Is your Business Prepared?

Business Continuity Management (BCM) is a process that helps people manage the risks to the smooth running of their business and aims to ensure it can continue in the event of serious disruption.

BCM is about thinking ahead and planning for any crisis and making sure that your business can recover quickly and survive. However, the crises that affect your business are not necessarily large-scale catastrophes. Smaller events involving one or more key staff could affect critical parts of your operation. BCM is designed to ensure that a crisis does not become a disaster.

Are you ready?

Can you answer "yes" to the following questions?

• Does your business have a Continuity Plan?
• Have you identified someone responsible for leading a crisis response?
• Do you know what processes are critical to continuing in business?
• Do you have arrangements to communicate with staff, or their relatives, in a crisis?
• Could you cope if a large number of staff were absent?
• Are your business computer records protected and backed up off-site?
• Are your suppliers (including utilities) resilient with their own Business Continuity Plans?
• Can you access essential equipment at short notice?
• Have you tested your assumptions about recovering from a business crisis or range of emergencies that might affect your business?

If you can't answer these questions take action before it is too late.