Business Continuity and Crisis Management - Essay Example

Abstract The business today is becoming more complicated due to several applications and the ever-changing environment and this means that there are more risks that need to be dealt with. Organizations that wish to remain competitive and successful must be protected from the unnatural events that may interfere with the smooth running of the business. This paper explores the meaning of business continuity and crisis management within an organization and it also highlights the terminology of business continuity management and its importance to the organization. The relationship between risk management and business continuity, examples of business continuity and what people say about the BCM is also tackled in this paper. Most comments that arise in the use of business continuity and crisis management is that people tend to confuse its role with that of insurance companies. The manner in which business continuity and crisis management are also explored by providing an example from the City of London Resilience Forum. Introduction Business continuity management helps to ensure continuity of a business by focusing on the critical business process within and outside the organization (Alesi 220). Unplanned events have a very devastating effect on both small and big businesses and they range from fire, damage to illness of key staff, IT system failure that makes it impossible to carry the smooth running operations of a business. The negative impact of business crisis is that it can make business loose customers who make an important component of the business and prevent the closure of businesses (Turulja & Bajgoric, 457). Good planning of the business process helps minimize the potential impact of disaster thus prevent it from happening and spoiling for the business (McClain, 217). Business continuity is an all-inclusive management process that recognizes potential effects that impends a business and gives an agenda for building elasticity and the ability for the organization to safeguard the interest of various stakeholders (Arduini & Morabito 13). According to Blyth (11), business continuity involves the management approving a strategic and tactical approach to dealing with emergency disasters that are unforeseen and may pose a negative effect to the company. In addition, business continuity can be defined as a cost-justified method aimed at reducing risks that may hinder the continuity of a business in the event of a disaster. Elliot, Swartz and Herbane (45) in their book define business continuity as responding to a business interruption in such a way as to achieve the lowest level of inconvenience possible for the continued stability of the business. According to Regester and Larkini (42) business continuity involves identifying the potential issues that threaten to interfere with the existence of a business and formulate a framework that can effectively handle such issues whenever they arise. According to Kadam (9), business continuity management aims at managing risks in order to guarantee that the company endures in operating at the lowest prearranged risk level. An organization applies business continuity and crisis management practices to ensure continuity in the ways a business handles various crises (Swartz, Herbane & Brahim 143). The need for businesses to apply business continuity and crisis management strategies is conceived from the need to provide assurance for the continuity of the business process (McAlister 233). The management should ensure that their business continuity and crisis management framework is able to restore a business to its earlier position and preserve all sectors of the business (Regester & Larkin, 29). Business continuity management is thus more than a crisis management since it is a comprehensive program that helps a business react quickly and effectively when faced with unplanned interruptions (Sikith 33). Nicholl and Owen (54) also support that business continuity management mitigate the negative effects of such occurrences and plan recover operations with post execution analysis to promote greater preparation and resilience during future events. Business continuity management is a process that organizations use to ensure that business continuity is maintained across the organization to avoid losses that may result due to unavoidable disasters (Blyth, 75). Business continuity is important for the organization since it ensures that important business operations continue even after the strike of a disaster (Collicut, 151). In the event of a serious disaster, business continuity allows for remote operation by allowing the staff to work from a different location until the problem is solved. In the event of a disaster, business continuity management can enable a business protect its important assets such as the customers and the accounting data since it enables a business to identify key assets and store them properly (Salman & Ihab, 364). A company may wish to duplicate data information stored in a safe place somewhere that can be accessed in the event of a disaster. The time taken by the most businesses to restart in the event of disasters is long and business continuity management enables a business to reduce the downtime that may cost lots of money. In case of a serious disaster, some businesses close shop completely; business continuity management prevents a business from going out of business (Hiles, 68; Osborne 49; Kouzmin, 174). The success of business communication management is highly dependent on several factors within the organization. The type of leadership is a very important component of the organization that has a direct influence success of the failure of the proposed BCM strategies. Time management and the ability to prioritize are also essential qualities needed in the leadership of an organization in the event of a disaster (Salaman & Ihab, 369; Tamineed, 43). The speed of response during the crisis has an effect in determining the extent of losses incurred by the organization. The ability to rush the injured workers and clients to hospital and the quicker the important components of business is saved enables a business to maintain and improve of its good reputation. A company should also have robust plans as part of their crisis management since the extent of planning also determines the extent of success in the business (Regester & Larkini, 76). A good robust plan is