Can Your Organization Survive Today's Threat Environment?

What Is Your Nightmare Scenario?

What is it about your specific business environment that keeps you up at night? What if you were victimized by a cyber-attack? Are you prepared for a natural or man-made disaster? Have you identified the cascading effects of a long-term interruption of your operations?

Cascading Effects

What are the cascading effects of an interruption of your business operations? There are many, however we will discuss a few here:

• Loss In Market Share: All disasters begin and end at the local level, for a business, they can be viewed as a personal problem. If your operations cease, for whatever reason, your customers will seek your products and services elsewhere. Once they leave it will be hard to get them back.

• A Loss of Human Resources: Skilled personnel are hard to find. Just because your business took a hit does not mean your employees can or will put their lives on hold. They still have bills to pay and dreams to achieve. They will take their skills elsewhere, which will prolong your organization’s recovery.

• A Loss to the Community: This ties in with the previous point. Is your business a major employer in the community? What happens to the community when its major employer is no longer in operation? The National Response Framework identifies seven community lifelines are the most fundamental services in the community that, when stabilized, enable all other aspects of society to function. A strong economic system is part of these lifelines.

• The Bottom Line: The definition of bottom line is dependent upon your business. For our purposes we will define the bottom line as the availability of your product and services. Products and services for those of you in the medical profession or non-profit organizations are more valuable than money.

Conclusion

Today’s threat environment has increased the need for comprehensive continuity plans that enable organizations to continue essential functions and provide critical services across a broad spectrum of emergencies when normal operations are disrupted. An organization with a robust and proven plan will be a resilient organization. Are you confident your organization will better manage a disaster than your competition? If not, how much business are you likely to lose?