BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLANNING - WHY?

Dennis Stein
President & CEO, Dennis Stein & Associates

What if ?????

What if when you arrived at your office tomorrow morning, you were denied access to your facility?
What if when you arrived at your office tomorrow morning, your computer and telephone systems were destroyed?

How long would it take you to become a viable business again?

Business Continuity – The ability of an organization to ensure continuity of service and support for its customers, employees, and business partners and to maintain its viability before, after, and during an event.

Businesses need to recognize that a significant threat exists to its ability to continue normal business operations following a serious unexpected disruptive incident. Today’s businesses have a high level of dependence on its automated systems and processes. These risks need to be mitigated.

Businesses also need to recognize the need to recover from disruptive incidents in the minimum possible time. This necessity to ensure a speedy restoration of services requires a significant level of advance planning and preparation.

A business continuity plan assists businesses to manage a serious disruptive crisis in a controlled and structured manner. It contains information on emergency contact details, strategies to mitigate impact, procedures to be implemented and communication processes to be followed in response to a serious disruptive event.

The goal of a business continuity plan is to minimize the amount of time, effort, and cost to operate in a viable manner after an incident.

There are four planning steps in a business continuity plan:

1. Risk assessment – assessment of the financial and operational impact of disruption to normal business operations for each individual key business area.
2. Plan development – plans for each part of the business including premises, fixtures, and furniture, communications systems, power and other utilities, IT systems (hardware and software), equipment, personnel, financial information, operational information and documentation, sales and customer service, etc. The plan must include the identification of individual responsibilities (with backup). The plan must be written.
3. Testing – regularly scheduled testing as well as random testing must be established.
4. Maintenance – a methodology to review and update the plan, to disseminate changes, and to assign specific responsibility and accountability.

In order for the business continuity plan to be effective, there needs to be commitment from the CEO/President/COO/CFO, there needs to be buy-in from other management, and the plan needs to be communicated to all employees.

There is no need to panic. On the other hand, there is no need to procrastinate. You should evaluate the cost/benefit of having a pro-active business continuity plan in place – doing something vs doing nothing!

The benefits of a pro-active business continuity plan will be readily apparent. You will create the focus that is needed to manage proactively and be better prepared to deal with disruptive events.

Dennis Stein is President & CEO of Dennis Stein & Associates, a management consulting firm that specializes in business and strategic planning. He has previously been President and CEO of Nevada Development Authority prior to which he was President & CEO of Citibank, Nevada. He can be reached at (702) 873-0905 or by e-mail (denniss43@yahoo.com).

MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT
Providing general management consulting services since 1998. Specializing in business and strategic planning, business continuity planning, and providing organizational assessments. Clients in the Las Vegas area have included many well-respected and prominent companies in their respective fields.

Prior Employment

1968 – 1987 – held senior managerial positions with New York banking firms.

1987 – 1988 - president and chief executive officer - Citibank (Nevada). -
Responsible for all Citibank activities in Nevada with primary emphasis on credit card operations.

1988 to 1995 - president and chief executive officer - Nevada Development Authority - Responsible for the economic diversification program for all of Southern Nevada. The diversification program deals with attracting and encouraging companies to relocate or expand their operations to the Southern Nevada area (primarily Las Vegas).

1995-1997 – president and chief executive officer – Marin Credit Card Services – Responsible for start-up of credit card servicing organization that is now First National Bank of Marin.

Education
B.S. Economics, City University of New York, 1968.
Graduate Management Program, Harvard Business School, summer 1975

Personal
Married, 3 Children, 6 grandchildren, 1 dog, 1 grand-dog