Business Continuity in Government
Government (certainly from my experience in local government) has thought about business continuity from a ‘disaster’ perspective. There are periodic exercises to cover what would happen in the event of a train crash, terrorist attack, floods etc. But do they know how to keep their own business of governing running?
As with all things, there’s good news and there’s bad. Having a disaster recovery plan for IT is commonplace, and most plans are tested periodically. But few have grasped the nettle of finding alternative connected premises for the staff.
Because the UK parliament still uses the ‘first-past-the-post’ system (the devolved parliaments don’t, incidentally), politicians have a ‘win or lose’ mentality. They are likely to forget the country carries on, whatever their fortunes in the polls. The voters could be forgiven for thinking politicians only have their own interests in mind, but it’s very easy just to think about the next big deal and forget the everyday tasks.
Business Continuity in Business
Business leaders, as well as the politicians, need to have plans in place to keep everything going when the big contract they’ve been working towards, isn’t landed. All too often the worse happens, and then (and only then), leaders start to think, “Now what will we do?”
Planning suggests it’s an activity which precedes the necessity for action, and business continuity planning is no exception. It’s common sense. Or more accurately, it’s uncommon sense.
