Continuing Gallagher’s Facing your future with confidence webinar series, on April 20th, National Sales Leader at Gallagher Andy Northcott chaired the specialist Gallagher panel:
- Andrew Marvin, Regional Client Service Director
- Georgia Price-Hunt, Commercial Manager, Cyber Risk Management
- Mathu Barker, Risk Management Consultant
The team discussed business continuity management (BCM)'s crucial role in mitigating risk and ensuring organisational resilience, especially in today's complex business environment.
An up-to-date business continuity plan (BCP) is key for all organisations, irrespective of size. While no one would dispute COVID-19’s unprecedented challenge to businesses’ resilience, it is a worrying misconception that plans put in place during the pandemic can weather any future storm.
Despite its enduring influence, COVID-19 only represents one set of circumstances at a particular point in time – there are infinite threats to a business’ continuity, many are known, and some are not. A BCP should reflect the business as it exists today and therefore needs to be revised regularly. Failure to plan will impact customers, suppliers, employees and the business’ future viability.
What does BCM mean in practice?
It is a complete management process that identifies potential threats and the impact they could have. This understanding provides a framework for building organisational resilience with the capability of an effective response, safeguarding the interests of key stakeholders, reputation, brand and value-creating activities.
BCM identifies an organisation’s priorities and prepares solutions to address disruptive threats. The process plans to ensure, as far as is reasonably practicable, that if an emergency occurs a business can continue to operate.
BCPs should be as clear, concise and action-orientated as possible; when it comes to incident management, communication must be an integral component of any response.
How is BCM evolving?
Client customers are driving an increased demand for BCP, especially where a client supplies a larger business. All firms crave certainty of supply; if clients want to retain business, they need to instil confidence in their customers by demonstrating they have a robust plan to keep operating should the worst occur.
How can Gallagher help?
Gallagher offers a range of BCP solutions, including online support and consulting services. We help develop disaster recovery and control strategies in the event of fire, fraud, natural disaster, IP theft and infringement, supply-chain issues, power outages, threats to your reputation, and denial of access.
Would you like more guidance on what to do in the event of a cyber-attack on your business? Join us at one of our June cyber masterclasses, across the North of England, where our specialists utilise their insight into current and emerging risks to help you answer this complex and fast-moving question. Register to attend.
Listen to this webinar on demand and register for the next webinar in the Facing you future with confidence series here.
