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Disasters can knock your business offline for good: Here are three things to consider
12-20-2018
The number of small-and-medium businesses in Canada is staggering. There are nearly 1.2 million businesses in Canada according to the Government of Canada business statistics. Of these, 1.14 million are small businesses, 21,415 are medium-sized businesses and just 2,933 are large enterprises. All told, 90 per cent of private sector employees (10.5 million) work at small-and-medium sized businesses.
According to the Canadian Centre for Emergency Preparedness, “If there is no tested emergency management plan in place, up to 86 per cent of small-and-medium sized businesses fail within three years of a major incident.” Major incidents can include anything from wildfires to full-scale floods, to ice storms and hurricanes. They don’t all have to be weather related and can include fraud or cybersecurity breaches.
Monday, May 14 kicks off Business Continuity Awareness Week, an annual global event for raising awareness and demonstrating the value effective business continuity management can have to organizations of all types of sizes.
Any of the above scenarios can take a business offline. Recognizing the risks is a vital first step, but for companies to be properly prepared, they need planning to protect them before, during, and after an event.
Disaster plans, once only required for government, are now regularly being insisted upon by insurers and customers. But the impetus should be self-serving. No company wants to become one of the “86 per cent that fail within three years of an incident.”
Being prepared means having three different types of plans: Companies need a business continuity plan to provide clarity on just that – identified key business priorities that need to be addressed in order to remain operational during and after an event. They also require an emergency response plan that outlines the specific actions to take in the initial minutes of an emergency, which is critical to help a business respond immediately and effectively. Finally, businesses need a disaster recovery plan to help return to operations as soon as safely possible.
There is some nuance and distinction among the three types of plans. But an easy way to understand it is as follows: Business continuity plans provide clear directions on how to operate throughout a major event. Emergency response plan give instructions for managing an incident or emergency as it happens, and disaster recovery plans indicate the steps a company takes to get back on its feet.
Consider the three as living documents that are part of the umbrella of disaster management – before, during, and after.
There is some nuance and distinction among the three types of disaster plan. But an easy way to understand it is as follows: Business continuity plans provide clear directions on how to operate throughout a major event. Emergency response plan give instructions for managing an incident or emergency as it happens, and disaster recovery plans indicate the steps a company takes to get back on its feet.
Consider the three as living documents that are part of the umbrella of disaster management – before, during, and after.
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