It all starts with a plan.
A recent study carried out by Forbes magazine found that 83% of risk managers had to update their business continuity plan (BCP) following the arrival of Covid-19[1]. This means that at the start of 2020, the approaching global health pandemic failed to register as a risk worth planning for. A further survey found that, prior to the pandemic, 51% of businesses around the world had no form of business continuity plan whatsoever[2].
Since then, the business world has had to ride the waves of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Captain Hassanin’s blockage of the Suez Canal, Liz Truss’ premiership, global supply chain shortages, staffing crises, industrial action, inflation, climate change and mysterious Chinese weather balloons.
The greatest mystery of all, perhaps, is why so many businesses remain unprotected from future disruptions because they simply aren’t planning for them. Some believe that having a positive business mindset is not compatible with being risk averse, or even risk aware; that the two characteristics are mutually exclusive. Yes, it’s true that being entrepreneurial, enterprising, and industrious will require you to take risks, but not at the expense of prudence. Even the most extreme skydivers carry a secondary parachute.
An organisation is often judged by the speed with which it can recover to business as usual (BAU) following any major disruption. BAU, for any truly resilient organisation, should include responding to unprecedented pandemics, unpredicted conflicts, unplanned absences, and crises. Maybe a better term would be business as unusual.
Businesses today need to have a plan for the unknown things of tomorrow.
During a departmental briefing, former US Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, famously stated: “there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don’t know that we don’t know.”
Risk managers have a responsibility to be creative, to catastrophise, to think of new manifestations of the term ‘disaster’ and to plan accordingly.
At CMCS, we believe that being an authentically resilient business starts with having a plan and we can provide your organisation with the resources required to achieve it.
In addition to providing market-leading recovery services for the print and mail industry, CMCS regularly design, test and exercise business continuity and disaster recovery plans to ensure our clients aren’t caught short.
If you want to find out how we can help your business prepare for the unknown, please get in touch via enquiries@cmcsdr.com
Resilience Team – CMCS
[1] Culp, S. (2021) Taking a new look at Business Continuity Planning, Forbes. Forbes Magazine. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/steveculp/2021/10/04/taking-a-new-look-at-business-continuity-planning/?sh=694121c154aa (Accessed: March 3, 2023).
[2] Baptista, A. (2020) 51% of companies have no business continuity plan to combat coronavirus outbreak, Mercer. Available at: https://www.me.mercer.com/newsroom/covid-19-companies-have-no-business-continuity-plan-to-combat-coronavirus-outbreak.html (Accessed: March 3, 2023).