Let's be honest with the obvious. Nearly one in five businesses suffer from major disruption every year. But still a very few like to talk about business continuity and disaster planning because it is not the uplifting topic.
Planning disaster recovery is commonly known as the essential component in managing risk. Business continuity is all about managing a business in a new way to ensures that business continue to function in all circumstances.
What is Business Continuity Planning?
Business continuity is the process of anticipating potential risks and taking pre-emptive measures to safeguard the interests of the business and its shareholders.
It is about coordinating and integrating all the planning processes across all departments. Business continuity planning is more about presentation and not cure. It is about mitigating the losses when they occur and taking actions that mitigate the loss during the events.
What is the importance of a business continuity plan?
A Business Continuity Plan (BCP) is an approved document outlining the steps everyone must follow to keep the business running during and after a disruption. It focuses on key areas like operations, customer service, communication, information flow, and security. The main goal of a BCP is to reduce the risks of loss and manage crisis consequences, ensuring that both management and employees feel secure with clear guidelines for responding to and recovering from crises.
How Business Continuity Planning Keeps Your Company Safe
A well-designed BCP ensures that essential business functions can continue with minimal disruption and also protects the company's bottom line and reputation. Here are the top reasons why business continuity planning is so important and how it can help companies safeguard their future.
1. Reduces Downtime and Victims of the Service Breakdown
One of the main purposes of the business continuing plan is to reduce downtime and assist business functions during a crisis. A disruption could happen at any time and often occurs in many forms such as power interruptions, information technology system breakdown, or natural disasters.
Having a proper BCP help business functions and provides a pathway to either maintain or quickly restore them. It will decrease the likelihood of a major service breakdown and assist the organization in sharing continuity and productivity while under duress.
2. Protects Brand and Consumer Trust Relationship
Brand and consumer trust are some of the most significant elements any organization can possess in the marketplace. When a business is faced with a service delivery breakdown, the action taken by the organization will immediately determine how the breakdown impacts the organization. If an organization can responds quickly and efficiently with a solid BCP, the organization reassures the consumer that the organization is a safe and trustworthy.
3. Ensures Health and Safety When Applicable
When an organization gets affected by disasters or crises, it can be challenging to focus on work. For example, during the global pandemic, businesses have experienced widespread disruption. It led to many employers to adopt remote work arrangements and implement mental health programs to support their employees.
It is of the very important in such circumstances to ensure the safety and well-being of your workforce. Safety considerations extend beyond physical health to encompass mental well-being.
4. Reduces Financial Loss
Disruptions not only result in downtime but also lost sales and damaged assets which can lead to significant financial losses for the business. There would be an extended time the business could be closed because of a negative event without a BCP. It could potentially lead to fiercest damages to revenue.
A business can mitigate financial losses by planning for ways to continue operations while protecting critical assets. If you are prepared for disruptions, you can minimize the financial effects and ultimately improve your recovery time, thereby, your profit margin.
5. Enhances Employee Confidence and Morale
When disasters occur, employees will likely experience anxiety regarding the status of their jobs and the future of the business. A Business Continuity Plan will initiate a response based on the communication of steps to be taken and the person in charge of those steps.
With employees involved in the BCPs, businesses will still contribute to their own morale and well-being, and morale will improve as they take on a role in response to a negative event. Good communication of a BCP can contribute to your overall work environment and create a climate of employees who are prepared to endure and continue to endure thoughts and actions as plans are in place.
6. Enhances Supply Chain Management
Disruptions can impact not only internal operations but also supply chains as a whole. Suppliers can experience disruptions to deliver materials, and even suppliers of harnessing logistics will have issues providing a truck for transport. A BCP will provide contingencies if supply chains are impacted in a negative incident and if the supply chain is essential to the business and supply chain demands need to be considered.
If the players and movement are established prior to a negative disruption, BCPs minimize service disruption and continues to provide value to the consumer.
7. Promotes Competitive Advantage
Business continuity planning allows organizations to differentiate themselves from their competition. Customers, suppliers, and partners are usually more willing to do business with organizations that demonstrate preparedness and reliability. During a crisis, organizations with a sound business continuity plan (BCP) can react, adapt, and recover quicker than competitors who often take much longer to regain normal operations.
Organizations can attract new customers while strengthening networks with existing customers by demonstrating to customers their ability to maintain operations in the face of disruptions.
Conclusion:
It is important for business to be prepared for any kind of unexpected disaster or a cyberattack. A well-prepared business continuity plan will help to maintain their market positions and swiftly recover from adverse circumstances. This will ensure minimal disruption to normal operations.
If you don't have an emergency plan in place, contact BCG now for help with disaster preparedness. Reach out to learn about our services. Contact us soon.
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