Women in Resilience Spotlight: Susie Ansary-Smith

  • 13 Jan 2020
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This week we are shining a spotlight on Susie Ansary-Smith.  A Business Continuity & Organizational Resilience Professional working in Switzerland. 

What brought you into the industry?

Luck – that’s what brought me into the industry!

My first 10 years after university was spent in various consultancy roles in occupational hygiene, health and safety and site remediation in England.

In 2007, my first son was born, and my husband reminded me of a pact we had made years before that if we had children we would raise them in Switzerland. So, we made the move in early 2008.

After my second son was born, I needed to maintain my sanity in the workplace, and I took a role as HSE Officer in a large pharmaceutical company. Within 6 months, the team was asked who wanted to take on the business continuity responsibilities.

As the newest employee and eager to please, I quickly volunteered much to the amusement of my colleagues who knew what BC was and knew that I would be inheriting the administrative updates of many 100+ page plans!

I spent a week with Lyndon Bird and passed the CBCI with merit and set about learning as much as I could so that I could confidently change the approach to BC in the function.

Since then I’ve had the chance to work across all functions in global roles and I’ve had those first team members come back to me 9 years later to ask my advice on BC – it’s a good feeling! 

How did you reach your current position? What challenges did you face?

My company decided to centralise support services in 2015 – the future was uncertain for many. I took this as an opportunity to write the job description that I really wanted and got buy-in from senior management. This was my first full time regional, cross-divisional role in BC.
Since then I’ve consciously moved functions several times not only for promotion prospects but so I can learn about what happens in all areas of the business. Even if I’m not the business owner responsible for BC, I feel I need to have some understanding of process in order to facilitate fruitful planning. My latest move was in 2018, from a corporate function to the Drug Development unit as a Senior Business Risk Manager. I’m thoroughly enjoying this journey so far....

Which specific skills do you think are needed to become a leader in your field?

Other than the technical skills which can be learned, I believe soft skills define not just being good at your job but being a leader in the field. If I could pick only a few, they would be:

Perseverance and self-motivation: often you are knocking at someone’s door uninvited, telling them that they need to put a plan in place for something that may never happen! How you deal with their reaction and how you get your message across is key to the door being left ajar for you.

Optimism: Without optimism you could miss opportunities and fail to see possibilities which could be vital in creating BC solutions. Optimism is also a key element of personal resilience which is a key element of organisational resilience.

Creativity: if you only get 1 hour to spend with your senior stakeholder, how will you use that time effectively? Using creative methods to get their engagement and the information you need in a short time is essential. It pays off if they remember who you are?

Communication and listening: This is vital to cast a vision, show direction, and set goals and objectives.   

Empathy and care: Seeing people as the most important resource in an organization and the resource with the most overall potential, if you care you will likely be rewarded with support in return.

Do you think that the BCI WiR initiative will influence our industry? If yes, how?

Absolutely, WiR is a much needed support network for women new to/or already in the industry to help them achieve the best in their career.

It’s a great way to connect talent. 

I would like to see the WiR group empowering women to have a voice at the table and not just a seat. It’s not about equal numbers of genders in leadership positions, it’s about equal say and opportunity.

What changes would you like to see in the profession?

I long for business continuity to be viewed as a more strategic topic which supports decision making at the top.

As BC planning moves away from its past and sometimes territorial methods, I hope the profile of business continuity will be elevated. This will support the profession by helping us to develop lasting networks across disciplines and share emerging information to enable us to be more proactive. Most importantly, I want people to understand that resilience is much more than business continuity rebranded.

In your opinion, why should more people be joining the resilience community?

The ever changing risk landscape means that resilience professionals need to be able to untangle the links between complex political, economic, social and environmental risks. As these changes take pace, a business continuity manager can no longer use traditional playbooks.
The challenge is to not only find fit for purpose, but also value creating solutions in times of complexity and uncertainty. The benefit of a resilience community is immense, providing a platform to connect to those across geographical and cultural boundaries who can share expertise and experience.


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