As a business continuity practitioner there are certain common questions that you will face. To have a firm response, could create opportunity for further engagement.
- What is business continuity management? “Business continuity is the key discipline that sits at the heart of building and improving the resilience of organisations. It is a tried and tested methodology that an organisation should adopt as part of its overall approach to managing risks and threats.” (Good Practice Guideline 2018). Practically, business continuity identities and priorities the organisation’s most critical activities to ensure that in the event of a disruption the organisation can recover and restore these critical activities to pre-defined levels of operation and within pre-defined timeframes.
- Where does business continuity management fit into the organisational structure? The best fit for the business continuity function is to be closely aligned to the enterprise risk management function. This approach will drive the development of a risk based approach to the business continuity program. As outcomes risks will be mitigated and overall operational resilience will be achieved.
- When should an organisation consider business continuity management? A business continuity management program should be established at the earliest possible stage of the organisation’s existence, to ensure the sustainability and achieving the organisation’s strategic objectives. Business continuity should never be a knee jerk reaction to a disruption, a compliance tick box exercise or be driven as the result of a business continuity audit.
Depending on the business continuity maturity of the organisation the response to the questions will either be adopted or challenged.