Risk, Crisis and Disaster Management - Term Paper Example

Introduction Business world is growing fast, and there is a need to change with the changing environment. Businesses, which have not realised the importance for change, are the ones which are going to face disasters and difficult situations. Business institutes have realised the need for this and have a profession which can solve this problem for many business, which are under constant threat. There are many students who are entering this field and are joining the profession in order to cater the needs and to grow successful in this field. However, many people are doubtful for such a profession and do not see why such profession exists and is being adopted by so many people. In order to understand why this profession is needed, it is important to understand the current business world and how changes are needed. It is also important to understand why such changes are required to survive. Companies which do not realize the need for this profession are the ones which might suffer in the near future. However, there are many industries which are more prone to continuity dangers compared to other industries, and such industries need to make strategies to survive in this competitive world. Industries, which are less prone to continuity dangers, will also face need for change eventually to either excel or to survive in the long run. There is a need for such a profession and people in the business community are realizing this need. In order to understand the need, for distinct business continuity profession, it is required to understand what business continuity is and what skills are needed in this profession. Business continuity By definition business continuity is the capability of an organization to continue its business operations in case of any incidents or problems. This way they can operate without interrupting their day to day business activities without influence of other harmful factors. (Honour, 2006) Business world is now global now with the 24 hours connectivity with people around the globe. The threats are also present 24 hours a day. There can be threats which may be simply natural catastrophic threats or may be business threats, which may just not only affect the profits of one company but can also damage the company in uncountable ways. Such dangers can affect the business by damaging the reputation, brand image, productivity, efficiency, etc. In worst case scenarios, Company may simply go out of business due to such dangers (Rojas, 2009). There are two frameworks involved in the business continuity. Business continuity planning Business continuity management Business continuity planning In this stage of business continuity, a plan is made in order to face any problems. This plan helps the organization to recover and return to state of usual business activities. In the planning process, it is determined which areas may be under threat and what can be done to minimize the impact of any crisis in case they happen (Council, 2011). Business continuity management This stage of business continuity involves that continuous maintenance of the business continuity plan. The plan developed initially is managed and updated with new updates in the industry. This way business can continue its working and stay safe from the everyday changing business world (Lindström, 2010). Skills required in business continuity professional Skills that are required in the business community professional are discussed below with their impact on the responsibilities that need to be fulfilled. (Zawada, 2011 ) 1. Communication skills A business continuity professional needs to have good communication skills in order to communicate ideas and needed changes to the target audience. Target audience may include business owner, supplier, customer, senior management (Hiles, 2010). Communication is the key to make people understand the point and initialize the change one want them to do. There are several methods of communication to the audience like, report writing, verbal meetings, presentations etc. (Snedaker, 2013).  2. Dealing with people from different departments It is very important for business continuity professional to handle and deal people from different departments. People belonging to the production department will have different mind sets than people who are working in the management or technical departments. Professional must have capabilities to deal with people according to their mindset, and communicate what is required from them in order to work towards business continuity management. 3. Big picture and details There are people who only see the big picture while others focus on details. A business continuity professional must have the capability to perform in both ways. He or she should be able to see the big picture and go in the details when needed. This will help in managing things from every department. 4. Leading and influencing skills In the process of preparing the business for any contingency, it is important to work with people from other departments. Such people have other core responsibilities which they manage and might delay the preparedness for business continuity. A business continuity professional must be able to lead such people and influence them without causing any disruption to their core responsibilities. Person should be able to lead them and as well as facilitate them in best possible way (Gruman, 2011). 5. Multi tasking and organizing skills A business continuity professional must be capable of handling many things at a time as there can be unforeseen tasks that might need to be performed. Person must stay organized in order to be able to juggle many things at a time. If the professional is not organized and ready for any emergency, then he cannot plan the rest of the changes effectively. 6. Capability to motivate without causing panic It is very easy to make people do something by inducing urgent danger messages, but after a certain time this technique will go useless. A business continuity professional should be able to motivate people to adopt changes without inflicting panic in the system and people. 