The Importance of Having a Business Continuity Plan - Essay Example

Implementing a BCP has challenges posed by each organization’s uniqueness in operations, management and regulatory and legal requirements. Key areas that present challenges include commitment and involvement levels of senior management, incorrect assumptions in the stages of designing BCPs, and approaching the execution of BCPs inappropriately (BSI, 2012). The senior management may be too busy in other undertakings and, therefore, delegate their duties and responsibilities. From the organizational perspective, a project’s visibility is compromised by such delegation.

To overcome this challenge, a steering committee should be formed and have membership from across the stakeholders, which will serve a cross-functional role in solving issues. In terms of incorrect assumptions, most limiting factors are usually not considered. For example, organizations presume that its activities in different locations will be supported by employees. However, disruptions that cause injuries or fatalities also lead to reluctance from the employees. However, when the BCP procedure is understood at the developing stage, it will eliminate the need of having to be amended when a disruption strikes the organization.

The third challenge, from inappropriate approach, may be characterized by outsourced services from multiple providers (BSI, 2012). For instance, organizations operating from multiple locations my use services from different agencies in different locations, as much as the organization focuses on centralized management. This can be avoided by working with approaches based on services and products while assessing risks. Failure to implement these strategies means an organization will not be able to restore its critical services seamlessly following a disruption and may result in the closure of the business.