Combining Business Continuity and Risk Strategies

INTRODUCTION

In spite of the huge wealth, scale and internationalism of many a modern business, they are in fact much more exposed to a single, organisation wide, destruction than in earlier business models. We now have multinational empires that can best be described as ‘hollow’ companies. 

They have very few people ‘at home’ and the key components could be described as a range of outsourcing contracts, the confidence of its stakeholders, brands, legality, positive cash flows, compliance, intellectual assets of many different types, and the overarching entrepreneurial and control mechanisms.  Even some of these ‘assets’ may be rented and not owned; not least brands and the intellectual assets. 

These business models demand new skills and awareness of risk and impact. They necessarily are placing risk professionals at the very heart of the organisation’s strategic decision making. This course explores these concepts and looks forward to envisage the business continuity manager of the future; the skills needed, how and where business continuity should be placed within the organisation, and how best it can work alongside other management needs across the whole organisation. 

WORKSHOP OBJECTIVES 

This workshop is designed for all managers and auditors who have acquired responsibilities to stakeholders and who thus have critical risk and resilience as part of that responsibility.  The course is of no less relevance for public service personnel as it is for profit making businesses as the concepts – the failure to meet stakeholder expectations - remain equally valid for both. The objective is to take a strategic view of business resilience from the most senior executive’s viewpoint and how best to be able to offer assurances within modern day business models and needs.  This will include discussions on where the function should best fit and report, by whom, the skills and relationships that are now needed, and how to muscle the resilience agenda into strategic decision making before harm is done. 

PROGRAMME OUTLINE

  • The programme uses a mixture of presentations and participative exercises.  
  • The 21st century organisation and its critical ingredients
  •  Risk functions, responsibilities and relevances.
  • The risk and continuity toolbox
  • Stakeholders; their needs, powers, and managing their responses
  • Identifying and measuring threats to the organisation’s holistic survival needs
  • Consistent measurement of financial and non financial business impact
  • Consistent definitions of risk and impact levels
  • Pan-organisation views on risk tolerances
  • The relationships between probability and impact
  • Values and weaknesses within the insurance programme
  • The special resilience challenges of outsourcing
  • The recovery planning ingredients and execution
  • Gaining trust from all interested parties
  • Exercise both the recovery process plans and also the risk decision making?
  • Benchmarking