effective communication skills and also understand business and financial operations at a Against this backdrop
reasonably sophisticated level. Because BCM has to be embedded in the business, it is also
vital for the BCM specialist to understand the language, operating model and processes of
of uncertainty, it is
the organisation in which he or she is working.
Many readers will be BCM professionals and will need no reminding that every crisis
encouraging that the
presents a challenge, but handled well they might also lead to opportunities for future
discipline of BCM has
business performance improvement. This could, perhaps, be applied to the overall status
of BCM as a specialist discipline and summed up by the old adage, “It is always darkest
been able to evolve and
before the dawn”. However there are a number of potential clouds on the BCM horizon
that could threaten that new dawn. remain relevant in the face
The main one is that BCM has become a victim of its own success; winning the
intellectual argument but not imposing its culture sufficiently vigorously on the business
of these major business and
community. It has therefore allowed other related disciplines like enterprise risk
management, operational resilience and insurance assurance to extract key elements of the
societal changes
BCM philosophy without buying into the full concept.
& facilities, people, finance and customers.
The challenges The use of this simple model demonstrates
This situation is creating some interesting challenges for BCM professionals: to top management the value and integrated
1. BCM lacks corporate power because it is cross functional nature of the BCM approach – holistic,
Business continuity management is cross-functional by its very nature. The BC manager has cross-functional and cross-enterprise.
primarily a programme management and facilitator role – the plans to ensure continuity The successful application of business
of the business are owned by the areas of the organisation that need to protect key value continuity management increases
creating processes or assets. The cost of developing and maintaining the required level an organisation’s resilience which in
of preparedness needs to be met from these groups. Those involved in the process will turn contributes to higher corporate
therefore differ from organisation to organisation reflecting its business and operating performance. Resilience is widely defined
model. For example, procurement is increasingly important in BCM programmes due to as the ability of an organisation to absorb,
extended supply chains and increased use of outsourcing and off-shoring. respond and recover from disruptions.
BCM uniquely provides the framework
2. BCM is becoming seen as purely part of a compliance regime to understand how value is created
BCM is often seen as an addendum to a multitude of other disciplines e.g. health & safety, and maintained within an organisation
security and IT audit. However, it needs to be acknowledged that this approach links BCM and establishes a direct relationship to
to a specific event or incident type, and does not suggest an enterprise-wide approach dependencies or vulnerabilities inherent in
to BCM. It is also difficult for the BCM practitioner embedded within a single function to the delivery of that value.
influence beyond this function. To be effective, therefore, BCM must be recognised from Resilience is not fundamentally
the outset by senior management as a business discipline owned by the business but co- about stopping or preventing disruption
ordinated and facilitated centrally. happening in the first place. Reliance on
risk management or security to provide
3. BCM promises more than it can deliver comprehensive protection will inevitably
BCM is not about everything that could cause a business to fail – such an approach betrays generate misplaced confidence, because
a lack of clarity of thought. BCM is a tool to help improve organisational performance. We most incidents are by their nature largely
must avoid it becoming another corporate ‘tick-box’ exercise. We can help ourselves in unpredictable.
this respect by ensuring the rigorous application of BCM to protect value in an organisation In the board room, BCM is a key
but use our skills and techniques to focus on that which is both important and urgent. contributor to effective corporate
One example is supply chain. There is no need to mandate all suppliers to have business governance and allows stakeholders to
continuity programmes as part of the procurement process; it is better to go into more ask some searching questions. The current
detail with those who are defined as critical in the Business Impact Analysis rather than popularity of trying to bring a range of
expend the same amount of effort in an arbitrary manner. business protection disciplines together
under the overarching term ‘resilience’ is
4. BCM is perceived as the recovery planning arm of risk management ambitious but likely to prove disappointing.
It is important to note that BCM is focused on identifying vulnerabilities within Resilience is an aspiration like good health
organisations linked to the underlying value they support and understanding the impact or happiness; it does not lend itself to clarity
of their non-availability over time on the organisation. BCM is not primarily about of definition or to a scientific approach
identifying, assessing and reporting every conceivable threat to an organisation, its markets, to a set of management skills. A fully
customers and the wider world in which it operates and it is certainly not about allocating embedded BCM programme will deliver
probabilities to event occurrences. both operational resilience and business
Unfortunately, BCM is often erroneously seen by some risk managers as simply a risk performance improvement. The main threat
treatment for very specific types of operational events – often physical in their nature and to the growth of BCM is only from our
normally requiring short-term infrastructure recovery. own failure as a community to express that
powerfully enough to directors and other
Joined-up thinking senior decision makers.
BCM clearly does not exist in a vacuum and organisations naturally seek to understand
where its application will bring value and how it fits with other activities supporting the
Lyndon Bird FBCi
same organisational goals. We also need to recognise that organisations are not starting
from a blank canvass; aspects of BCM have always been present in organisations under
lyndon Bird is international technical director
different names.
at the BCi.
The vulnerabilities in the business and operating model of an organisation can be
lyndon.bird@thebci.org
synthesised into seven areas: reputation, supply chain, information & communication, sites
2  Continuity  January/February 2010
Cont Jan/Feb 2010_insides.indd 28 3/2/10 14:52:33
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