Why business continuity is crucial

2020 unleashed a storm of dis­rup­tion unlike any oth­er in liv­ing mem­o­ry. The coro­n­avirus pan­dem­ic rep­re­sents an extreme chal­lenge to every organ­i­sa­tion nav­i­gat­ing this unprece­dent­ed cri­sis. The shock wave has impact­ed indi­vid­u­als, organ­i­sa­tions and soci­eties, and will reshape many of them.

Any organ­i­sa­tion that aspires to long-term suc­cess must be able to weath­er an occa­sion­al storm. Pru­dent organ­i­sa­tions not only assess poten­tial threats of dis­rup­tion, they also take proac­tive mea­sures to pre­pare for the unex­pect­ed so the busi­ness can con­tin­ue in the face of adver­si­ty.

Why you need a business continuity plan

For­tu­nate­ly, many organ­i­sa­tions had already built a lev­el of pre­pared­ness that pro­vid­ed some pro­tec­tive resilience to the pandemic’s worst effects. Busi­ness con­ti­nu­ity has evolved as an inter­na­tion­al­ly recog­nised man­age­ment dis­ci­pline over the last 25 years and has been adopt­ed by thou­sands of organ­i­sa­tions world­wide. It com­bines proven prin­ci­ples and prac­tices that enable organ­i­sa­tions to respond to and recov­er from sig­nif­i­cant dis­rup­tive events, both nat­ur­al and man­made.

Head­line-grab­bing events, such as earth­quakes, flood­ing, ter­ror­ism and cyber-attacks, pro­vide tan­gi­ble moti­va­tion for busi­ness lead­ers to active­ly safe­guard their organisation’s con­ti­nu­ity in an increas­ing­ly com­plex and uncer­tain world.

The mag­ni­tude and dura­tion of the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic has stressed the most robust con­ti­nu­ity plans well beyond their orig­i­nal design para­me­ters. Even organ­i­sa­tions that had pan­dem­ic response plans in place found they had not ful­ly antic­i­pat­ed the lev­el of social or eco­nom­ic dis­rup­tion caused by the coro­n­avirus.

These unchart­ed cir­cum­stances have forced organ­i­sa­tions to be resource­ful and to adapt exist­ing response strate­gies to the unfa­mil­iar demands imposed by the pan­dem­ic. Pre­pared­ness and adapt­abil­i­ty are key con­di­tions that under­pin organ­i­sa­tion­al resilience and have been impor­tant suc­cess fac­tors for those organ­i­sa­tions that respond­ed most effec­tive­ly.

Organ­i­sa­tions with test­ed plans and rehearsed teams in place were able to react more quick­ly and com­pe­tent­ly, for exam­ple by swift­ly scal­ing up work-from-home options that might once have been selec­tive­ly avail­able so they could accom­mo­date the entire work­force.

What do businesses face post-pandemic?

The world has now entered an inter­me­di­ate, unset­tled peri­od defined by social dis­tanc­ing and trav­el restric­tions that may last months or even years until a proven vac­cine is wide­ly avail­able. We can antic­i­pate a route out of the pan­dem­ic that will be shaped by peri­od­ic out­breaks, oscil­lat­ing gov­ern­ment con­trols, and a hes­i­tant revival in busi­ness and con­sumer con­fi­dence.

Organ­i­sa­tions will have to adapt to a flu­id and unpre­dictable oper­at­ing envi­ron­ment. The fear of future waves will encour­age a cau­tious unwind­ing of tem­po­rary arrange­ments put in place to ensure busi­ness con­ti­nu­ity.

As the world moves into a post-pan­dem­ic stage, the nov­el mea­sures adopt­ed under lock­down may be absorbed as per­ma­nent prac­tice. Offices will be occu­pied more flex­i­bly, or be aban­doned by some, as a new under­stand­ing of the work­place takes hold.

Sur­veys of the Busi­ness Con­ti­nu­ity Institute’s mem­bers dur­ing the pan­dem­ic have shown the tech­nol­o­gy used to enable work-from-home solu­tions has increased, rather than reduced, pro­duc­tiv­i­ty. User-friend­ly apps can be repur­posed to min­imise con­cerns about social iso­la­tion. These unex­pect­ed ben­e­fits, com­bined with work­force enthu­si­asm, will make these COVID-induced recon­fig­u­ra­tions hard to ful­ly reverse.

As organ­i­sa­tions are being rapid­ly remod­elled, the risk pro­files and con­ti­nu­ity strate­gies cre­at­ed under pre-pan­dem­ic con­di­tions will also need to be reworked to ensure they remain fit for pur­pose. Some lega­cy risks may dimin­ish under these new con­di­tions, only to be replaced by unfore­seen threats. A high­ly dis­trib­uted work­force might reduce the risks asso­ci­at­ed with sin­gle-site occu­pan­cy, but could make the organ­i­sa­tion more exposed to hos­tile cyber-threats.

The pan­dem­ic has shown the organ­i­sa­tion­al ben­e­fits of busi­ness con­ti­nu­ity and resilience.  The dis­rup­tive influ­ence of COVID-19 will not fade quick­ly. Busi­ness lead­ers should seize the oppor­tu­ni­ty to under­stand the pandemic’s endur­ing impact and rein­force their organisation’s con­ti­nu­ity and resilience capa­bil­i­ties in antic­i­pa­tion of future tur­moil.