Drivers, Threats & Benefits

10 reasons why you should have business continuity

1. Protects your market share and profits
2. Safeguards jobs of staff and management
3. Allows you to obtain the best insurance terms
4. Keeps financial impacts within acceptable limits
5. You will be in control during and after an incident
6. Shows customers that you deserve their business
7. Your reputation will be protected, or enhanced
8. Satisfies corporate governance expectations
9. Keeps external and internal auditors happy
10. Helps ensure you can sleep at night …

Understanding the reasons why you are considering implementing or improving business continuity within your organisation is important as this may influence the project scope, objectives and approach. Project drivers can take many forms, including:

• Auditors and regulators requiring evidence of effective business continuity planning and satisfaction that you are meeting corporate governance expectations
• Customers wanting reassurance that they will continue to receive your services, whatever happens
• Insurers requesting proof that their exposure to paying business interruption and other claims is reduced through business continuity being taken seriously
• Executives and senior managers wanting satisfaction that the business risks are understood and controlled through effective business continuity management
• Internal recognition that business continuity is required due to known risk exposures or recent incidents

It is safe to say that you can never predict all events that could occur to threaten the continuity of your business operations. However, by understanding the critical activities that you undertake and the resources upon which they depend allows a business continuity project to identify and focus upon the real threats to your organisation.

Although the probability of an incident occurring can be taken into account, it is easier to assume that the worst can happen, and often does, however unlikely. An effective business continuity project will provide you with confidence that strategies and solutions are in place to allow the loss of people, premises, technology, information, suppliers and other key dependencies to be sustained without unacceptable impact.

So, whether you face the impacts of fire, flood, severe weather, power failure, ash cloud, denial of access, loss of data, human error, sickness, equipment breakdown, terrorism, loss of supplier or other incident your business continuity plans should be developed in a sufficiently flexible manner to prove a useful aid to protect your business.

Adopting business continuity provides stakeholders with reassurance that your organisation will continue in the face of adversity.