What would happen if your business faced a disaster?

We have all watched our news screens with dismay over the past few years and seen the impact of such tragedies as 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, earthquakes in Pakistan and closer to home the London bombings. Obviously it's the death and destruction that cause the most dismay and distress but unfortunately those left picking up the pieces often have to deal with the practicalities of the aftermath.

Have you ever given any thought to what would happen to your business in the event of a disaster, be it a flood, gas explosion or major fire. Hopefully this is something most of us will never have to deal with but what preparations have you got in place for coping if faced with this scenario.

Business Continuity Management asks us to consider what steps we need to take NOW to make sure we can operate in the event of a disaster.

Key Steps in Developing a Plan

• Analyse your business.
• Suppliers.
• Partnerships.
• People.
• Systems and processes.
• Timescales.
• Building.

Assess the risks to your business

• What can happen - weather, strikes, fire, flood etc.
• What are the critical aspects/people in your business.
• Ask "What If" questions.
• Look at the worst case scenario.
• Who / what are essential and when (timescale - date etc).Develop a strategy to mitigate the risks.
• Accept the risks and do nothing.
• Accept the risk but have in place mutual agreement with other business for assistance.
  Attempt to reduce / negate the risk.
• Attempt to reduce / negate the risk and have arrangements in place for assistance after the event.

• Reduce risks to the stage where no outside help is needed

Develop a plan to protect your business delivery

• Consult with all involved.
• Detail who will do what and when.
• Produce checklist to reinforce roles.
• Have clear instructions on actions during the first hours of an incident.
• Include in the plan the actions for the first 24 hours, 2 to 5 days and over 5 days.
• Include an update schedule.
• Include information from outside your business where appropriate.

Rehearse / test the plan

• Test the procedures in the plan either in real time or as a group discussion.
• Amend / update the plan from the outcomes of the test.

Once this is completed the process must be repeated, especially when circumstances / people change as the risk will change also.

Useful Contacts

Business Continuity Institute http://www.thebci.org/

Home Office http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/

London First http://www.london-first.co.uk/

Metropolitan Police Service http://www.met.police.uk/

U K Resilience http://www.ukresilience.info/

For further useful sites to visit go to our Useful Links Page.