready
to act, and innovative. Essentially the
company must know its product inside and out but during the good times, but be able
to adapt and flex during the crisis. A little over a week later and we see the
adjustment made with in the Bahamas Faith Ministries International community,
where leaders in waiting, have had to step in to the position of current and
active.
The question you should be asking
yourself now is what did you learn from this tragedy, which in my opinion can
and should also been seen as success. Can your organization manage such a
sudden and unexpected change in operational procedure and leadership change? Notwithstanding
your company within hours was about to launch a product that customers had
flown in from all over the world to participate. Would you have had to postpone, suspend or
delay the event?
Here are in my opinion some of
the important points that should be included in in your approach to BCOR.
-
Business
Impact Analysis – Know what are your threats and how do they effect the organization
-
Strategy
and Tactics – Develop a plan, implement a plan, test and try the plan
-
Succession
Planning – Who is in charge, someone must always be in charge
-
Cross
Training – Do you know what I do, do I know what you do, and is it written down
-
Cultural
Embedding – Everyone at all levels needs to know that a plan exist
-
Source
Resources – Know what you need, what you have, how to get it, and how to use it
-
Crisis
Communication – What to say to who, who should say it and when to say it
-
Travel
Risk Management – Who goes where, when they should go, and who goes with them
-
Review,
Revise, Revisit – Adapt and change, remain fluid, the plan should be a living
document
-
Remember
– READINESS – RESPOND – RECOVER – RESUME!
Murphy’s Law suggests that ‘what
will go wrong, will go wrong’, the inherent threats to doing your specific
business are just the threshold of various negative events that exist. You assessment
of these incidents must go beyond what is controlled by your organization and
look into those things that are out of your control. The dynamics of doing
business in today’s industrial world demands that attention is given to things
outside your control.
‘What
has been will be again,what has been done will be
done again; there is nothing new under the sun.’ Ecclesiastes 1:9
We will continue to have tragedy, crisis, and loss this is a
part of our existence. We must all do
better jobs at accepting these realities and better preparing for them. But at
the same time we will also have good times, celebrations and happiness, let us
all put even more effort into preparing for these events as well as they are
too a part of our existence.
Read other articles written by Gamal Newry
Gamal Newry,
specializes in loss prevention and asset
protection strategy development. His company Preventative Measures Ltd., is a training
and consulting firm, providing services in business security reviews and
audits, and emergency and crisis management. Comments and inquiries can be sent
to P.O. Box N-3154 Nassau, Bahamas, or emailgnewry@
preventativemeasures.orgor
you can visit the website atwww.preventativemeasures.
org
