Business Resilience in the Supply Chain, by Colin Ive
During Colin Ive’s time over the past year or two as initially the Chief Risk & Continuity manager for a global telecomm’s corporation, and more recently as an independent consultant, he has experienced a developing focus on increasing risks in the supply chain. This has in turn led to an understanding of the serious weakening these risks pose to an organisations business resilience.
“I have found that all too often this increase in risk has developed as a direct result of the extensive outsourcing pursued by many businesses and organisations seeking to streamline structures and reduce costs. Whereas before a CEO could, if needed, have a direct hand in dealing with a crisis affecting an internal supplier, for example the companies Facilities team, with this now outsourced to a contractor, who may have in turn themselves outsourced specific parts of this work, getting direct action on issues can be extremely challenging at best.
“Such experiences have been underpinned by others highlighting concerns for this as demonstrated at the recent BCI Supply Chain Continuity workshop held in March. This workshop followed a joint paper written by the BCI and the Chartered Institute for Procurement and Supply (CIPS) entitled ‘Business Continuity in the Supply Chain – embedding resilience.’
“More recently a report of The 2010 Business Continuity Management Survey has been published. This survey conducted by the Chartered Management Institute, in association with the Cabinet Office, has many interesting aspects and shows the benefits to an all-hazards approach to Business Continuity Planning.
“Amongst its important recommendations are “An organisation is only as resilient as the external stakeholders it relies on. Driving BCM though the supply chain is important for any organisation wishing to improve its resilience.” And “Managers need to recognise that effective BCM does not stop at the organisations doorstep.”
“A free copy of this report and a BCM Checklist can be downloaded from: http://www.managers.org.uk/research-analysis/research/current-research/BCM2010
“Coupled with the above I was delighted to recently present at the UK Government BC Managers forum on ‘Business Continuity in the Supply Chain – The Good, The Bad and The Ugly”. It is clear that many BC managers are beginning to seriously question what risks their supply chain pose.
“Strengthening the resilience and competitive advantage of UK PLC by improving the resilience of the supply chain is imperative for the UK. As the country struggles to fight its way out of the recessionary abyss so it’s dependency upon the ability of its organisations to supply the goods and services it requires becomes more and more essential. The enormous increase in outsourcing performed by many of these organisations has resulted in a huge reliance upon the reliability and resilience of their now extended supply chain. Customers need complete reliance on their suppliers who in turn need to demonstrate that they are resilient enough to continue business even when confronted with a crisis.
“As a result of these issues, and to aid their resolution, I have created a low cost conference ‘Building Resilience in the Supply Chain’ www.brisc2010.com which promises to present transferable solutions and established good practice for building a resilient organisation and in turn improving competitive advantage. Business Continuity planning, to a recognised standard, is a significant contributor to an organisations resilience but company security, communications and sustainability etc also have an essential part to play. The conference is unique in bringing these topics together at a single venue with highly experienced and respected speakers in their fields.
“The conference has been purposely created as a low cost yet high value event. By this action we recognise the reduction in budgets that so many organisations are enduring. Despite such reductions life and business goes on with new and developing risks ever present. This conference will present a series of case studies of what happens when a supplier suffers a disaster and its inevitable knock on effect to the customer, coupled with what steps to have in place to minimise or completely avoid any negative impact. It will focus upon strengthening organisations resilience to:
- Add an area of competitive advantage when selling its service to a customer; and,
- Have the ability to in turn set expectations for suppliers to comply with so as to protect their supply chain.
Keynote Speaker: Doctor Helen Peck Senior Lecturer, Commercial & Supply Chain Risk, Cranfield University is the Keynote speaker. Dr Peck is Europe’s leading academic researcher in the field of supply chain vulnerability, risk and resilience.
Chair: The Chairmanship of the conference is shared by two outstanding high quality individuals. Malcolm Eastwood CBE QFSM CSTj a highly respected recently retired Chief Fire Officer and Jeff Cook MC OBE a past Brigadier in the SAS and later Head of Security of the Royal Household.
For more information and to take advantage of the early bird booking offer please go to www.BRiSC2010.com.
Tags: Business Resilience, supply chain, supply chain management