characterized by the following components; communication plan, contact details, simulation exercise, training, and established crisis team. The level of funding determines the level of success of the crisis management since poorly funded team lacks the resources they may need to prevent and deal with crisis whenever it strikes (Osborne, 27; Swartz & Herbane, 121). Communication is the key to ensuring that everything moves as expected and the affected people get the right response they need in good time. Regulatory factors are also a driver to business continuity and crisis management since the legislative bodies are enacting laws that ensure protection of businesses (Wong, 64). The business today is in a globalized environment that comes with its merits and demerits and this is one of the drivers of business continuity management. Due to increased need to operate the business on a 24-hour basis and seven days a week, the extent of risk is also increased and this motivates the need for business continuity management. In desperate attempts to reduce the cost that comes in the vent of crisis, businesses are looking for ways and means to achieve this and business continuity and crisis management is a promising practice (Pitt & Goyal, 94). The market of today is very volatile and this is evident from the occurrences of economic crisis that led to the collapse of several businesses. Such unpredictable events can only be sustained if robust practices are embedded in the business continuity and crisis management. The business today is exposed to a variety of threats and risks and a business continuity and crisis management plan can help most businesses recover in the event of a crisis (Barnes, 132). Some organizations have both the risk manager and the business continuity manager at the same time and this implies that the two act different roles within an organization. Business continuity is considered a control of the organization from a judicial perspective while risk management is the protection of the business by the frameworks laid from an organizational point of view. The two should however be applied together in a single organization can lead to effective and efficient management systems that ensure that risks and uncertainties are properly dealt with (Momani, 278). Risk management and business continuity are both aimed at ensuring that a business is protected from the negative consequences that may arise in the event of unforeseen disaster that can interfere with the proper continuity of the business. Just like other business concepts, business continuity is evolving from its traditional model in order to adapt to the developments in the business world. The business continuity management department has embraced IT by ensuring that they are trained their IT professionals in dealing with crisis management. The professionals concerned with managing business continuity matters are nowadays applying best practices to the concept of business continuity planning to make the process more effective. To make the process more effective, business continuity planner are realizing that the process is more of an art than a science hence professional planners must understand the ideas and principles necessary for application in the event of a disaster (Sikith, 87). Traditionally, organizations avoided setting up a business continuity and crisis management department but this has changed since most organizations today have a well structured department in charge of business continuity and crisis management. Resilience is the art of surviving the unforeseen events and it covers the aspects of disaster management, sustainable development and obtaining a strategic advantage. It also involves training and preparing decision makers to excel and out perform in situations of unforeseen difficulties that may arise in the course of management. It is thus the ability to cope with extreme events without negatively affecting the smooth operations of the business (Alesi, 216). Business continuity management contributes to national resilience since the process of disaster preparedness reduces the potential risks that businesses and the surrounding community are faced within a particular place. Business continuity also involves sharing emergency information with other stakeholders and this helps to promote the national resilience. City of London Resilience Forum, the multi organization forum syndicates disaster responders and agents of significant business segments in a square mile environment and they work together and share information on how to plan for emergencies. They divide the groups into two categories whereby category one consists of responders who make up the primary emergency response and the second category that consist of utility companies. According to City of London (1), the first category is represented by emergency services, the City of London Corporation and the Public health department of London. The representatives of the business within the city are also involved in the business continuity forum and they range from banking, insurance, and legal services among others (City of London 1). The objectives of the forum are to share important material on emergency planning and business continuity problems among contributing organizations and offers up-to-date intelligence from emergency facilities. Their forum also assesses the implications on the square mile of any issue raised and permit cooperation amongst members concerning their present engagements and upcoming plans (City of London 1). The aim of the forum is to improve communication between emergency responders and the business community thus promoting security in case of real life emergency that require smooth coordination from all the concerned stakeholders in good time. It is also prudent is the business continuity and crisis management system is fully accepted by the organization and its policies and procedures in all the daily operations of a firm (Ouedraogo & Boyer 8). Before integrating business continuity and crisis management in the organization, the first step should involve careful consideration of the organizational culture and fully understand how it operates. The implementers should then compare the current level of business continuity awareness in the organization with the ideal situation and identify the gaps to fill the gaps where possible (McCourt 10). If the gap between the current level awareness and the business