BCM integration
behaviours may well impact on your business planning
assumptions. Therefore it is important to identify what those
i
g
h
Bystander  Champion
H
people and organisations which initially may not appear to be
u
y
-
i
n
part of your business operations might do.
4. Finally, undertake global horizon scanning to assess the risks to
your critical activities. For example, if there is a major disruption l
e
c
t
u
a
l
 
b
in China, the world’s biggest exporter, the effects would be felt
I
n
t
e
l
Weak Link  Loose Cannon
in many areas of your supply chain. Then repeat stage one and
 
start the process again.
L
o
w
Emotional buy-in 
         Low  High
When I was younger I completed the London Marathon. At the
MCA Matrix (Thompson 1998)
end of the marathon there are a number of rendezvous points in
Hyde Park with initials clearly marked on trees. The idea is that you The MCA Matrix
meet up with your loved ones under the letter of your surname. I According to the Matrix model, when analysing your organisation
anticipated that there would be crowds of people at the finish so I you may identify some people who do not seem to know what they
arranged to meet my family under what I assumed would be a less are doing in relation to your BCM arrangements and don’t really
popular letter. You wouldn’t believe the number of people who had care. The effort you put into addressing these ‘weak links’ will
a surname starting with Z… and I was one of them! The point is we depend on the criticality of the activities they are involved in.
need to challenge our assumptions about what other organisations, You are more likely, however, to identify ‘bystanders’, i.e. people
especially our strategic partners, will do when there is widespread who learn all the right things to say and may even have a BCM
disruption. Furthermore, by adopting an approach based on plan, but don’t believe they will ever face a major disruption. For
strategic integration we can ensure our BCM arrangements do not this group you will need to adopt a strategy aimed at increasing
in fact make the disruption worse. their ‘mindfulness’ – disruptions do happen and you could be
faced by one tomorrow.
Language & culture Another group that may be identified is that which is labelled
One of the advantages of having BS25999–1:2006 is that the ‘loose cannon’. These people have big hearts and will pull
it provides a common language to help achieve a level of out all the stops in a major disruption. They will not, however,
consistence within our BCM development. However, what we say have read the BCM plan and will therefore be very busy but not
and what people hear can be very different. necessarily very effective.
I recently addressed a delegation of high ranking Chinese The model suggests that the most effective staff members are
officials who came to the Emergency Planning College (EPC) to those who have an intellectual buy-in to your organisation’s
find out about UK resilience. I described critical activities as “the mission (they understand what they are doing) and they have an
things that would hurt you most in the shortest amount of time” emotional buy-in (they believe in what they are doing). These
should they be lost, damaged or disrupted, rather than in relation people will be your ‘champions’ in terms of building your BCM
to the ‘importance’ of the activity. They looked a bit puzzled so I capability and identifying the nodal points for strategic integration.
gave them an example by asking them to consider the activities of If we are honest, we probably move around these groups at
the catering staff at the college compared to the activities of my different stages of our careers so it is important to adopt the right
CEO. I explained that the immediate impact of losing the catering strategy to engage these different organisational behaviours.
staff would be more critical (i.e. delegates would not be fed and
would probably want to leave) than if the CEO was unable to The Civil Contingencies Act 2004
attend work. They seemed to understand the concept. The UK’s Civil Contingencies Act (CCA) was introduced following
Furthermore, in an environment where many organisations widespread disruption in the country resulting from the so-called
are facing significant budget cuts, tact and diplomacy skills are ‘4 F’s’ (the fuel protests, Foot & Mouth disease, the fire-fighter’s
required when you are trying to establish what activities can be strike and flooding). A more recent fifth ‘F’, the impact of the
stopped following a disruption. financial crisis, has also highlighted the interdependencies within
our business processes. As mentioned previously in this article,
Achieving strategic integration recent severe weather events in the UK have once again served to
A starting point for achieving strategic integration is to understand expose interdependencies in the public, private and third sectors.
the key relationships in your business processes and identify the Under the CCA, a range of organisations have a duty to co-operate
nodal points where the dependencies are. The subject of supply and share information in order to increase UK resilience; a process
chain management has a complexity of its own and awareness which thereby facilitates the process of strategic integration.
of the issues has led the EPC to include this subject in areas of A mature BCM capability is one where the organisation has
learning. looked beyond its immediate operating environment and has, for
Using post-it notes we invite delegates to identify the people, mutual advantage, integrated its BCM arrangements with those
information and physical assets required to deliver their critical of other stakeholders in their market. The move to strategically
activities. Once this network is completed we then identify all the integrate BCM arrangements with key stakeholders will help us
strategies we could use if any of these processes were disrupted. meet the public expectation that we are able to continue to deliver
This exercise identifies the interdependencies in our processes. It our critical services despite future widespread disruptions.
also highlights the areas where strategic integration with the BCM
arrangements of stakeholders might be developed so that we can
continue to deliver our key products and services in the event of a
MarTin FEnLon MBCi
e
disruption.
Martin Fenlon is assistant director at the Cabinet office’s emergency
Once we have identified the areas for strategic integration we
Planning College. he leads on business resilience and recovery and is
need to look at the relationships involved and the motivation of responsible for BCM training.
the key players. A useful model I was given on my MBA studies
Martin.fenlon@cabinet-office.x.gsi.gov.uk
with the Open University Business School was the MCA Matrix
s
tockphoto.com/lorrainedark www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/epcollege
©i
created by Kevin Thompson (1998).
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