Resilience through a recession
FCCA and West of
Scotland Members' Network Panel member, Houston Ayre, has recently sold his consultancy firm to
become a director of Stirling-based specialist business continuity consultancy,
Teed Business Continuity.
So what is business continuity
and why is it important in the current economic climate? Why would companies
consider additional investment in something perceived as non-core at a time
when discretionary spending is under serious scrutiny?
We asked Houston for
the answers ......
As an experienced finance
director who has operated at a senior level in the public and private sectors,
I have always taken risk management and corporate governance very seriously.
Business continuity management, which sits within this framework, has emerged
as a respected management discipline over the last 20 years, culminating in the
development of British Standard BS25999 at the end of 2007.
Business continuity management
is all about the effective management of threats to ensure that critical
business activities continue and operational objectives are satisfied.
In times of economic
downturn the type and level of threats change and the organisations that will
come out the other side stronger will be the ones who fully understand their
altered risk environment and control it effectively.
We help management
teams understand their organisation's current risk exposures and develop
appropriate strategies to ensure that impacts will always remain within
predefined acceptable levels during these challenging times. As organisations
are under increased pressure, the financial impact may be immediate and obvious
as a result of dramatic falls in sales and cashflow or more subtle and
progressive as in the knock on effect of key suppliers being affected.
So whilst most
people's perception of business continuity is probably based on some
appreciation of IT disaster recovery or the impact of flooding on high street
businesses, many will not realise that supply chain continuity, for example,
has emerged as a key component of any business continuity management programme
in the last few years.
If you are called out
in the middle of the night to find your only building burning to the ground,
could you move staff to a suitable alternative location, communicate
effectively with stakeholders, recover essential IT and data and identify key
activities and operations that need to be continued? Would your customers
remain loyal? Or would they move to a competitor if you were unable to maintain
an appropriate level of service?
ACCA Scotland will feature business continuity awareness
within the CPD programme in the second half of 2009. Key threats in the SME
sector will be addressed: e.g. data protection, criticality of key individuals,
financial threats linked with recession, resilience of service provision.
For many, a single location,
restricted cashflow, dependency on a few key people and intense competition
mean that a disruption could easily turn into a catastrophe if not managed
effectively. Whilst appropriate insurance can provide part of the solution, it
does not protect reputation or prevent loss of market share.
In essence, business
continuity planning ensures that your organisation can continue to undertake
its critical activities following a significant disruption. If you want to find
out more about business continuity, why not attend our events in the Autumn?
Further details are available on the ACCA
Scotland website.
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