View from the NGN: From Governance, Risk & Compliance to Business Continuity
A young professional recently asked me: “What does it take to thrive in Business Continuity?” I paused and thought about three words: Time, Chance, Preparedness.
It reminded me of a powerful question from the Old Testament: “What is that in your hand?” (Exodus 4:2)
The lesson? You don’t need everything figured out. Start with what you already have and let it grow into what you need. That’s been my story moving from governance, risk and compliance into business continuity.
I began with risk assessment, control mapping, and stakeholder engagement in my hand. When a cross-site incident forced us to rethink readiness, I volunteered to coordinate a working group. Those same skills opened doors across continuity pillars, showing the breadth of opportunities in the industry:
- Crisis management and emergency management – leveraging risk frameworks to guide response planning and drills
- Information security and IT disaster recovery – applying governance principles to align cyber incident response with business impact
- Human resources and health and safety – embedding psychological safety and mental health into recovery plans
- Communications (crisis and stakeholder) – using compliance communication skills to craft clear, timely updates during disruption
- Physical security and facilities management – mapping critical dependencies and ensuring site-level resilience
- Third-party risk management (suppliers) – extending continuity requirements into vendor contracts and audits.
So, what does it take to pivot into business continuity? These are my tips:
- Time: Invest consistently by showing up for shadow tests, joining debriefs and learning the language of operations
- Chance: Say “yes” to stretch moments like leading a drill segment, drafting a recovery play or running an assumption check
- Preparedness: Turn lessons into muscle memory by documenting, exercising, improving i.e. rinse and repeat
- Leverage transferable skills: Communication, facilitation, analysis, and calmness under pressure are gold across all pillars.
What’s in your hand today that could open the next door for you?
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About the author
Fiona Kibe
Senior Advisor: Strategy
Mshai Kibe is a strategic advisor and resilience expert with over 15 years of experience helping organisations navigate complex change and embed resilience into their technology and business strategies. As a Senior Advisor: Strategy at NTT Data, she specialises in bridging the gap between technology risk and business value ensuring governance, risk and compliance frameworks drive sustainable growth.
Mshai is known for her ability to offer insights that resonate with both executive leadership and operational teams, championing resilience-by-design thinking and operational continuity. Her work spans multiple sectors, including financial services, telecommunications, and public sector transformation, infused with a passion for empowering women in technology leadership while advocating for inclusive approaches to risk and resilience in digital ecosystems.
Mshai holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Warwick and an MBA from the University of Leicester alongside several certifications in business continuity, operational resilience and risk management. An active contributor to professional communities including ISACA and the Business Continuity Institute (BCI), Mshai inspires leaders to embed resilience and continuity into organizational DNA.
