Feature

Business Continuity

Getting back on your feet

Set against a volatile international climate where terrorist attacks and political uprisings have besieged the tabloid headlines, where organisations are confronted with an ever growing range of risks – man-made and natural – the role of business continuity (BC) to support organisations in their quest to become more resilient has never been greater than now. However, the real challenge organisations face is trying to understand the impact of any disruption, regardless of its scale or complexity. This is where BC really comes into force. Although, we can’t plan for everything, we can plan to be better prepared and BC helps us to do just that.

Business Continuity Awareness Week (BCAW) takes place every year in March. Its purpose? To raise the awareness of the importance and value of business continuity by showcasing its worth as a strategic, integrated business discipline in every sector worldwide. BCAW is facilitated by the
Business Continuity Institute (BCI), the leading institute for business continuity worldwide.

Each year a new theme for the week is decided based on public demand. This year, risk has topped the charts and so the week will focus on how business continuity helps you to deal with the risks and threats you can see and the ones you can’t.

Increase response capability
How does BC help? BC enables an organisation to increase its response capability such that it can respond effectively to an existing, emerging or even an unknown risk. It does this by getting organisations to understand and decide which activities are critical to their survival and therefore need to be the centre of any focused recovery action and which ones could be temporarily parked. It is all about survival planning; it’s about mitigating the impact of any disruption on the most urgent and high priority activities. This is where the value and strength of BC lies; BC provides us with the framework for dealing as effectively as we can with whatever challenges the world throws at us, expected or otherwise; it helps us to prepare for and recover from the least to the worst possible scenario.

What BCAW has to offer?
BCAW opens up the doors to anyone who wants to find out more about what BC is all about and how it might benefit their own organisation, and all that at no cost and with no obligation. It is a chance to look through the BC window and step through a door that leads to a whole new approach that will transform the way you deal with risks or threats in the future.

Throughout the week, a wide range of multimedia resources and engagement/learning opportunities are made available that will help deepen your understanding of business continuity and provide some valuable insights into a discipline that will add value to your role, your organisation and the industry as a whole.

One of the key highlights of the week is the Horizon Scan Report that is published by the BCI. Based on widespread industry research, the Horizon Scan has established itself as an important and valuable reference source on top threats to businesses.

By providing a consolidated view of the threats organisations face as well as valuable insights on how other organisations working in the same sector or region assess these threats, the output of this annual survey provides high-value information that can be used to help organisations better prepare against potential threats.

Industry insights
A full programme of free-to-join webinars is delivered each day during the week, which always attracts a high level of interest from participants around the globe. Industry experts deliver some insightful presentations on a wide range of relevant topics based on the overarching theme of the week. This year’s topics include cyber threat; supply chain disruption (of particular value to organisations that are heavily reliant on third party suppliers); crisis response; horizon scanning techniques and security. Participants benefit from the expert’s eye based on long-standing industry experience and have an opportunity to ask questions relevant to their own particular point of interest.

Game on

For those individuals or organisation looking for opportunities to learn about business continuity in a more playful fashion, then BC24, the BCI’s online crisis simulation game, offers a great way to experience first‑hand what business continuity is about in an informal, game environment. Normally with a price on its head, the game is made available free of charge throughout the month of March. BC24 is the perfect way to find out how good your staff reacts in a crisis situation and provides useful benchmarking information on individual performance.

This is just a taster of what the week has to offer; there is of course a lot more. A dedicated website will be live from January onwards, so make sure you add www.bcaw2013.com to your list of favourites and check back for regular updates.

Further information
Email: donna.monkhouse@thebci.org to be added to the mailing lists for BCAW 2013

 

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