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Building a Business Continuity Plan: Know Your Business Inside and Out
The next step is learning the intricate details of how your business functions. 'In reality, the majority of organizations don't necessarily understand exactly where their profits are coming from, where their key missions are being driven from, and the key things they would need to be able to do and in what timeframe if that was disrupted,' says Lyndon Bird, international technical director of the Caversham, England-based Business Continuity Institute, which provides business continuity certification and guidance for companies around the world.
In order to dig into the details, start by identifying the critical products and services your company delivers, 'the profit centers,' as John Glenn, a certified Business Continuity Planner, puts it, and the key customers or clients they are delivered to. Then, figure out the employees who have the biggest role in delivering those products and services to those customers.
'Being able to wrap your mind around the core products and services gives you something tangible to work toward, and lets you identify the immediate steps you have to take to get back up and running,' says Brian Zawada, director of Avalution Consulting, a Cleveland, Ohio-based firm specializing in business continuity strategy. You'll obviously want everything running smoothly again as soon as possible, but it helps to establish a timeframe to prioritize what needs to be addressed in the first 24 to 48 hours, and what can wait until a few days after the disruption. Conducting such a business impact analysis will help you determine the maximum amount of time you can be out of the market.
Dig Deeper: Planning for Disaster
Building a Business Continuity Plan: Get Everyone Involved
It's a good idea to appoint someone (possibly yourself if you're a small business owner) to coordinate the efforts to create a business continuity plan, but a successful plan requires feedback and input from all parts of an organization. 'Never try to create a plan in a vacuum,' Glenn says. 'You need a dynamic group to get people together talking about exactly what they do and how they do it.'
You should solicit input from employees to determine their roles in the organization, and what tools they need to fulfill them, so you can write that into the plan in case someone else needs to take on those duties after a major disruption. And make sure each department or team of employees has developed their own plan to recover operations independently as well.
The most important part of the feedback process is constant communication among high-level management. The people who have fiduciary responsibility will be able to decide which objectives or functions of the business are most critical. Having upper-level management lead the effort also sends a clear message to employees that creating a strong continuity plan is a top priority, Bird says.
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Building a Business Continuity Plan: Put It in Writing
The document itself is the product of all this planning, analysis and input. It's your Bible when disaster strikes, so make sure it's clear, concise and simple enough for any employee to understand. It should address the basic questions of 'what are you going to do, where are you going to do it from, who is going to do it, and what resources, support, equipment, and facilities do you need to do that,' Bird says.
Make sure the document includes all the information you've gathered so far: supplier contact information, backup suppliers, employee contact information, the roles and responsibilities of key employees, major client contact information, backup equipment and IT data, and the place of the off-site recovery location. It should also establish a timeframe for getting this done, in order of priority. For example, it should clearly spell out what's accomplished within the first hour, within the first day, and within the first week.
Dig Deeper: Inc.com's Free Business Continuity Plan Template
Building a Business Continuity Plan: Put Your Plan in Action
Perhaps the most important step is to exercise and maintain your plan. 'An untested plan is a waste of time and money,' Brown says.
Your plan isn't going to be perfect the first time around. That's why you need to test it out, and make adjustments. This doesn't have to (and probably shouldn't) involve shutting down your business to see how your staff responds. Tabletop exercises, in which someone creates a scenario and the individuals around the table take on roles, can be an effective way to talk through the details of your plan, Brown says.
Creating a plan that allows your organization to stand up against a major disaster or disruption is a gradual process. 'You can't be perfect right out of the gate,' Zawada says. 'You need to create an expectation of continuous improvement and realize it's not just a project, but a long term goal. It is a simple concept, but the devil's in the details and the execution.'
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