security 25 “Too many businesses give resilience too little


resource in terms of time, effort and thought, because they are focused on their day-to-day business.


“Resilience doesn’t have to cost enormous sums. It’s more a state of mind and preparedness. And, it doesn’t matter what kind of management structure you have in place as long as it understands its vulnerabilities from a resilience context and implements a tried and tested system that works for that organisation.


“People simply need to fully understand the risks and gain a resilience thinking approach. Thinking costs nothing. Applying one’s understanding costs very little in relative terms to the downside costs if you do nothing.”


How does Wood make businessmen focus on security and resilience? I simply ask: "If your worst fears happened now, are you confident your organisation can handle them?”


Gain help at Bucks New University


Awareness of the need for organisational resilience is growing, and “sitting here in the Thames Valley is one of the best academic resources in the country for local businesses to utilise,” states Phil Wood.


Several Thames Valley organisations have already latched on to their local good fortune.


Four out of five students of security and organisational resilience at Bucks New University are already employed in business continuity or risk-related roles for their companies. Other students are looking to gain professional qualifications leading to a career in the discipline.


The department of security & resilience at Bucks New University, now five years old, has evolved to provide a flexible and distributed learning capability enabling individuals, organisations and companies to balance their workloads with their need for professional and personal development.


It has also brought together an impressive team of senior lecturers and associated specialists in security, continuity, crisis, emergency and crowd management.


most plans are written with the assumption that the organisation will be able to respond. Validation, training and audits of effectiveness are often the most neglected elements, alongside overall under-resourcing of time and money.


“This whole discipline is marginalised because it is a seen as a cost rather than a contributor – until something goes wrong.” He suggested that in the same way that a car owner ensures their vehicle has a validating MOT, businesses, accountable to shareholders and stakeholders, should ensure that they undertake a regular ‘resilience MOT’.


“If a business is lucky it might have small disruptions that can be overcome by slight changes to routine. Every business has some degree of resilience, but when something big goes wrong that’s when organisations get exposed.”


Insurance can help overcome the financial problems, but only appropriate timely action will get a business back to normal as soon as possible – and that is vital in today’s world. The speed and manner in which a company recovers from a knock-back or disaster provides not only a reflection on the company’s true corporate ability (reflected potentially, via the Internet, to a worldwide audience) but also limits the opportunity for competitors to make commercial gain.


THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – APRIL 2014


Phil Wood, who heads up the team, is a former RAF officer with extensive global corporate security and business continuity training experience as a private consultant. One of his five senior lecturers worked on corporate communications for the Cabinet Office. Another has just returned from the Winter Olympics where they client-advised on security.


“In today’s dynamic, changing environments where internal and external influences and events can have a dramatic impact on the unprepared, organisations need expertise,” says Wood.


That expertise can be gained through the various academic programmes now offered at the university, underpinned by its partnership with the British Continuity Institute and the BCI Diploma recognised as a world-leading specialist professional qualification. Other organisational resilience courses are provided from certification to MSc degree levels. The department is also a Security Industry Authority awarding body.


Academic programmes for undergraduates, postgraduates and working professionals are designed to be real-time relevant to students and can be tailored in either attendance or online formats to suit organisational requirements.


“We draw upon the business experience of our students. We get them to gather data and think about the risks and business impacts on their own organisation.” Recent student dissertations have been written on large event management (by the security manager for Lady Gaga) and violence in the workplace (by an NHS employee working in A&E).


Phil Wood and his team are also happy to advise businesses on their existing resilience plans and procedures, or take on consultancy work to establish or improve security and resilience within an organisation.


Details: 0800-056-5660 advice@bucks.ac.uk


www.businessmag.co.uk


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52