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What's the Plan? - An introduction to Business Continuity Planning.


One of my favorite topics is Business Continuity Planning. Why? Because storms come in many forms, and you need to be prepared for the storms which will prevent you from delivering goods and services to your customers. Be the one standing while others are scrambling.

 It starts with a Risk Assessment also called a Business Impact Analysis: Identifying what can go wrong, what is the probability of it happening, how will it effect the organization if it happens regardless of your best efforts, and what can be done to mitigate the potential loss?

 If we look at what can go wrong, the list is endless: fire, flood, break-in, accident, sickness, snowstorm, and even civil unrest. Other business factors may include labour disputes, broken machinery, or disrupted supply chains.

 The Probability is the likelihood of the event happening; for example, there is a 25% probability of a supply chain interruption during the winter months. 

The impact is what affect such an event will have on the organization should it occur; for example, if I have one employee on sick leave, the impact on production may be low, but if I have three snowed in at home, the impact may be high.

 Below I have included a Risk Assessment matrix for illustration:



Looking at a few examples: the probability of a welder damaging her eyes is high, and the impact is also high. The probability of the accountant going in the shop and damaging their eyes from welding is low, but the impact would still be high. Without getting into mitigation strategies too deep yet, the welder will receive extensive training and specialize equipment, and the accountant will be advised of the precautions to take if they need to enter the shop area.  *Both conversations will be documented!*

Take some time to list the potential events which may prevent you from delivering goods and services, assign a probability of each of them occuring, from low, medium, and high, then determine the impact should each of them occur also assigning a low, medium, and high. From there, rank your list from most problematic to least concerning.

What is the current state of your Business Continuity Plan?




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