Self Assessment – 5 , and you’re ok

Expect the Unexpected – How Incident Ready are You?
Most organisations work in an organised and structured way with risks. Their Risk Management process helps them to prepare for known risks. Some even establishes contingencies for the known unknowns’ i.e. identified risk areas. However, very few are prepared for the unknown unexpected incidents. Are you Incident Ready? Can you deliver to your customers no matter what happens? Then .

Compliance and Competitiveness – Does Your BCM add both?
In case you have continuity plan’s for your critical deliverables you’re among those who have geared up and also are Incident Ready. At least with respect to establishing plans. If compliance with regulations is only what’s expected, a tick in the box - a plan in place, then this indicates that your executives have more to learn about BCM. When your organisation consider vulnerabilities as any other business case and existing decision-making bodies treat all business cases similar you work in a mature organisation. Competitive capabilities are then developed day by day – continuously improvements to stay ahead of competition and in control of business. We think of this process as proactive maintenance of our established level of continuity.
Is your BCM implemented as an embedded continuous process? Then .

Centralised Control or Decentralised Accountability
Many organisations chose to have centralised governing bodies to account for compliance, e.g. to secure their license to operate. If those bodies only support and provide services to help accounting managers with their continuity planning efforts then you can .
However, if they act as the internal police and bullies the managers to fill out templates and scorecards then you should watch out. This indicates improper design of the BCM implementation. Accountability has to remain where it always have been, i.e. with the managers accountable for the valuable deliverables and not with the internal police. Different setups lead to inefficiencies and paper products.

We have a great Body Mass Index (BMI)
Our BCM process surfaces our vulnerabilities and we manage them as business cases. Improvements and investments made are thus channelled towards the more critical resources and implicitly we understand which resources are less important. Over time this management will shape our organisation, i.e. strengthen our muscles (critical resources) and reduce the fat (non-critical resources), to be fit for purpose. Our organisational BMI is great! We have a resource distribution that is optimal. Do you agree? Then .

BCM Allow us to take on more risk
Plans made are getting old and soon useless and this starts from the very minute they have been finalised. This requires either that you constantly update the specific plans to reflect the needs or you can spend more efforts on developing general capabilities.
If you understand what is meant by, and your organisation strive for, general capabilities more than of specific plans then .

BCM implementation strengthened our leadership
When our managers understood their full accountability and was given the tools to act, they started to take control of their vulnerabilities and dependencies. Requirements communicated to suppliers (internal/external) are today based upon the deliverables at stake and their corresponding business value. Our managers extend their planning and control efforts beyond their formal accountability borders in order to strengthen the supply chains and the resources utilised for their business critical activities. Today our leaders act with full confidence and better control. They influence their abilities to deliver according to business objectives using formal procedures.
If all these statements apply on your organisation, then .

BCM empowered our workforce
We have managers who understand that replacing leadership with management turns staff into dressed chimpanzees instead of responsibility taking employees. Our organisation cannot afford to have people who always need to go through the bureaucratic hierarchy asking for parental permission when there is an incident occurring. Acting within the golden hour require empowered workforce and decentralised accountabilities, which is why we train our staff including managers in incident handling and put adequate delegation of authorities in place.
If these statements applies on you, then .

Contact
In case you scored () more than 5 on the self assessment we would like to get in contact to invite you as a speaker sharing your BCM best practice in one of our events.
In case you scored less than 5 you should definitely take the opportunity to listen to what leading companies have done in this field by visiting the BCI Nordic Chapter seminar. In addition you get the opportunity to network and connect with peers and colleagues with same interests as you.