Back in 2011 I wrote an article entitled “Nature takes a massive swipe! Now what?” on the topic of business continuity planning and disaster recovery planning. At the time, the article coincided with a major natural event that had occurred in Queensland (Cyclone Yasi) and devasted many communities. Less than 10 years later, I am revisiting this topic after the horrific bushfires that raged across the east coast of Australia and the global Covid-19 pandemic crisis.

The utter devastation to the global economy, national economy, state economies, and local economies is unfathomable. Industries shut down overnight. People out of work overnight. Basic liberties taken for granted restricted overnight. The impact is profound and the ripple effects are going to be felt for a very long time.

It’s fair to say that much of what is happening is a first for most of us. Unfortunately, it is unlikely to be the last. In fact you can count on it happening again. We now have a new scenario that threatens our livelihoods and lives that we must add to our existing business continuity plans if we have them. If not, it’s a scenario we now need to treat with the utmost priority.

We need to take a good hard look at how to create a plan for any eventuality that may impact the critical functions of our businesses and indeed our lives. Business continuity planning is not just for large organisations. It is something every business owner needs to put at the forefront of their planning for now and the future, post Covid-19.

What is a Business Continuity Plan (BCP)?

A Business Continuity Plan (BCP) is exactly that! It’s a plan of action to keep the business going and to recover after an incident or disaster has impacted your business. It is a collection of Disaster Recovery Plans (DRPs) or response plans outlining the steps and information to be followed to get the business back on its feet as quickly as possible and to restore the critical activities to get the wheels turning again. It typically covers (but is not limited to) the following (in no particular order):

• An assessment on whether to reopen after a critical event
• The financials of the business and rebuilding them if necessary
• The critical functions and processes of the business
• The risks associated with those critical functions
• The mitigating / minimising actions to limit the impact of those risks
• The critical contact information for the business and team members
• Actions to take with customers
• Actions to take with suppliers
• Actions to take with your insurers
• Actions to restore telecommunications and IT
• Actions to take regarding stock and damaged items (if applicable)
• Infrastructure actions like electricity, gas, and water (where affected)
• Logistical considerations
• Security protocols
• Repairs and cleaning
• Procedures to resume office operations
• A list of Government and other contacts to provide additional assistance and advisory services
• Policies and procedures to effect in the event of a critical incident

You can see, it’s not a small plan and can take some time to put together, but if you need it in a hurry, the information within it can be business, and indeed, life saving!

What is a Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP)?

A well-known DRP is the IT plan. Your IT system is a critical function within your business and the risks to that system need to be addressed. A n IT DRP outlines all the critical steps to recover IT services and restore lost / damaged information and infrastructure so that the business IT functions get back online as quickly as possible. Your IT system is the heartbeat of your business and without it you will likely suffer catastrophic results if it’s offline for too long.

So, looking at your business now. I’m sure you can appreciate the benefit of having a BCP in place. I am offering free support to COVID-19 affected businesses to assess the damage done and determine the viability and possibility of getting back to business. There is a wealth of information available out there to help you in this space, some of which I have used over many years to protect my clients and their businesses. My approach is practical and I’ve done the hard yards to help you create a plan that protects your business and livelihood. I will be sharing more over the coming weeks.

If you need help or know someone who could use it, please contact me at www.igeneration.com.au and I will arrange an initial discussion to assess the best next steps. If you are interested in developing a BCP for your business don’t delay!  As a I said in my article almost a decade ago, “Nature can take a swipe at any time! And, it will again!”

Stay safe!