Business Continuity and Resilience – Why contingency plan an evening out but not to protect your business? In November’s Spotlight Report, we highlighted the importance of Risk Management being part of company security planning. This Spotlight Report will take Risk Management a step further, discussing Business Continuity and Resilience and why a simple contingency plan could be a business lifesaver. We have seen first-hand, with the COVID-19 pandemic, that a significant event can become an existential threat to a business overnight. Yelp data shows 60% of business closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic are now permanent.
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics highlighted in June 2021 that 6.2 million people were unable to work because their employers closed or lost business due to the pandemic. Therefore, with these statistics in mind, why would someone taking their partner out for dinner, reserve a table, check the traffic and book a taxi to and from the venue, but the same person, a COO, not plan to protect against a cyber-attack that may hold the company’s databases for ransom.  A Business Contingency Plan is generally not that simple. It takes the Risk Management process of identifying the business’s critical assets and procedures. Placing them into a risk matrix that evaluates the likelihood and consequences of each, and assesses their risk level. Your Risk Management Plan will then introduce counter-measures that mitigate that risk, reducing the vulnerability to an acceptable level. Your Business Continuity Plan comes into effect should the Risk Management Plan fail. Being that, the counter-measures were not enough (there needs to be a cost-effective balance on employing counter-measures) or an event occurs that has not been considered. Either way, you need to do something to mitigate the impact on your business services, and in many circumstances, that something needs to be quick or you will start to lose revenue, customers, and in extreme case scenarios, your business or even, person’s lives. Download our latest Spotlight Report on Business Continuity and Resilience and if you do have any further queries, Speak to our Experts.