BUSINESS CONTINUITY INSTITUTE
Are you a Certified BCM Professional?
By KATHLEEN A. LUCEY, FBCI & JOHN B. COPENHAVER, MBCI
Business Continuity Management has made consid- erable progress in recent years and is now a recog- nized profession in most private and public sector organizations, often including the Board Room and the Executive Suite. With this recognition has come
an influx of those seeking to build their careers in Business
Continuity Management. These new arrivals come from a variety of disciplines, including Information Technology, Audit,
Human Resources, Emergency Management, and Information
Security, to name a few of the background disciplines commonly found in BC Practitioners. And some come almost
directly from college with discipline-specific courses under
their belts, but little hands-on experience. Professional certification is
the established mechanism, in BC
as well as in many other professions, to distinguish experienced
practitioners from new entrants
to the field. As with any “proof
of professional status,” certification within the business continuity profession exists to provide an
indication of baseline education
in a knowledge base of accepted
best practices in our industry. The
more advanced levels of certification attest to greater levels of experience in the field, and the
highest certifications (such as FBCI, Fellow of the Business
Continuity Institute) may indicate peer acceptance of thought
leadership and contribution to the advancement of the profession.
And so you may ask yourself: “Why should I be certified
in BC? What’s in it for me?” We are now at a level of development in the BCM profession where baseline certification
is usually a requirement for even entry-level positions. For
positions with wide scope and management responsibility,
more advanced certifications are often requested, And so the
answer to the career development question is short: certification provides increased professional opportunities. For a BC
professional, certification is public recognition of professional
qualifications. Whether you are the BC Manager for your company, or a member of a large BC consulting organization, or
an independent consultant, certification can hold a variety of
wide-ranging benefits for your professional development,
including access to positions with greater responsibility and a
higher compensation.
The certification requirement for ongoing education is also an
incentive to increase the level of your professional knowledge on a continuing basis:
This is a requirement in many professions,
but is especially important in Business
Continuity Management, where the profession is changing rapidly as it goes through
accelerated growth stages. Most serious professions that are governed by certification or licensing allow professionals to attain
higher certification levels as they build the depth and breadth of
their experience within their chosen field: BCM is now one of
those professions.
Additionally, some certification organizations offer significant membership benefits, including
journals and a full array of internet communications and news
services. More recently, social
networks are offering members
the opportunity to network with
their peers in discussion groups
sponsored by certification organizations as well as other important
entities in the field.. In addition,
some certification organizations
offer special training classes
before or after industry conferences.
When an organization wishes to build or improve its BC
program, it must ensure that its business continuity efforts are
well designed and effectively managed. An organization with
certified BC professionals on its staff can be confident that
the business continuity program is properly focused and will
provide the organization with what it needs. When an incident occurs, those certified BC professionals will coordinate
response activities using the comprehensive plans that have
been developed. When a BC program has been built with
the guidance of certified BC professionals, an organization can
be confident in its ability to successfully manage a significant
disruption incident.
Certification Links
BCI: http://www.thebcicertificate.org/
BRCCI: www.brcci.org
DRII: http://www.drii.org
ICOR: http://www.theicor.org/
Sentryx: http://www.sentryx.com/
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Kathleen Lucey, FBCI, is the president of Montague Risk Management. She is the vice
chair, BCI Global Membership Council, elected to the BCI International Board of Directors,
and founding president of BCI-USA Chapter. She was selected as IBM BC Practitioner of
the Year in 1998
John Copenhaver, MBCI, is chief executive officer of the Contingency Management Group
and a senior advisor at BCI. Copenhaver is has served in a number of senior executive
roles, including as a presidential appointee to FEMA and as president and CEO of the DRI
International.
