According to The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) the snow that hit the UK on December 18th 2010, cost our economy £600 million per day.
At a time of economic uncertainty, the British Standards Institution (BSI) believes there is no excuse for huge financial losses due to bad weather.
Ann Francke, Managing Director, Global Products and Services at BSI said: “our research indicates that 80% of businesses who do not have a Business Continuity Plan close within 18 months of a major incident, which is why we are encouraging all companies to put a plan into place sooner rather than later. The reality is that Business Continuity Management is not a complicated science, all organisations need to do is consider what is necessary to protect their business and how they will do it.”
BSI’s five bad weather must dos
1. Identify your critical operations and the risks to those. What can you do now to be prepared for winter?
2. Make a plan for those critical activities, considering the 7 P’s needed to keep them operational: Processes, people, premises, providers (internal and suppliers), profile (your brand), performance (what service level agreements/contracts do you need to meet) and finally preparation (what do you need to put in place to mitigate the risks you’ve identified)
3. Exercise your plan – run a simple “severe weather” scenario and see if it will work
4. Most importantly, write it down. There’s no point it being in the Managing Directors’ head, what happens if he’s the one who is unavailable?
5. Don’t wait until after the bad weather has hit, plan now
BSI’s five bad weather pitfalls
1. Business continuity isn’t complicated… its quite simple. What do you need to protect and how will you do it? Have you got the right resources? Don’t overcomplicate it!
2. Involve ALL staff, not just “key” individuals. Remember, you are preparing for the worst. Even if your cleaner doesn’t have a role in your Business Continuity Plan, he/she still wants to know what happens if they can’t access the building! Will they still get paid? Who will contact them? Answering these questions creates confidence and confidence creates trust
3. Yes, this will take some time and resource. So ensure it has senior management engagement. There is no point in devising a plan at an operational level, working out recovery times, creating plans and running exercises to have your Managing Director say “nah, we could last a few weeks without that line”
4. Consider your neighbours. When you have your Business Continuity Plans worked out, pop next door and ask your neighbours what their plans are. Similarly, ensure you have considered your interdependencies and your supply chain. There is no point in you being available if those you depend on are not
5. Don’t be complacent! Just because it hasn’t affected you yet, doesn’t mean it won’t. Start planning now. In the immortal words of JFK “There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long range risks of comfortable inaction”
