5 essential tips for effective business continuity planning
Head of Operational Resilience Consulting Colin Jeffs MBCI provides his top tips to keep your business continuity planning on track, or to get you started in creating one.
Organisations are increasingly relying on complex supply chains to deliver services efficiently and cost-effectively. Some industry sectors such as retail, automotive, healthcare to name just a few, are built on their supply chains and many organisations across all sectors, are choosing to outsource functions and services to streamline operations and focus on their core capabilities.
In both scenarios, the added exposure to third-party risks needs to be identified and managed. When critical functions are managed externally, it becomes more challenging to ensure they are delivered efficiently, and in a resilient manner that protects your business. The key question is: how confident are you, that your supply chain relationships can support your business without disruption?
Why supply chain resilience is gaining regulatory attention
Regulatory bodies are increasingly scrutinising supply chain risk. Factors driving this focus include evermore complex interconnected networks, an increase in customer expectations in terms of increased flexibility and shorter timescales, and an upsurge in wider and global on and off-line disruptions. Businesses are still ultimately accountable for the performance and security of the services delivered by third parties. While outsourcing can help reduce internal workloads and operational costs, responsibility for risk mitigation stays firmly in-house.
As supply chains become more layered, it’s vital to have a clear process for evaluating and managing third-party dependencies, especially as these suppliers face their own set of vulnerabilities.
1. What supply chain resilience means
Definition
Supply chain resilience is your organisation’s ability to absorb shocks, respond quickly, and maintain continuity when disruption hits.
What it involves
It’s about predicting potential issues, adapting in real time, and bouncing back fast when the unexpected happens.
Why it matters
Resilient supply chains reduce lost revenue, limit operational costs, support customer retention, and protect brand trust.
2. Why supply chain resilience has become business-critical
Constant disruption
Events like COVID-19, extreme weather, and political tensions have exposed the fragility of global supply chains. Resilience is not a “nice to have”, it’s an organisational necessity.
Operational advantage
Firms that maintain flow during disruption can gain market share and outperform slower-moving rivals.
Long-term cost savings
Minimising downtime and avoiding last-minute fixes reduces long-term costs, even if it means higher up-front investment.
Customer expectations
Customers expect consistency. Reliable delivery strengthens loyalty and increases repeat business, and your ability to continue to deliver even in tough conditions, can set you apart from your competitors, win over new business and increase your market share.
3. What you can do to deliver supply chain resilience in practice:
We recommend that you follow this comprehensive 8-point checklist as a journey – it’s not intended to be a one-off tick-box exercise:
- Supplier diversification: Work with multiple suppliers across different geographies to reduce exposure to any single failure point. This includes developing relationships with one or more backup suppliers of critical services, so that you have pre-vetted alternative providers ready to step in at short notice to reduce exposure if your primary provider encounters problems.
- End-to-end visibility: Track activity across your full supply chain, including second- and third-tier suppliers, to spot risks early.
- Pinpoint weak spots: Audit your supply chain to flag risks, like sole-source suppliers, congested ports, or fragile IT systems. Then take action to address these! It’s also wise to evaluate each of your key suppliers’ own resilience, not just in relation to your needs. You need to know that they have a resilience approach and do not have inherent risks that are harder to relate directly to services they deliver to you. Do they have contingency plans in place internally? Can they continue their business operations during a crisis? By aligning your own business continuity planning with those of your key suppliers, you build a stronger, more adaptive supply chain.
- Operational agility: Make sure you can move quickly to switch suppliers, reroute shipments, or shift production when conditions change. Prioritising agility over cost-savings in your supply chain to maintain continuity of your operations, is key.
- Strong partnerships: Build trust and alignment with suppliers and logistics partners. Open lines of communication make response faster and more effective. Specifically, share data, discuss risk mitigation, and build shared contingency plans.
- Smart tech upgrades: Adopt tools that give you real-time data, automate processes, and improve communication across your network., for example AI, automation, machine learning, blockchain, and digital twins to improve your forecasting, speed up decisions, and gain insight into supply chain dynamics.
- Scenario planning: Develop detailed response plans for likely disruptions. Develop fallback strategies with alternative suppliers, routes, production lines. Then test and update them regularly.
- Measure and refine: Track the performance of your resilience efforts. Adapt your strategy based on what works, what doesn’t as well as what changes. Get expert support from resilience and business continuity providers.
