Business Continuity Management

BUSINESS CONTINUITY MANAGEMENT:
A CRISIS MANAGEMENT APPROACH
by Dominic Elliott (Editor), Ethne Swartz (Editor), Brahim Herbane (Editor), Dominic Elliot

Business Continuity Management (BCM) is broadly defined as a business process that
seeks to ensure organizations are able to withstand any disruption to normal functioning.
This exciting and fully comprehensive new text tackles the issue of BCM from both a
theoretical and empirical perspective. It examines concepts from corporate strategy,
information systems and crisis management in order to critique current practice and redefine
the dominant IT and facilities management models which have traditionally been used to
understand the BCM process.

The text:

- outlines a clear methodology for guiding the development of continuity plans
- offers an alternative, business-based perspective to the dominant disaster
recovery
and traditional contingency planning viewpoints
- provides a clear definition of BCM and “best practice” from a business
perspective
- includes analysis of the challenges encountered when implementing BCM
- features illustrative case material.

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EXCERPT:
INTRODUCTION: BUSINESS CONTINUITY IN HISTORICAL CONTEXT

“When Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1990 after twenty-six years, the world
had changed dramatically. In the dozen years since Mandela's release the rate of change
has, if anything, increased further. Consumers purchase goods with credit cards swiped
through automated card readers. Purchase information is recorded and transmitted so that
retail stocks can be replenished. Banks close their branches as customers withdraw cash
through automated telling machines. Computers send out automatic letters to customers
exceeding their overdrafts. Loyalty cards enable retailers to collect customer information
from
which detailed profiles can be drawn, electronically of course. Personal banking was
superseded by telephone banking, itself now being chased by PC and internet banking.
Indeed, personal banking is now being reintroduced as a `value added service.' With a
plethora of goods from which to choose, customers have become more demanding, less
tolerant of sloppy service or of delays. As the change occurs incrementally we hardly notice
it, but for Nelson Mandela the changes must have been immense. In his autobiography he
describes how on his release a television crew ‘thrust a long, dark and furry object at me. I
recoiled slightly, wondering if it were a new fangled weapon developed while I was in prison.
Winnie informed me that it was a microphone’ (Mandela, 1994: 673). Change, fuelled by new
information and communication technology (ICT) may be seen as a constant. Greater
reliance on technology and on fellow members of the organizational supply chain has
increased the potential for interruptions. The need to ensure business continuity has never
been greater.

“Business continuity management (BCM) is a new and evolving discipline. Its roots lie in
Information Systems (IS) protection although it is argued that it has grown a long way from
this. Although none of us remains untouched by technological change we are less concerned
with the technology itself than with the changes to organizational processes, systems and
operations which new developments have made possible. This book is written from the
perspective that organizations are socio-technical systems and that continuity management
must consider all elements to be effective. Our theoretical roots lie in a variety of
sub-disciplines including strategy, industrial crisis and information systems. Inevitably these
have shaped this book and our approach to BCM. Accordingly we define business continuity
planning (BCP) as: ‘Planning which identifies an organization's exposure to internal and
external threats and synthesizes hard and soft assets to provide effective prevention and
recovery for the organization, whilst maintaining competitive advantag and value system
integrity’ (Henbane et al., 1997).

“This definition of business continuity is firmly rooted in a crisis management approach (see
Shrivastava, 1987; Smith, 1990; Pauchant and Mitroff 1992) and is broader in scope than
more traditional approaches, which emphasize hard systems (see for example, Doswell,
2000). The next section outlines what is meant by a crisis management approach. Following
this, Chapter 1 considers the strategic importance of being able to deal with crises and
interruptions effectively; how service continuity might be a more appropriate term than
business continuity; finally we examine the historical development of business continuity
management.
A crisis management approach to business continuity.

“A key part of this book's contribution to the development of business continuity management
lies in its crisis management approach, which underpin all aspects of this text. For our
purposes a crisis management approach may be defined as one that:
- recognizes the social and technical characteristics of business interruption;
- emphasizes the contribution that managers may make to the resolution of
interruptions
- assumes that managers may build resilience to business interruption through
processes and changes to operating norms and practices assumes that organizations
themselves may play a major role it `incubating the potential for failure'
- recognizes that, if managed properly, interruptions do not inevitaby result in crises
- acknowledges the impact, potential or realized, of interruptions upon a wide
range of
stakeholders.”

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF FIGURES
LIST OF TABLES
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

1 BUSINESS CONTINUITY IN HISTORICAL CONTEXT
Introduction
A Crisis Management Approach to Business Continuity
Historical Legacies, Evolution and States of Development
The Plan of the Book
Chapter Summary
References
Further reading
Study questions

2 REGULATORY AND LEGISLATIVE ISSUES
Introduction
The Context of Control
Legislation and Business Continuity Management
Regulation and Business Continuity management
Control and BCM
Chapter Summary
References
Further reading
Study questions

3 INITIATING AND PLANNING FOR BCM
Introduction
The Continuity Management Process
Basic Strategies Underlying Business Continuity Provision
The Initiation of Business Continuity Planning
Chapter Summary
References
Further reading
Study questions

4 CONTINUITY ANALYSIS AND PLANNING
Introduction
Planning Within the Business Continuity Management Process
Generating the Business Continuity Plan
Summary
References
Further reading
Study questions

5 MANAGEMENT OF CHANGE: EMBEDDING BUSINESS CONTINUITY
MANAGEMENT
Introduction
Change Management
Creating the Preconditions for Effective BCM
Chapter Summary
References
Further reading
Study questions

6 OPERATIONAL MANAGEMENT: FROM TESTING TO INCIDENTS
Introduction
Handling Events
Decision Making Under Stress
Testing, Maintenance and Auditing
Summary
References
Further reading
Study questions

7 BUSINESS CONTINUITY: WHERE NEXT?
Introduction
The New Economy
Future Themes
Summary
Notes
References
Further reading
Study questions

INDEX

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2002, 206 pages. Order #DR638.
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