BCM

Business Continuity Management – Building an effective Incident Management Plan.

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Author: Michael Blyth

In this book the author works steadily towards his goal in the first three chapters: demonstrating the importance of Incident Management Plans (IMP), in addition to a BCP.

In addition, in chapter 4 he describes the inevitable: “what if?” Is the key question for some 40 cases, each of which is explained in text form, with chapters 5 and 6 providing the promising basis for the elaboration plans and questionnaires.

Chapter 5 gives the guidelines of the plans, in which there is a principle of a triptych: a first table is filled in to get an idea of ​​which (part of) the organization is involved. An outline of entity, place, time … Then the steps to take are taken: these have been drawn up as a so called “Guideline”, not to follow slavishly, but by interpretation. The third part of the guidelines forms the framework with suitable organizations / key persons that can be contacted.

Chapter 6 provides questionnaires, one per IMP, that can be used to estimate the situation, in addition to the questions of “SAD CHALETS”, the mnemonic used by the English Police to get a view of the situation. In addition, this chapter also contains a template for a risk assessment, which can be used during the crisis, to estimate the evolution of the crisis.

The book also contains a URL with password, where you can find the English text of chapters 5 and 6 in a word document for further development tailored to your own organization.

The book is thus actually a book for doers, with, to a limited extent, an introductory theoretical exposition.

However, in terms of IMP for cybersecurity it has not been worked out enough (which I think could have been a separate piece). Other threats have been worked out. Some threats are becoming more and more relevant for affiliates in the USA and elsewhere with current climate changes. Other are more universal in nature.

Self-assessment BCM – tools

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If you want to know how far you stand with the implementation of your BCM operation, you must carry out a (self-) assessment.

There are specialists for hire to do an audit and write an expensive report. But often you do not have the money in times of crisis. Then you have to do it yourself. You need a tool for that. Here you will find a Dutch simple Excel tool (and an English translation) that you can still adapt to your own needs.

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Self assessment BCM - Nederlands

1 file(s)   54.92 KB
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Self-assessment BCM English

1 file(s)   54.20 KB

 

In Hindsight – A compendium of Business Continuity case studies

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Edited by Robert A Clark

In Hindsight reflects on a series of disasters from a BCM perspective. Some organizations have scored good, others did not. Five organizations were not prepared and did not make it. A sixth has made it thanks to an extraordinary portion of luck. Some disasters had extraordinary proportions and global consequences. Others stayed local. The causes vary, from brutal bad luck like acts of God and accompanying volcanic eruptions, to things that could be prevented like the Herald of Free Enterprise, in which somebody is clearly to blame.

Other causes of human nature are lack of insight or poor management, profiteering, stupidity, terror, … All these things have in common that they are in the environment of many organizations.

The consequences can be equally diverse: environmental damage, death, safety and health problems, global economic crisis, legal prosecutions …

This diversity of topics makes the book very suitable as an eye-opener for managers and boards of directors.

The penultimate chapter also emphasizes the importance of small sparks: fraud, cyber attacks, employee dissatisfaction, the media, small and large fires, including those of the neighbors, poor planning of major projects, breaches of information security such as data theft, floods, diseases, etc.

But the final message, perhaps the most important, is in a quote from Vince Lombardi, a former American football player, who said: “It is not whether you get knocked down; it’s wheter you get up “. And that requires preparation.