Business continuity is characterised as “an organization’s ability to continue delivering goods or services at pre-defined appropriate levels following a disruptive incident,” and business continuity planning (also known as business continuity and resiliency planning) is the process of developing preventive and recovery systems to deal with potential threats to a business. In addition to disaster prevention, the aim is to allow for continuing operations prior to and during disaster recovery. Business continuity is the desired result of proper disaster recovery and business continuity preparation.
Various standards bodies have published a number of business continuity standards to aid in the checklisting of ongoing planning activities.
The capacity of an organisation to tolerate changes in its environment while still functioning is referred to as “failure resistance.” It is a capacity that allows organisations to either survive environmental changes without having to permanently adapt, or to be compelled to adapt a new way of operating that better fits the new environmental conditions. It is often referred to as resilience.
Any incident that may have a detrimental effect on operations, such as a supply chain disruption, the failure or destruction to critical infrastructure (major machinery or computing/network resource), should be included in the plan. BCP is a subset of risk management as a result. [eight] The method is known as continuity of operations planning in the United States (COOP). A Business Continuity Plan lays out a variety of emergency situations as well as the measures the company will take to resume normal operations. BCPs are written in advance and can provide precautions to be implemented. A BCP is a collection of contingencies designed to mitigate possible harm to companies during adverse situations. It is usually generated with the involvement of key staff as well as stakeholders.
Resilience
The field of public relations can be linked to resilience theory. People, communities, the media system, organisations, and governments all contribute to resilience through daily talk and mediated communication.
Patrice M. Buzzanell, a professor at Purdue University’s Brian Lamb School of Communication, developed the theory. Buzzanell explored how organisations would survive after a crisis by creating resistance in her 2010 post, “Resilience: Talking, Resisting, and Imagining New Normalcies Into Being.” Crafting normalcy, affirming identity anchors, preserving and utilising contact networks, putting alternate logics to work, and downplaying negative feelings while foregrounding positive emotions are five separate mechanisms that individuals use while attempting to preserve resilience, according to Buzzanell.
Continuity
In business continuity planning, plans and procedures are used to ensure that essential organisational processes that keep an enterprise going continue to function even though main operational dependencies are disrupted. Continuity does not have to extend to all of the organization’s activities. Organizations must determine their business continuity goals, the minimum levels of product and service operations that are permissible, and the maximum tolerable duration of disruption (MTPD) that can be tolerated under ISO 22301:2019, for example.
The preparation of audit compliance management documentation is a significant expense in preparing for this; automated tools are available to reduce the time and cost associated with manually producing this material.
The COVID-19 pandemic’s twelve-plus months have demonstrated the critical nature of human considerations when developing a business continuity and disaster recovery plan. Numerous organisations have faced new challenges that are not always associated with more conventional disasters, such as storm-related outages and ransomware attacks. In nearly every organisation, employee illness, social isolation, and long-term remote work have become significant challenges.
Businesses can make several critical changes to their business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) plans to better accommodate human-related issues. By identifying the challenges posed by COVID-19 and incorporating them into an updated pandemic business continuity plan, disaster recovery teams can avoid being caught off guard in the future.
To begin, an organization’s current business continuity strategy must be modified to account for the possibility of employee loss or unavailability for extended periods of time. This includes situations where employees work remotely and changes in their physical or mental health may result in an employee’s unplanned absence or inability to perform their normal duties. Existing BCDR teams must understand their roles and responsibilities when confronted with not only operational, but also human resource issues.
The next step is to integrate pandemic recovery planning into BCDR plans. The days of maintaining a separate pandemic business continuity plan on a shelf are over. Given the global situation, it is no longer rational to regard pandemics – or other far-reaching health-related events – as once-in-a-lifetime occurrences.
Case study of Joyce, Kenya
Joyce is the owner of a company in Mombasa, Kenya, that produces canned sardines. She sells her goods both directly to consumers in Kenya and to larger companies that export them. For about 80% of her company, Joyce relies on consistent orders from three companies. These companies give daily orders because of their links to the export market. Joyce created a business continuity plan (BCP) to secure her company as COVID-19 cases spread throughout Kenya. She employs a total of 30 people.
Joyce took the COVID-19 Risk Assessment exam and discovered she had a high risk profile. On a regular basis, she worked with a variety of vendors. Her employees served in tight quarters. For the majority of her revenue, she was dependent on the port remaining open. Her remaining sales were mainly to other Kenyan cities, so she needed reliable transportation. Joyce came to the realisation that she wanted a BCP.
Step 1: identification of key products
Joyce’s main items are various kinds of canned sardines. These goods are the only source of revenue for the company. Her clientele is very restricted. She has three major customers that account for 80% of her revenue. Non-delivery to these customers would have a significant negative impact on her company.
Step 2: Establish the objective of BCP
The aim was to create clear internal processes for her company that would safeguard the “4Ps”: people, processes, revenues, and partnerships. This meant:
- maximising the physical and emotional protection of herself and her employees;
- resuming operations as soon as possible after disruptions;
- ensuring that her main goods are immune to COVID-19 disruptions; safeguarding her supply chain; and ensuring that her company meets its contractual obligations with clients.
