The Importance of a Business Continuity Plan in 2020

Businesses are often inclined to think in the first place about opportunities and potential returns on investment, rather than about failures, disasters, and emergencies that could occur. However, as we have all learned quite recently, a disaster can occur at any time, and in any form.

It is impossible to predict which disaster will strike next. Therefore, it is important to account for a multitude of possible disasters and threats. Possible disasters are often classified as either naturally occurring or artificial events. Examples of artificial man-made threats include cyber-attacks, terrorism threats, and theft. Natural threats include fires, power outages, earthquakes and of course: pandemics.

A business continuity plan (BCP) is a document that outlines a range of disaster scenarios that can negatively impact a business, and the steps the business can take in any particular scenario to ensure an adequate response and recovery in order to regain regular business as soon as possible.

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The business continuity management (BCM) cycle typically consists of five phases:

Prepare: Conduct the business impact analysis and/or risk assessment, train the BCM team members, document and maintain the BCP
Respond: Put emergency response plans into action; save lives, protect property, environment and basic human needs; take action to prevent further damage
Recover: Take the necessary actions to return to a safe way of operating, and start up the essential functions & services
Restore: Bring all systems back to pre-emergency levels, and complete permanent repairs
Resolve: Proactive effort to capture lessons learned through tabletop exercises or real events and incorporate these into the BCP

There are several steps in the development process of a BCP. Risk analysis and developing mitigation strategies are always very important steps. The testing step is often overlooked. In this quite time-consuming step, the BCP document is used in a simulation for a specific disaster. This is often very helpful in highlighting where information is still lacking in the BCP.

The pandemic of Covid-19 has forced most businesses to go through this testing step. The current pandemic can only serve as a reminder of how important business continuity planning is.

Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0268401205001179

At Modis, we have experience with managing and reviewing the BCP's of our clients. Each BCP is tailored to the client’s needs and interests. Whether it is a multinational company or a small start-up in Life Sciences, Modis can offer help in a wide range of scenarios.
Eline WillemsProject Manager Life SciencesTweet this

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