Author: Trevor Partridge, Business Continuity Manager, Marks & Spencer. Published in Continuity, Volume 9, issue 1
This industry we find ourselves in can be hugely exciting at the best of times, frustrating at worst. Considering the immortal words of Ronan Keating and ‘Life is a rollercoaster‘, expresses perfectly the past four years of my professional career trying to establish a Business Continuity culture within our organisation.
In that period we have not stood still. Four Leadership changes, a takeover bid, a relocation of not just our main Head Office building but also key business processes to other locations within the UK , the sale and purchase of large parts of our business in partnership with key suppliers and the restructuring of our Head Office business units.
Alongside this we were putting every effort into re-establishing our business in the High Street and therefore priorities and budgets were clearly not associated with Business Continuity.
Any one of these changes alone would require amendments to any BCM processes and, in association, drive the poor incumbent BC Manager to drink.
Eliza Manningham-Buller of the MI5 stated recently ‘All firms should have sophisticated business continuity plans in place, which are discussed at board level regularly’. I say ‘Yes please’.
If anyone out there believes they were able to, or could have smoothed out the peaks and troughs of my rollercoaster ride during this period they are kidding themselves.
But where do you, or where should you start?
It helps
Marks & Spencer has been endeavouring to embed the concept of Business Continuity into its culture since 1992 with varying degrees of success.
The bomb in Manchester in 1996 kept the momentum going having a significant impact on our BC Management procedures. More recently, September 11th, the threat of global terrorism and major natural disasters has helped in ‘marketing’ BC within an organisation. However it has not specifically been ‘the’ driver.
In addition, there is nothing like a crisis of your own to ensure Business Continuity is on the agenda.
In recent times a number of these ‘trigger points’ have challenged our escalation procedures, ranging from a power failure in a key Head Office building, demonstrations by various extremists outside our premises, to a fire in one of our Stores causing complete devastation to ours and adjacent buildings.
Finally, we needed to relocate our Crisis Management Centre incorporating state of the art facilities as a result of our Head Office relocation.
Foundations
All of the above helped to stimulate the Board agendas. However, without the solid foundations of a constant and consistent BC programme you will fail to build a BC culture within your business.
It may sound corny to you the reader, and you have probably heard it all before, nevertheless it works. The regular completion of BIA’s, development of plans, and workshops/exercises with business units and crisis management teams are all fundamental in having some chance of success.
Without the data and information gathered from all the above core BC foundations you will not be sufficiently equipped to report your BC capability to the people who need to know, the Board.
It’s how you tell them
Whilst I have portrayed a certain flippancy regarding our BC culture, against a backdrop of all the adversity, we have always believed the priority to be to maintain total commitment from our Board of Directors ensuring accountability from the highest level. Providing them with the facts is key however, in my opinion, it’s not just what you present to them it’s also about how you do it.
I do not have a magic wand. Reporting the facts is crucial. However getting Business Continuity on the agenda is the hardest part. I find an e-mail or two, to the accountable individuals; publishing less than acceptable statistics, always works and starts to get the hares running. Once you have your half hour slot on the agenda you need to plan how you are going to put across, in the majority of earliest cases, your less than happy news. My tactics for recent presentations to our Board has been to:
• Concentrate on the 4 highest risks to our business
• Provide accurate information relating to the risks (Do not ‘sugar coat’ it even though it may embarrass certain individuals. You may have to pre-warn them prior to the presentation)
• Provide an independent risk assessment survey carried out externally as part of the findings
• Provide solutions, timescales and estimated costs to minimise the risks
• Bring along expertise, especially when concentrating on IT/Telecommunications
• Provide drama in the form of props or use dramatic (but precise) words to describe impacts. Tell it how it is.
• Gain agreement as to who is accountable to deliver the solutions
• Confirm actions
Evolution
As a result of all our efforts to maintain Board accountability we have achieved a great deal:
• Business Continuity on company’s risk profile, reviewed quarterly
• Policy & Standards document revision
• Considerable budget allocation for 2 key Business Continuity projects associated with Workplace Recovery and ITDR
• One-2-ones with new business unit Directors to ensure BIA and plan development progression
• Revision of Business Continuity organisation and leadership structures along with their accountabilities
• Direct line reporting to the Board
• Commitment to 2 major exercises in 2005
In spite of all that has gone on over the past years, having built the foundations and established new direction from our Leadership team we can look forward to the challenges 2005 will bring.
We have a Fire, Health & Safety culture we now require some stability which will help build a Business Continuity culture across our entire group.
This will ultimately result in us being involved in key strategic decisions during the development of an idea rather than solving the problems once implemented
My final comment to you Business Continuity Managers out there is a simple one. If I can do it, given the adversity, so can you.
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