continuity and crisis management goals are wide, the implementer should develop a program to create and increase awareness of the process across the organization (Mitroff 78). This will help to develop skills, the knowledge, commitment, and the need to establish a successful business continuity and crisis management (Matthys 10). According to Tammineedi (41), regulator communication to all employees about the business continuity and crisis management system helps integrate business continuity in the organization culture. Turner (258) argues that an organized business should make efforts to coordinate with the public affairs department, organize, and facilitate media training for designated company spokespersons regarding business continuity and crisis management. The main aim of any business is to make money so that it continues to stay in business while making more money even in detrimental circumstances (Kadam 8). A business should thus formulate ways and means of making profits even in circumstances that are detrimental to its operations. The business continuity and crisis management well planned by only effective the moves with positive outcomes for the organization (Mitroff 121). The plan for business continuity and crisis management can never address everything and thus the management should avoid having excruciatingly detailed instructions for every little thing in the organization. According to Wong (66), the corporate culture of the business and the corporate culture of the country should be well considered when devising business continuity and crisis management strategies. The success of business continuity plan largely depends on the people managing it and therefore, organizations should ensure that their workers are well trained and conversant with such techniques. Those entrusted with the responsibility of handling business management and continuity operations should be well conversant in their jurisdictions to avoid legal breaches (Turner, 255). There are rules that govern the operations of business continuity and management process and they require that an organization to have a well written document that outlines their procedures and operations. The rules require that the measures should be well planned and be responsive to any emergencies that may arise in the course of doing business. The written business continuity and crisis management plan should be readily should be accessible and readily available upon request by any authority or persons that are interested in reading it. The document containing the rules of business continuity and crisis management should be updated on a timely basis to reflect any changes that characterize the business. This implies that an organization should conduct an annual review of business continuity and crisis management plan to make it effectively responsive to the dynamic world. The component of a business continuity and crisis management plan should be flexible depending on the company but the basics that are addressed by most of them includes data backup systems, financial management and alternative communications (Sikith 118). Organizations should avoid being rigid with their business continuity and crisis management plans and they should thus disclose it to relevant stakeholders and welcome responses whenever necessary (Swartz & Herabne, 167). Most people are confused on many issues regarding the use, history and the application of business continuity and crisis management. Some people say that the owners of business continuity management are the person supporting the IT equipment’s in various departments within the business. This is not true since the owners of the business continuity and crisis management are the business managers and the IT people are just hired to manage a server or to provide technical support of particular equipment in the organization. Others also say that large organizations are poor at business continuity and risk management practices and thus they anger most of their customers. To some people, the risk management and business continuity management should be left to the insurance companies since they see it as a duplication of insurance efforts. To some people, business continuity is only concerned with the loss and retrieval of electronic information and no other components of business (Elliot and Herbane 88). Some people also argue that the cost of loss mitigation is higher than the losses themselves and thus there is no need of business continuity and risk management strategies. Some people say that business continuity and crisis management has not difference with business continuity and thus means the same thing. The management is the main driving force behind the success or failure of business continuity and crisis management in any organization. The management should provide the necessary support, both moral and financial support to ensure that business continuity and crisis management process is fully implemented. The management should always listen carefully to the recommendations proposed by the business continuity department and be ready for the implementation of such recommendations. Business continuity and crisis management should be taken seriously and performed all organizations since no organization is safe from hazards. Both small and large organizations are prone to disasters and crisis any time in the course of their operations and should thus employ business continuity and crisis management strategies to protect their business (Kouzmin 165). Business continuity and crisis management are not only meant for business recovery when disaster strikes but there are also numerous benefits like protecting the integrity of the organization. The work of insurance companies and business continuity and crisis management plans do not conflict and both should be encouraged within the organization at all times to protect the business. Business continuity and crisis management do not only deal with crisis management and continuity planning but also deals with prevention and mitigation of a crisis before it occurs. Business continuity and crisis management can help embed a strong risk aware and continuous improvement culture that is of great importance to the business. The essentials of business continuity and crisis management are good leadership, good governance, integration, and continuous update of the strategies. References Alesi, Patrick. 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