Staying ahead in a complex supply chain landscape
As global supply chains grow more complex, the risks associated with third-party dependencies increase in parallel. With regulators demanding greater transparency and control, businesses must take proactive steps to shore up resilience.
By identifying high-risk suppliers, embedding resilience into supplier management processes, and maintaining open lines of communication, organisations can reduce the impact of potential disruptions. Effective supplier risk management isn’t just good governance; it’s a strategic priority for long-term business continuity.
Support to strengthen your supply chain
Creating and maintaining a resilient supply chain can be a challenge, but you don’t have to face it alone.
Our team can help you conduct a comprehensive business impact analysis, mapping your key suppliers and assessing the criticality of their services. Using our powerful Shadow-Planner platform, we can automate this process or guide you through it manually, whichever suits your environment.
Take a proactive next step towards better supply chain resilience
As part of our managed services offering, we carry out third-party supplier Business Continuity Management (BCM) assessments. This gives you assurance that your external partners are prepared for disruptions - so their disruptions won’t become yours!
1. Plan smart, not big!
Throughout my experience, I’ve witnessed countless organisations attempting to plan for every imaginable situation. However, it’s important to acknowledge that it’s simply not feasible to anticipate every single eventuality. Instead of striving for an all-encompassing plan, focus on creating a plan that empowers you to make well-informed decisions in any given scenario. A good plan is one that is practical and useful, providing essential information that aids decision-making. Avoid including unnecessary details that only make the plan cumbersome and impractical. If you find the need for a specific scenario-based plan, ensure it is laser-focused on that particular situation, and most importantly, ensure that everyone comprehends its purpose.
2. Understand what is important and why
In my view, it’s crucial to have a clear understanding of what is truly critical in your business and the dependencies associated with those critical elements. Without this understanding, how can you effectively safeguard your business? You may find yourself dedicating efforts to the wrong areas or unintentionally overlooking dependencies that could have a significant impact. Conducting a Business Impact Analysis (BIA) may require considerable effort and time, but it serves as a valuable shortcut for identifying operational risks that may not surface until an actual incident occurs. It’s of utmost importance that anyone involved in business continuity or operational resilience comprehends the significance of these efforts and fully buys into their purpose.
3. Board engagement is key
Throughout my experience, I have encountered the repeated notion that securing management buy-in is indispensable for a thriving resilience program, and I wholeheartedly agree. Without the endorsement of management, how can we anticipate the rest of the staff to actively participate? It is crucial for employees to recognise that the resilience program is backed and mandated by the board. It is not an optional endeavour but a necessary one in order to safeguard the business. Over time, it becomes ingrained in the culture of the organisation, shaping the way we operate and protect our interests.
4. You are only as good as your last test!
I firmly believe in the adage “you are only as good as your last test.” It doesn’t matter how impressive your plans may be if you’ve never put them to the test. How can you be certain they will actually work? Furthermore, how can you ensure that your staff knows their roles and responsibilities during an incident? Do they understand the procedures they need to follow? Testing is an invaluable practice that fosters inclusivity and helps individuals grasp their responsibilities in an emergency. It not only boosts their confidence in meeting expectations, but also allows them to practice their response in a controlled environment, free from the fear of making mistakes. Remember, it’s far better to discover any flaws or missing critical data during an exercise than during a real incident when you’re relying on it. Testing is the key to building resilience and ensuring readiness when it matters most.
5. Suppliers
I want to emphasise the significant role that suppliers play in our success. They often provide crucial services and data that are vital to our operations.
It’s important to treat them as an extension of our own business or as an additional department. Taking the time to understand them in detail is essential. Including them in our planning and testing processes is a crucial step towards building a resilient relationship. It ensures that both parties understand the significance of what they provide to us. Equally important is gaining insight into their resilience capabilities and how they would continue to deliver their services in the event of an incident. By involving them in our program and taking the opportunity to develop a deeper understanding, we can foster a stronger and more resilient partnership.
About the author
Colin Jeffs MBCI moved into the realm of business continuity from IT project management where, as part of implementing IT systems, he had to implement resiliency. Colin has worked in business continuity/operational resilience and crisis management for more than 28 years, holding senior roles in these disciplines for many years at major financial institutions in the city of London. Colin now heads up Wavenet’s award-winning operational resilience consulting and software division.