Introduction

Business continuity planning entails the process of designing strategies to prevent and recover from any potential threat to one’s business or company. This plan helps in the protection of assets and people in case of an emergency. Any viable business is prone to emergency scenarios. These can emanate from disasters like floods, hurricane, and wildfire among other others. Besides thee, the natural disasters human sabotages can affect any business. The locations of a business premise dictate the kind of disasters that might affect the business. A business continuity plan is always conceived in advance, and it entails the input of personnel and key stakeholders. It involves knowing all the risks that might affect the business and defining them, hence vital for the structuring of the risk management strategy in the business. After identification of the potential risks in the region or location of the business and ranking their potentiality and how they would affect the business, various information and strategies are put in place in knowing how to deal with the aftermath of a disaster or emergency.

Businesses should try to run and operationalize fully after an emergency. The key to business recovery and re-establishment after a crisis is a strategic business continuity plan which is essential in pre-planning for an eventuality like a disaster which might affect the operation of the business and highlights how to restructure the business from that eventuality and to come back to productivity. The plan should include; determination of how risks affect the operations of the business, implementations that safeguard and procedures of mitigating the risks, tests methods for ensuring the planned procedures work as well as a review of the processes of making sure the business continuity plan is regularly updated to capture the changing dimensions in the business.

I am noting that a disruption of business leads to loss of revenues as well as high costs of running the business. Therefore, proper planning for these disruptions is an essential part of a business management strategy that any business entity should incorporate in their business model. Business cannot solely rely on insurance of assets. Most insurance covers have a limit of what they cover whereas the risk capability is unpredictable in the business field. Hence for business to sprout back to profitability, the availability of business continuity plan would be of great assistance.

To understand the business continuity planning system, it is essential to understand the various disaster in which business are prone to. The degree of catastrophe vary from minor to major; therefore, business continuity planning should capture the scope of risks any business can face. Take an example of a financial institution, and it may put a business continuity plan in place that would include backing up of client files as well as backing up its computer system offsite. Most business recognizes the need to resume their business operations after a disruption to continue serving their clients. Therefore, they develop business continuity plans to aid the resumption of business in an eventuality of a disruption.

In my business, I would take various steps in making a continuity plan for my business. These strategies entail developing impact analysis of multiple aspects of the business, recovery procedures, and strategies for development as well as trial exercises to ascertain the feasibility of the business continuity plan. Making of business continuity forms is essential for designing the best strategy for re-establishing the business after a disruption. The business planning is not only necessary in unfortunate situations but also in cases where business disruptions arise from circumstances which make the business less viable or profitable. Relocation of the business to a new region also demands the presence of a well-illustrated business continuity plan for the business to bounce back to profitability.

Body

In creating a business continuity plan, I would put in place a business continuity plan governance, draw a business impact analysis, make plans, arrangements as well as measures for business continuity, make readiness procedures for the business plan and finally make quality assurance tests for the business continuity plan. I will put into consideration the risk exposure of my business location as well as vital assets of the business. This will help me in ensuring my business has all the information and resource needed to deal with any disruption of business as well as to continue after disasters.

Business Continuity Plan Governance

This will contain the governance structure inform of a committee which will supervise the senior management’s commitment as well as define their role in my business. The sole purpose of this committee would be to initiate, oversight, approve as well as audit the business continuity plan. It is also essential in the implementation of the business continuity plan. Besides it is responsible for approval of business impact analysis, overseeing the designing of business continuity plan and reviewing the quality assurance results emanating from the testing of the business continuity plan formulated.

Furthermore, the government is responsible for:

• Approval of the structure of governance
• Clarifying their roles as well as those participating in the program
• Overseeing the creation of committees, teams and working groups which would develop and execute the business continuity plan
• Providing strategic communications and directions regarding the business continuity plan
• Approving the result for the business impact analysis
• Reviewing critical products and services which have been identified
• Approving the business continuity plan
• Monitoring quality assurance; and
• Resolving conflicts which might arise from the business continuity planning.

The constitution of the business entails the management and leaders as well as various heads of departments in the business entity. This body is essential in a business continuity as their roles are highlighted above. For business continuity to be viable, the governance structures should be in place to aid in the implementation of business continuity plan.

