How to build a successful business continuity strategy

Successful enterprises have always faced a wide range of threats with the potential to disrupt their business. However, in today’s digitally connected global economy, the threats are both more complex and devastating. From cyberattacks that cause massive data breaches, to natural disasters that result in network downtime and supply chain disruption and data loss, modern enterprises need to take a strategic approach to maintaining business continuity.

Business continuity is an organization’s ability to maintain critical business functions and minimize downtime in the event of a crisis. Examples of such crises include cyberattacks, supply chain failures, unexpected power outages and more. 

These disruptions are expensive. According to the IBM Cost of a Data Breach report, the global average cost of a data breach (just 1 potential result of a disruption) increased 10% over last year and reached its highest amount ever.

Strong business continuity management (BCM), including the implementation of successful business continuity and disaster recovery strategies, helps prevent long shutdowns, costly and dangerous breaches and more. 

Both business continuity and disaster recovery (DR) are strategic processes that form the core of strategic crisis management. The 2 terms are closely related and are often used interchangeably, and they can be combined into a practice known as business continuity disaster recovery (BCDR) that helps organizations return to normal after a disaster happens. However, there are several key differences worth noting. 

Business continuity planning tends to focus on an organization’s preparedness to face a broad range of threats. Business continuity plans (BCPs) typically outline step-by-step procedures to ensure the health of core business functions before, during and immediately following an interruption.

On the other hand, disaster recovery plans (DRPs) concentrate on ways to protect data, infrastructure and IT systems as an event is occurring. DRPs typically consist of recommendations for resilient IT technologies, robust lists of best practices and important actions to take to minimize data loss and business disruptions resulting from an incident.

When a disaster threatens core business operations, having a successful business continuity strategy in place helps organizations recover quickly and effectively. Here are some of the benefits that enterprises taking a strategic approach to BCM can expect.

Downtime can have serious consequences for business, and the longer it lasts, the more damaging it can be. In addition to causing interruptions to normal business operations, downtime can lead to losses in revenue, reputational damage and data loss. 

Strong business continuity strategies help organizations put procedures in place and test them so when an unplanned incident occurs, they are prepared. 

A company’s recovery time objective (RTO) is a measure of the amount of time that it takes to restore critical business processes after a disruption. Business continuity strategies specify RTOs for employees and describe the tasks and procedures needed to reach them. Organizations implementing a BCP have a better chance of reaching their RTO and restoring investor, customer and stakeholder confidence after a disaster.

Business disruption is expensive. According to recent research, downtime costs global enterprises USD 9,000 per minute on average, with costs in high-risk industries such as finance and healthcare reaching as high as USD 5 million.¹

Successful recovery strategies help lower risks in several important ways, such as by establishing accurate risk assessments and incorporating proven cybersecurity solutions into response and recovery efforts. 

Large organizations that operate in more than 1 jurisdiction must comply with all relevant regulatory requirements or face heavy financial penalties and the potential loss of critical operating licenses. While regulations vary from territory to territory, having a strong BCP in place is critical to ensuring compliance and avoiding costly repercussions. 

Business continuity strategies help ensure critical operations resume after disruptions, protecting sensitive data and maintaining service delivery to meet the requirements of compliance regulations.  

Organizations have different needs when it comes to crafting a successful business continuity strategy. Depending on size, industry, business needs and the potential risks they are likely to face, approaches vary. Still, there are 4 universally recognized steps that can be taken to better prepare for unexpected events.

Conducting a business impact analysis (BIA) is the process of evaluating core business functions and assessing how they would respond to certain disasters. BIA also involves estimating the likelihood of possible events, determining how they might expose vulnerabilities in systems and processes and hypothesizing about the potential impact on business operations. A strong BIA is the first step in strategic planning that helps prioritize assets and systems needed to recover from a work stoppage.

For each potential threat identified in the BIA, organizations need to design an appropriate response. Various threats require different tools and planning; for example, in the event of a power failure, an enterprise might prioritize restoring mission-critical IT infrastructure before it addresses anything else.

Because digital communications platforms and data play a crucial role in most modern businesses, restoring functionality in these areas is usually top-of-mind. For example, some of the most popular DR solutions involve data backup and data loss prevention practices where critical data is moved off-site and can be recovered more easily in the event of a disaster.

As part of an effective business continuity strategy, stakeholders must designate team members to take on certain responsibilities to help the organization in the event of an unplanned incident. Effective business continuity strategies clearly outline roles, responsibilities and contact information for team members, including alternative communication methods if an outage causes widespread network failures.

To test the effectiveness of its strategy, an organization must constantly rehearse simulations of the potential threats. Continuity teams must be trained to carry out tasks that will be required of them during an actual disaster and given a chance to practice frequently. Trial runs of realistic scenarios also help pinpoint issues in a strategy and identify areas for improvement.

Many successful modern enterprises have crafted business continuity strategies using the steps outlined above to help them face a wide range of threats. Here are a few examples:

Crisis management strategies are purposefully broad, helping organizations identify the ways they can respond to a number of crises. Unlike strategies that approach specific kinds of assets that might be valuable to an organization, such as IT infrastructure or data, a crisis management strategy plans for each hour and minute of a crisis and tries to anticipate the best ways for the organization to respond as the crisis unfolds. 

BCP and DR are both integrated into crisis management plans but with an emphasis on the timeline of the crisis and which BC and DR steps will be taken when and by whom.

Communications plans, also known as comms plans, describe how enterprises address public relations (PR) during a disaster. Effective communication planning helps business leaders develop a structure and methodology for responding to a disruptive event as well as which channels they’ll use. 

For example, some leaders craft concise, effective messages beforehand that are intended for different audiences, such as employees, customers or investors. If an anticipated event occurs, such as a cyberattack or natural disaster, they already have their messaging and channel strategy in place to respond.  

One of the most important aspects of business continuity is the restoration of impacted networks of communication. Examples of these abound, such as internet, cellular and intranet used by employees, and their interruption can be devastating. 

Planning for network recovery typically involves identifying which networked services are most important for a business and prioritizing their restoration above others. The network recovery portion of a business continuity strategy must identify actions and resources needed for the safe and effective restoration of any and all networks after an interruption.

Data security and threats to IT infrastructure—such as data centers that store highly confidential customer and business information in some cases—are important aspects of business continuity strategy. Data recovery plans target many common threats, such as overburdened personnel, cyberattacks and outages that have implications for data security. 

Virtualized recovery plans that rely on virtual machine (VM) instances to backup and restore data have become increasingly popular because of their flexibility and scalability. Virtualized recovery plans can begin operating in a matter of minutes when a disaster strikes, helping applications recover quickly through their high availability (HA).

Today, organizations face a wide range of threats that have the potential to disrupt their business. From natural disasters that shut down power for days to complex cyberattacks that threaten confidential data, appropriate steps must be taken to mitigate risk. 

Crafting a successful business continuity strategy helps reassure investors, employees and customers that a business can quickly recover from whatever it faces. While no 2 businesses are alike and needs will vary, following a simple, 4-step approach is the best way to create a successful business continuity strategy.