The 7-point business continuity guide from the Chartered Management Institute provides steps to develop an effective continuity plan for any business. The steps include: 1) Communicating the need for a plan to all staff, 2) Creating a complete picture of business operations, 3) Evaluating risks and prioritizing failures, 4) Evaluating current planning and costs to address gaps, 5) Developing a risk strategy and action plan, 6) Establishing procedures and rehearsing the plan, 7) Regularly reviewing and testing the plan with different scenarios. Following these steps can help businesses reduce disruption impacts and "shock-proof" operations.

1. ping your
Kee ess
b usin ness
in busi
The Chartered Management Institute
7-point business continuity guide
Every business is vulnerable to unexpected challenges, irrespective of its size. So how
well could your business cope with events such as severe weather, technology failure,
or through disruption due to large scale international events. And how prepared are
you to manage the inevitable consequences arising from these type of events?
This is where business continuity plans become invaluable tools, but when things go
well, all too often this kind of planning and preparation takes a back seat.
To help make businesses more aware of the need for this, we’ve partnered with the
Chartered Management Institute (CMI), the professional body dedicated to raising the
standards of management and leadership, and a perfect partner in our mission to help
UK businesses find better ways of working.
Research published by the CMI revealed that businesses who had a widely agreed
business continuity plan in place, reduced the impact of disruption. Whilst having a
plan can’t guarantee total freedom from failure, it’s the first step in ‘shock-proofing’
your business.
And if you think such plans are the preserve of blue chip companies, think again.
Having a plan that can keep you trading even in the face of flood or IT failure has
proven to make a difference between a viable business or one that’s dead in the water.

2. business continuity guide
Getting started
Here you’ll find the CMI’s 7-point business
continuity guide, designed to help get you
started with your business continuity plan.
Print this and start to work through each point for your business using the space provided.
u t why you
1. Work o lan and tell
need a p bout it
everyone a ss and that it
’s
continuity p
roce
dopted and
you own the business The plan needs to be a
l that ected by it. experience
It’s essentia everyone aff ith different
ted to ing people w your overall
communica siness, involv ar about
hout the bu at you’re cle cussion abo
ut
mainta ined throug important th . This might involve dis
f sen iority. It’s s or severe
and levels o il you need hone system .
out the deta ch as, IT or p
objecti ves to work su staff
pact failures, ply chain or
a numb er of high-im ccess to your office, sup
t prevents a
weather tha

3. business continuity guide
2. Get a com
ple
of your busin te picture
To pl
ess
an effectively for
potential disruptio
your business as ns, you need as co
possible. Think ab mplete a picture
out: of
• key products and se
rvices your busin
revenue and profi ess offers that ge
t nerate the most
• the most important
procedures and re
your service sources involved
in delivering
• staff who are critica
l to your activity
• key people who ‘h
old all the knowle
• your main suppliers dge’
• the most important
elements in your
• your key customer supply chain
s and their areas
of business activ
ity
Put together flow
diagrams showin
equipment, and in g the relationship
ternal/external ac between people,
potential failure po tivities. These will
ints. help you identify

4. business continuity guide
s
at e your risk e for
3. Investig aluate what plans you have in plsac e
ar
ent will help yo
u ev hen these plan
A risk assessm se what and w
tinuity an d then prioriti
business con
implemente d.
elihood of
criteria: the lik
risk based on two
can prioritise
Generally, you s impact of fa
ilure.
busines
fa ilure and the ds without
for short perio
se rvice failures e to be
s can sustain ice as if it wer
M any businesse but as sess each serv
ness impact, ree days.
a critical busi e, for up to th
varying periods of tim
impacted for
ons including:
hat if ?’ questi
Ask yourself ‘w
went down?
one systems
• what if our IT or ph t documents?
yed importan
• what if a fire destro ill or leaves?
r of staff is off
• what if a key membe r could not supply to us?
ain supplie
• what if our m er couldn’t pay us?
stom
• what if a cu
As well as:
enario?
worst-case sc
• what is the people are cr
itical?
• what functions and

5. business continuity guide
4. Evaluate
w
planning to hat you are
put in plac
After a risk an
benefit to im
alysis, look at
your potenti
e
plementing th al continuity
they measure em, and the arrangements
up against yo time it takes and costs; th
ur agreed ob to put them e
jectives. in place. See
how
risk
5. Pu t together a
strategy needs to agree
what’s
list
ur stakeholder
pape r. Everyone on yo
Get it down on e plan.
import ant and agree th
cide to:
u list, you can de
For each risk yo
r action
d take no furthe
• ac cept the risk an occur
ate it ld the incident
• at tempt to elimin lop cont inuity plans shou
duce it and deve inate the risk
• attempt to re re you can’t elim
or change the process whe
• stop, suspend

6. business continuity guide
6. Develop
you
continuit r business
Establish ag
y plan
re ed procedure
from the inve s and rehea
stment in yo rse them to
ur continuit get maximu
y plan; for e m benefit
• money sp xample:
ent o
• an effective n a plan must provide
plan should a relevant b
core roles explain who usiness ben
needs to do efit
• use check what and wh
lists and flow o holds
services (sta charts to exp
ff facing a cr lain key acti
• provide ess isis won’t hav vities to rest
ential instru e th ore key
with contac ctions on ho e time to read detailed re
t informatio w to carry o ports)
• save versio n ut the plan,
n-controlled
identifying w documents
h and insert ke
• put a proce en each step should sta y staff name
s
ss in place fo rt
r updating th
is informatio
n

7. business continuity guide
view
7. Try out and re
your plan uity plan to m
ake
ntin
r business co ur team and
follow
review and rehearse you o over with yo
You should scenario to g with each
elect a failure arises the team issed.
su re it works. S is trial run famili nm
rocedures. Th g or have bee
yo ur planned p as that aren’t workin
identifies are e still
process and e sure they ar
s reg ularly, to mak g and
rent scenario antly changin
It’s best to go over diffe nvironme nts are const
ur business. E p-to-date.
ap propriate to yo ur contin uity plan is u
t that yo
it’s importan
And lastly, don’t:
• focus only on office, IT and phones
• forget the importance of people
• think the planning process is ever complete
• fail to recognise that risks to the business may come from inside the business
For more information go to managers.org.uk