Business impact analysis (BIA)

The primary purpose of business impact analysis is to help in identifying critical products or services of the business; rank them in order of products or services to accelerate recovery process and continuous delivery as well as determining the external and internal results of the disruption in my business. This analysis will prioritize on vital products or services, identify an area which will be profoundly impacted by destruction, identify potential revenue loss areas in the business, the point at potential intangible losses, highlighting additional expenses as well as coming up with insurance requirements for the business continuity plan to be viable

After analyzing the impacts of various scenarios in the business, the ranking of the relevant information will be put in place for business continuity planning process to use as the base of strategizing the continuity plan. The classification ranges from the possibility of loss of revenue, expected time of recovery, and the severity of the disruption on business. Besides the maximum and minimum accepted downtimes are sourced from this analysis.

In doing the impact analysis and comparing scenarios in the process of making business continuity plans, checking the interdependency of variables in the delivery of services is analyzed. Both internal and external dependencies are examined before concluding on the impact of each in the business. The internal dependency will include employees, assets, facilities which are vital for the business, tools, data, support services as well as logistical services which run the business. External dependencies, on the other hand, include suppliers, insurance providers as well as safety issues related to the business practice.

Business continuity plan

The business continuity plan will contain many essential aspects which will help in detailed recovery plans in case of a disruption in the business. The business continuation contains critical plans for each product or service which is essential for the running of the business. These include information related to the employees, suppliers and vendor’s information, business functions, recovery location as well as vital records of the business.

Response preparation

The business continuity plan contains the response procedure to the disruption. Prior and planned strategies are put in the business continuity plan to help to bail the business out of a disruptive situation. With a pre-planned strategy, the business would be able to bounce back to its profitability within the shortest time possible. Crisis management team helps in responding to the situation or any eventuality in my business.

Alternate facilities

In my business, the vital assets and information are stored offsite and in the big data structure to help in the recovery process after an eventuality. Data like employee payroll, logistical processes, vital company information are always backed up off the central facility, and the details are always captured in the business continuity plan. In consideration of alternative structures and facilities, the threats and risk analysis are done to maximize the downtime and cost of re-establishing the business in case of any eventuality from a disaster of an emergency.

Readiness procedures

These are plans which are essential for the business and helps in the recovery process after an eventuality or emergency. The procedures are captured in the business continuity plan to help stakeholder familiarize themselves with process put in place for continuity in case the business is disrupted. The procedure includes:

• Training of employees on the necessary procedures for business continuity. The staff is briefed on business continuity plan so that they become aware of their functions in case of an emergency as well as in contributing to the recovery and continuity of business.
• Exercises are done to test the business continuity plan developed to see its viability in the real world application.

Besides other procedure are included in the business continuity plan like the goal, objectives, scope as well as quality assurance techniques to be used to gauge if the business continuity plan would meet the intended purpose. In the modern world, after developing a business continuity plan simulation are always done to weigh the scenarios and to get practical solutions before any disruption occur.

Response

Business continuity plans contain response procedures for any situation which might interrupt the operation of the business. These include the process of communication due and after an emergency. Including these aspects in the business continuity plan helps in the rapid process of continuity of business after any disruption from natural or human-made disruptions. Furthermore, recovery and restoration procedures must be captured in the business continuation plan. These will include the procedures for re-deploying the personnel, the decision to either repair or relocate the facility, procedures of acquiring additional resources for the operation of the business and guidelines on resuming normal operations. In light of the critical value for the business and the need to operate profitability all these procedures are incorporated in the business continuity plan and are of assistance in case of any business disruption.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I am aware that a business continuity plan is an essential document of my business. It is essential in re-establishment of the business in the event of an emergency scenario. Besides, emergencies are unpredictable, and prior preparation to deal with such situations is critical for not only my business but any company need the business continuity plan. The business continuity plan contains vital information live the governance structure, the business impact analysis, plans for business continuity, procedures for preparation of an eventuality as well as quality assurance. Besides,  critical information relating to the employees, vital assets of the business, products, insurance cover details for the business as well as communication structure of the business need to be included in the business continuity plan. These are essential factors that would be of assistance when re-structuring and re-establishing the business. The business continuity plan needs to be updated routinely to capture the different dynamics in the business. Therefore, a good business continuity should be adjusted regularly hence in my business the business continuity governance structures routines check into the changing dynamics in the business and advice on the areas that require adjustments in the business continuity plan to re-align with the current situations arising in the business. Risk planning in business is a common practice and for business continuity and to get back to productivity as well as profitability the conceptualization of the best business continuity plan is the way to go for most businesses.