COVID-19 and Business Continuity: Is Your Plan Ready or Not?

5-phase approach for business continuity in the age of Covid-19

A five-phase strategic and systematic approach to strengthen the resilience of organisations’ current business models is key to business continuity during the coronavirus pandemic, says research and advisory firm Gartner.

“Companies tend to have traditional business continuity strategies and plans that focus on the continuity of the resources and processes but omit the business model,” said Daniel Sun, research vice president at Gartner.

“However, the business model itself can be a threat to continuity of operations in external events, such as the global outbreak of Covid-19.”

CIOs can play a key role in the process of raising current business model resilience to ensure ongoing operations, since digital technologies and capabilities can influence every aspect of business models…

 

COVID-19 and Business Continuity: Is Your Plan Ready or Not?

I am writing this column in the midst of our global COVID-19 nightmare. By now, your pre-designed continuity plans have gone live and are operational to varying degrees of success.

But honestly, many of us never imagined requiring a continuity plan for something this pernicious. And many of us have never executed any continuity plan at all. This means many of us must be simply winging it and hoping for the best.

In my risk management career, I have experienced a few continuity plans that went live, all triggered for different reasons. These unique opportunities afforded me the chance to learn valuable lessons from these business disruptions that go beyond logistical planning steps that we typically see in continuity plans…

 

The New Boadroom Imperative: From Agility To Resilience

Over the last twenty years, agile has evolved from a niche software development methodology to a worldwide business trend. While the concept is used in a variety of ways, it is always seen as a good thing. We picture lean and hungry start-ups, highly responsive to emerging trends, with the capacity to pivot quickly when circumstances require it. And we are aware of the cautionary tales, the non-agile corporate dinosaurs like Kodak and Blockbuster, that were unable to redeploy their resources towards the new opportunities before it was too late.

But there is a problem with agile. It rhymes with fragile, and for good reasons. Lean and hungry start-ups can shift direction quickly, but they have no heft, no loyal customers to fall back on, no predictable reserves, and no capacity to withstand shocks. When times are tough – as they are now – being agile is not enough…