7. Cost analysis A business continuity professional must introduce things along with cost and benefit analysis in order to make sure that management takes actions. If cost analysis for change is not given, then there are chances that people will overestimate the cost and might not take certain actions, which are very necessary for the well-being of the business in the long run. Stages of business continuity work Business continuity is an important profession which involves certain steps. To understand the importance of this profession, it is needed to understand how things work in this profession (Epstein, 2014). Analysis This step involves analyzing the business and finding out the areas where the business is at risks. In this step, critical threats are also analyzed in order to find the impacts they may have if the occur. After doing analyzing risks and threats, requirements are listed for recovery in case something happens. Solution design In this step, a solution design is made in order to recovery if anything happens. Minimum requirements are set at which company can operate normally without causing any damage to its daily work. Implementation This is the step where most of the work is needed. It is sometimes difficult to influence people in order to make them the changes one want without disturbing their core responsibilities. There are many skills required by the business continuity professional to fully function in this step and make the changes required for the continuity of the business. Testing and acceptance This step involves testing of the recovery process and finding out if there is any flaw in the system. Problems and flaws can be detected in this stage and corrections can be done in order to completely implement the changes (Herbane, 2010). Maintenance and update Once a good recovery plan is set and tested, there is always need to maintain the changes. There might also be changes in the business environment which may need the business to update the plan they have set and tested. Importance of business continuity profession In this world of changes, there are many risks and threats that are hidden under and can come up any time causing damage to the business in ways one cannot imagine. In worst situations companies can go out of business because of not paying attention to the business continuity plan. This is the reason why business continuity has become a separate profession introduced by institutes around the globe. There are many threats due to which business might be at risk. Risks and threats are mentioned below due to which a business can be seriously affected, and day to day operation might get disturbed (Peltier, 2013). 1. Natural disasters like floods, earthquake, hurricanes, and tornados 2. Accidents like fire 3. Power failure 4. Hacking activities 5. Failure of service, transportation, communication and safety 6. Environmental dangers like toxic material spills Examples of disasters There are many examples of disasters like Pakistan flood, hurricane Katrina and sand, Japan’s nuclear and tsunami disaster. Such disasters show the trend of environmental changes and their effect on the world. With an increasing number of natural calamities, it is important for businesses to have a professional which can continuously keep the organization prepared for such things. This has created a need of business continuity professionals and institutes are offering proper education to work in this area. It is generally observed, that businesses which do not consider business continuity planning and management an important aspect face troubles. Even if the company survives immediate after the disaster, but the effects are so big that the company might go out of business later. Three out of five companies are most likely to go out of business in the five years after facing any disaster. Effects of 9/11 on businesses There had been incidents like 9/11 when things went out of the control of the organizations in seconds. No one could have foreseen the incident before happening. In that incident buildings were destroyed completely and the infrastructure was paralyzed, but businesses, which had the proper planning, survived despite the sudden crash of everything. There were many lessons learnt from that incident like: Companies do not only need to do business continuity planning, but they also need to update and test their planning frequently. Every kind of threat and risk must be kept in consideration. Dependencies must be analysed along with the interdependencies. This will help companies in dealing with situations where there are most of the resources gone. Every organization whether it is a service centred company or a product centred company should prepare itself for any situation. There can be any problem which may affect a product or service and can lead to loss on the bottom line. There can also be situations when communication systems can go down along with other system leading to a total failure. Companies should be prepared for total system failure. Conclusion Business continuity is a planning that must be done in order to remain in business for the long run. Companies, which do not do such planning, are constantly at risk of losing everything due to disruption of daily operations. Businesses are also at risk, and may not be able to deliver critical services and products which may lead to consequences that may be very severe. There are many companies, which are small in size and can suffer more easily due to the nature of the business. Yet it cannot be assumed that big companies are not under such threats. Natural disasters are something which cannot be avoided if they are meant to happen. Only thing, which can be done, is to prepare the business to survive in the worst possible situation. This work needs to considered seriously, and companies should hire business continuity professionals in order to work properly in this direction. When company asks the current employees to do the job of a business continuity professional, then no good can be achieved. This will only affect their core responsibilities and will burden them affecting the results of their real duties. Employees who do not have proper knowledge of the process of business continuity planning and management cannot do the job. All the problems faced in the business community have shown the need of the distinct business continuity profession. References Council, A. (2011). Business continuity planning Epstein, B. (2014). Application impact analysis: A risk-based approach to business continuity and disaster recovery. Journal of business continuity & emergency planning, 7(3), 230-237. Gruman, J. (2011). An exploratory study of the level of disaster preparedness in the Canadian hospitality industry.International Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Administration, 12(1), 43-59. Herbane, B. (2010). The evolution of business continuity management: A historical review of practices and drivers. Business history, 52(6), 978-1002. Hiles, A. (2010). The definitive handbook of business continuity management. Wiley. Honour, D. (2006, September 29). http://www.continuitycentral.com/feature0398.htm. Retrieved April 30, 2014, from continuitycentral.com: http://www.continuitycentral.com/feature0398.htm Iyer, R., and Diez, R. (1999). Training Your Business Continuity Teams. Retrieved April 29, 2014, from http://www.drj.com/drworld/content/w4_023.htm Lindström, J.(2010). Business continuity planning methodology. Disaster Prevention and Management, 19(2), 243-255. Peltier, T. R. (2013). Information security fundamentals. CRC Press. Rojas, B. (2009). Business Continuity Professionals: The Next Generation. Retrieved April 29, 2014, from http://www.continuityinsights.com/articles/2009/12/business-continuity-professionals-next-generation Snedaker, S. (2013). Business continuity and disaster recovery planning for IT professionals. Newnes. Zawada, B. (2011 ). Key Skills a Business Continuity Professional Must Have or Obtain: 2011 and Beyond. Retrieved April 30, 2014, from http://perspectives.avalution.com/2011/key-skills-a-business-continuity-professional-must-have-or-obtain-2011-and-beyond/ Read More