Business continuity management depends on good risk management. That’s a term that resonates with senior management because enterprises and organisations are constantly exposed to risk. So presenting BCM as a way to reduce or even eliminate the negative consequences is often a way to attract the attention of departmental heads and C-level directors. However, as marketers and sales people will tell you, once you have senior management’s attention, you need to build up the interest and move them to action. You could continue pounding home the message about potential damage, but is this most effective way of getting management to act by visibly supporting and implementing BCM?

The fact is that good business continuity management brings opportunity for upside as well as helping to avoid possible downside. Statistics about business failures may get people to listen at first. But BCM done well protects an organisation from all of this. So it’s more of a challenge to get your colleagues to appreciate all the dire problems that BCM has helped them avoid. On the other hand, if you can point to areas where BCM brings positive benefit, you can further reinforce enthusiasm. Of course, you can use a mix of both the positive and the negative to play both angles.

So what are these positive benefits that BCM can offer? They include cost savings (a dollar saved is a dollar earned) on bank loans and insurance premiums, as well as increases in customer loyalty and competitive advantage when bidding for new business. This requires presenting BCM in its best light (talk to your marketing colleagues) so as to bring out key points of interest to your senior management. Then by adding up the various advantages in terms of money saved and business won, you’ll be able to put a figure on what BCM contributes to the organisation to earn money, and not just what it costs to stay safe.