Why is business continuity important?

Business continuity means ensuring that your organisation can continue to operate effectively even when faced with unexpected disruptive events. It is about having a plan in place to minimise downtime, protect your reputation and return business operations to normal as quickly as possible. In today’s digital era, the risks are higher than ever. A single hour of downtime can result in significant financial losses, damage to your brand and loss of customer trust.

Consequences of disruptive events

Disruptions can take many forms, from natural disasters such as hurricanes and earthquakes to cyberattacks or supply chain failures. The consequences can be devastating, including:

• Financial losses: Disruptions can result in significant financial losses, including lost revenue, damaged equipment and increased costs.
• Reputational damage: a disruption can damage your reputation and affect customer trust, making recovery more difficult.
• Compliance issues: Disruptions can also lead to compliance issues, including non-compliance with regulatory requirements.

Building Robust Systems

How can you build a system that can withstand and recover from disruptive events? Below are some practical tips:

1. Develop a Business Continuity Plan: A business continuity plan is a critical component of any robust system. This plan sets out the steps you should take to respond to a disruption, including emergency contact information, backup systems and recovery procedures.
2. Identify Critical Systems: Identify the critical systems that are essential to your business operations. This may include IT systems, supply chain management and customer support.
3. Implement Redundancies: Implement redundancies in your critical systems to ensure they continue to operate even if one system fails.
4. Conduct regular testing: conduct regular tests of your business continuity plan to ensure that it is effective and that your team is prepared to respond to a disruptive event.
5. Stay informed: stay informed about possible disruptive event scenarios, including natural disasters, cyber threats and supply chain issues.

Examples of real cases

In practice, what are robust systems? Below are some examples of real cases:

• Delta Airlines: After a critical power failure in 2016, Delta Air Lines was able to recover its operations quickly thanks to its business continuity plan. The airline managed to reroute flights and provide updates to customers, minimising the impact of the disruption.

Unfortunately, Delta Air Lines, and many other companies around the world, were not prepared for an “unthinkable” and “unlikely” scenario and were unable to adapt and respond quickly to the most recent disruptive IT event at the beginning of 2024, caused by the CrowdStrike update.

According to the avweb.com website,
“Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian criticised cybersecurity company CrowdStrike and software provider Microsoft, reporting that the IT disruption cost the airline US$ 500 million.

Delta’s massive computer disruption on 19 July interrupted the airline’s crew tracking system for almost a week, preventing the company from locating pilots and flight attendants to operate flights. As a result, Delta had to cancel around 30% of its flights. (…)

Bastian said Delta’s recovery was significantly hindered due to its high dependence on CrowdStrike and Microsoft for cybersecurity. The company had to manually reinstall 40,000 servers to restore operations.”

• UPS: When a massive cyberattack hit UPS in 2017, the company was able to respond quickly thanks to its business continuity plan. The company managed to contain the attack and minimise the impact on its operations.

• NHS: When a major cyberattack hit the NHS and social care in 2022, it caused significant disruption across many care service software systems. One healthcare provider was among the many providers forced to operate without a critical system installed to support its service. Although the provider had all the relevant and appropriate cybersecurity infrastructure in place, the service was disrupted by a targeted ransomware attack against its software supplier. Fortunately, the company had a business continuity plan in place that included a robust cybersecurity plan, and the service was able to continue operating thanks to the practices established in its business continuity plan.

Conclusion
Building robust systems that can withstand and recover from disruptions is essential to the success of any business. By developing a business continuity plan, identifying critical systems, implementing redundancies, carrying out regular testing and staying informed, it is possible to minimise the impact of disruptions and ensure that your business continues to operate effectively. Remember that business continuity is not just about avoiding downtime; it is about protecting your reputation, minimising financial losses and ensuring that your customers continue to trust you.

In addition, business continuity helps to create a culture of resilience so that the organisation is prepared to respond to the most “unthinkable and unpredictable” scenarios. In this way, the company can adapt and respond quickly to such situations, minimising the impact on the business.

Author: Behaviour
Published on: 6 December 2024
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Disclaimer: this article is based on public external research gathered from various sources. The information provided is for reference purposes only, and users assume full responsibility for relying on it. BEHAVIOUR accepts no responsibility for the accuracy of this information or for any consequences arising from its use.