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Using a Risk Register as part of Business Continuity Planning

A risk register is what it says it is: a document that lists the risks that can affect an organisation. It also typically includes information on the potential impact of the risk and the probability of the risk materialising. Depending on how you make the risk register for your own enterprise, it can be linked and leveraged in different ways for added business advantage. However, not everybody agrees on the value of a risk register. Critics claim that it can lead to problems owing to illusions of controlling the situation and of self-sufficiency – the idea that having a risk register makes  organisations erroneously believe that this is already enough in terms of risk management. Read more

2013-07-30T03:32:23+10:00By |Uncategorized|

Supply Chain, a Great Candidate for Business Continuity Planning

The supply chain is one of the few potential competitive advantages left to enterprises. Marketing tools are available to all and this week’s advance in technology is often matched by a rival’s progress next week. However, supply chain still offers companies the chance to better satisfy customers at lower costs and in ways that cannot be easily or immediately replicated by competitors. If it’s that important, then it makes sense to ensure that business continuity is applied to – better still, embedded in – the supply chain. Read more

2013-07-30T03:30:05+10:00By |Uncategorized|

Business Continuity SMART Objectives

There’s a good chance you’ve already met SMART objectives, whether in business continuity planning or elsewhere. This acronym is multi-purpose and comes up in sales, marketing, manufacturing… and business continuity. A quick reminder on what SMART stands for: S is for specific; M for measurable; A for Achievable; R for Realistic (or Relevant); and T for Time Limited. So, for example, “we will achieve 99.7% business continuity in our main production line over the next six months” may qualify as SMART. We should perhaps check that 99.7% is reasonably achievable and the production line is making things that help company profitability (relevant). But are all the goals we see in business continuity SMART? Read more

2013-07-30T03:23:51+10:00By |Uncategorized|

2013 Business Continuity Management Survey Shows Top Business Continuity Trends

How will you be applying your business continuity training – getting the message across to the rest of the organisation, bringing your BCP up to date, and dealing with business disruption? What situations are you most likely to encounter? The British Standards Institute sponsored the 2013 BCM Survey for the Chartered Management Institute and has published information on the trends. Although some of the statistics may be specific to Britain, many of them may well be applicable generally. After the number one cause in Britain, which was snow, any guesses for what else disrupted businesses the most in 2012? Read more

2013-07-02T02:33:39+10:00By |Uncategorized|

Training for Things that haven’t yet Happened

One of the challenges in effective disaster recovery is being sufficiently well prepared. The temptation as surveys of organizations have shown is to assume that if a disaster does happen, then human resourcefulness and an effort of 110% will put things back to "right". The problem with this attitude is that not everybody in an organisation will necessarily have this “gung-ho” attitude. While heroes are fighting the fires, other people stand idle and unproductive. Worse still, a syndrome starts with assumptions that disasters happen regularly, overall performance will always be degraded, and whether individual performance is good, bad or indifferent will not affect the general outcome. DR training can help improve the situation. But can you really train for things that haven’t yet happened? Some lateral thinking suggests that instead of training in how to tackle future problems, you could also try to avoid them in the first place. Indeed, Read more

2012-05-30T05:42:50+10:00By |Uncategorized|

Practical Steps to Success in DRI International Qualifying Exams

If you’re attending a CBCP (Certified Business Continuity Professional) course and taking the qualifying exam afterwards, then a little targeted preparation can go a long way to exam success. The BCLE2000 courses (Professional Business Continuity Management Certification) coming up in Sydney (4-7 June) and Melbourne (11-14 June) are good examples. What’s the best way then to tackle the questions? First of all, you have to know your stuff. It sounds obvious, but other tips and tricks cannot help if you don’t know the material on which you are being examined. And knowing your stuff means not only memorising what is necessary, but also understanding how to apply it. The solution? Good note-taking goes a long way. When you re-express information, ideas or concepts in your own words, you make your brain work with that information, which is then imprinted that much better in your mind. The simple act of taking Read more

2012-04-30T02:24:59+10:00By |Uncategorized|

Participation helps get the Most out of Refresher Courses

With refresher courses scheduled for the near future, such as BCP-501 (Business Continuity Planning Review, May 9-10 Melbourne, May 16-17 Sydney), the relative merits of classroom training and online training are likely to be under discussion once again. While it’s also a matter of personal preference, classroom learning is often appreciated for its possibilities of flexibility and immediate feedback. In some cases however, it’s more a matter of  comfort: throughout earlier educational experiences, we may have become so used to sitting at desks with other students, that any other learning method may seem unnatural. If so, how can you go beyond the comfort factor and get the most out of a collective training experience like this?   Without a doubt, the answer is participation. This is also where classroom learning has the potential to score higher than other types of learning. “Living” the training experience means you use a lot Read more

2012-04-24T04:13:24+10:00By |Uncategorized|