Disaster Recovery Journal, Fall 2009

a business continuity strategy.

Business Strategies

The 2008 Business Continuity Institute’s Good Practice Guidelines recommends business continuity management being an integral part of an organization’s culture. Growth and viability of an organization is the result of well-developed business strategies. Mintzberg, a doctoral professor of management at McGill University and author, considers business strategy as an organizational perspective of the business environment. An effective business strategy requires everyone throughout the organization sharing the perspective resulting in common behavior, thinking, and intentions. The preceding scenarios highlight different perspectives that affected the organization during and after a business disruption.

The owner of the grocery store realized technology provides efficiency, when it works. She developed a business strategy of training cashiers and stock personnel on the computerized system and an alternative manual system. Unexpected power outages and equipment failures were familiar events that crippled technology but not manual procedures. The core strategic element of the business strategy was to provide customer service no matter what the situation. The shared perspective was ingrained in the organizational culture.

The primary partner of the law firm had years of developing relationships with clients and other businesses within the city. The organizational culture is based on mutual support of the business community. The firm had an advantage in understanding the legal frustrations surrounding insurance claims, city investigations, and client services. The structure of a partnership allowed multiple layers of decision-making. Shared knowledge, responsibility, and perspective are the foundational elements of a strong business strategy.

The common elements between the two businesses are a well-communicated business strategy, pro-active managers, and a lack of an established business continuity plan. An unanswered question is would the businesses have survived without the primary key person directing actions.

Inclusion of business continuity into business strategies would ensure any employee could perform appropriate actions to maintain business operations.

Business Continuity

Working with very small businesses (less than 10 employees) has indicated multiple single points of failure since the owner is usually the accountant, inventory manager, public relations point, and human resource manager. Any disruption, small or large, is a disaster to this sized business. Many of these owners retain corporate knowledge only in their heads; a few have written operation guides. A well-prepared business impact analysis provides the foundation for a streamlined continuity plan emphasizing survival first, recovery last.

Small businesses need to view business continuity as a strategy for survival first then eventual recovery. Many small businesses view business continuity planning as a costly endeavor and a low priority. Small businesses lack additional resources for alternate locations, hot-sites, or redundant systems usually considered in larger enterprise continuity plans. These elements are important for long-term recovery but for immediate operations, identifying and establishing basic survival elements would be more beneficial to the small business owner.

The first step is deciding the minimal functions the business needs to survive the first few days until the business can establish recovery operations. The first response by owners will be that everything is needed immediately. The reality is not everything will be available for immediate recovery. The first priority should be the protection and safety of people. Without employees, the business would not function even if facilities and equipment have been fully restored. Employees are the key to successful implementation of business continuity and disaster recovery plans.

IT directors would disagree that a business could operate without electronic information systems for a longer time than normally recommended. However, many day-to-day operations can function with manual standbys – paper, pencil, and human interaction. Manual processes