Business continuity is the capability of an organisation to continue the delivery of products and services within acceptable time frames at a predefined capacity during a disruption (ISO 22301:2019).

Disruption has taken many forms over recent years; financial crises, supply chain disruption, pandemics and cyber attacks to name a few. In order to survive these events, organisations have needed to understand and prioritise the recovery of activities or services that are crucial to them.

By understanding what resources these activities and services depend on to continue, and how quickly they need to be back up and running. Organisations are able to design and implement strategies to effectively respond and recover from disruption.

BCM is a holistic management system that enables the effective implementation, maintenance and continuous improvement of business continuity activities across an organisation.

It is a tried and tested methodology that enables organisations to build resilience to disruptive events, and includes the following elements:-

• Operational Planning and Control;
• Business Impact and Risk Assessment;
• Business Continuity Strategies and Solutions;
• Business Continuity Plans and Procedures;
• Exercise Programme;
• Evaluation of Business Continuity Documentation and Capability (ISO 22313:2020).

Business continuity and resilience is not just a tick box exercise, it is essential in todays increasingly complex and volatile world. These are just some of the reasons to start your journey today:-

• Resilience supports your organisations strategy and financial growth;
• Competitive advantage during disruption, if you can continue to operate when your competitors can’t…
• Maintain your reputation through disruptive events;
• Win contracts, tenders or grants by evidencing your ability to plan for and recover from disruption within acceptable timeframes;
• Meet legal or regulatory requirements;
• Reduce costs by understanding exactly where you need to focus your continuity and resilience spending;
• Support stability not only of your organisation, but your employees, customers, suppliers, stakeholders and wider Society.