Step 3: Evaluate the potential impact of disruptions to enterprise and workers
She calculated the cost of any disruptions to her critical operations. What operations are needed to manufacture and distribute her goods, and what is her tolerance for downtime: how long can key operations be out of commission until the business’s profitability is jeopardised? She figured out what operations were needed to manufacture and distribute her goods, as well as where the risks were. A quick stakeholder mapping exercise was used to accomplish this. Workers, customers, suppliers, support providers, and regulatory authorities are the five key stakeholders in her market.
- Employees: Joyce employs thirty people from the local community (fortunately they mostly live locally and walk to work).
- Clients: She sells 80% of her goods to three companies that export to international markets. The remaining 20% is allocated to the Kenyan sector (15 per cent to wholesalers based in Nairobi).
- Suppliers: She relies on three different vendors. First, a metal (tin) producer; second, a Nairobi-based printing company for her product labels; and third, and most importantly, local fishermen who are organised into cooperatives. All suppliers need daily communication, but the fishermen need the most frequent physical contact.
- Support Services: These include a trucking company and a security firm that she uses.
- Public utility and regulatory authorities: These include the Food Standards Agency, which grants permits, as well as the taxing authority and local government agencies that regulate health and safety standards.
This exercise demonstrated to Joyce how reliant her company is on external actors staying safe and, in the case of her vendors, support providers, and consumers, willing to continue doing business. She soon discovered that if her business was severely disrupted, she might go bankrupt in four to six weeks. “What would be the effect of not performing her main operations?” she calculated. She considered each of the aforementioned stakeholders and realised that any disruption to them would result in a disruption to her company.
Her key possible disturbances were as follows:
- Government restrictions on freedom of travel could affect her (and her suppliers’) ability to get to work;
- Government restrictions on access to the port could affect her customers’ ability to get her goods to market;
- Government utilities’ inability to provide services (water and energy were of particular concern); and
- A decrease in demand for her goods.
She considered the events beyond her control and how they could affect her suppliers, as well as the events within her control that she might influence to some degree. On the negative side, she was extremely reliant on others, especially her suppliers, and she has no say in future government restrictions. On the plus side, demand for canned and tinned goods was increasing.
Step 4: Steps to safeguard her company.
Individuals
- She wanted to reduce the number of touch points in her company to one and set up a sanitation station there so that she and her employees would be less exposed.
- She checked traditional working methods and modified social distance standards, in addition to safety and sanitation interventions. This will necessitate new work schedules, which she addressed with the employees.
- She planned for a rise in absenteeism.
- When leading the overall initiative, she asked workers to volunteer for the following tasks: ensuring sanitation points were well stocked daily; establishing a temperature checking station at the entrance for all workers/suppliers/customers/visitors; daily consultations with suppliers and customers to assess their situation and any changes that had occurred; and ensuring everybody was accounted for.
- She went through all of her customers’ and suppliers’ protection programmes with them, making sure they were up to date on the latest legislation.
- She continued to pay cash to some vendors (such as fishermen). She took advantage of the ability to convert all payments (incoming and outgoing) to a digital format.
- She periodically or automatically backed up all of her data and kept a copy at home in case she needed to self-isolate.
- She found that demand for canned and tinned goods was increasing. There was potential for improved revenue here. She arranged for cold storage space for main inventory and secondary safe storage space for finished goods with a nearby five-star hotel. Her final goods had a much longer shelf life, which was a significant benefit.
- She spoke with the fishermen’s cooperative, one of her key suppliers, who told her that they had agreements with other cooperatives along the coast. Alternative sources were available and agreements were in place to allow this if the Mombasa region was severely disrupted.
- She calculated her daily operating costs (payroll, rent, equipment, and so on) and ran simulations focused on the financial implications of major disruptions.
- She kept in touch with the bank that had granted her credit on a regular basis. The bank was aware of her “BCP strategy” and, as a result, was becoming more flexible with loan conditions if they were needed.
Collaborations
- She spoke to her three primary (exporting) clients about it. She suggested that they contact the Federation of Kenyan Employers and other business groups to discuss the situation with the government and obtain assurances that the port facilities will remain operational.
- She reached an agreement with four other small-business owners to discuss their protection procedures and practises. They came to an agreement on a standard collection of procedures to keep staff safe. They also decided to split the cost of obtaining information about how to deal with organisational problems such as shift shifts, potential layoffs, and other HR issues.
- She addressed the prospect of tax deferrals with the tax authorities, which she had read about in the newspapers.
Step 5: Compile a list of key contacts.
- She included a list of important phone numbers for officials and third parties (police, ambulance services, firefighters, closest hospitals, insurance company) that could assist in an emergency.
- She made a list of her employees, including their jobs, contact information (mobile phone and email address), and emergency contact information; and she made a list of her customers, suppliers, vendors, and government agencies with whom she interacted, including the contact person and contact information (mobile phone, email address, and street address), all of which helps her to communicate.
- She created a staff emergency call tree and selected contact methods to communicate with her employees during the COVID-19 crisis (Facebook, WhatsApp, Google forms).
Step 6: Keep track, check, and revise BCP on a regular basis.
Every week, she reviewed and revised her strategy to:
- update the goal of her BCP and improve its effectiveness;
- update her risk management, business continuity plans, and other BCP procedures; and ensure that all of the processes in her BCP are continually improved.
