Issue Archive: September/October 2007
Cover Story
Buffy Rojas, Editor-in-Chief
Ask Rudy Garcia about his business continuity program and there are a few key phrases that you're going to hear quite a bit: crystal clear, business drivers, strategic planning, communication, useful information, day-to-day basis. Those phrases pretty well sum up Garcia's approach to BCP: Have a crystal clear understanding of the organization's business drivers. Develop a strategic business continuity program that is aligned with the business. Communicate that program to all relevant parties. Provide stakeholders, particularly top management, with useful information that will help them make business decisions. And add value to the organization on a day-to-day basis.
Features
Robbie LaRocca
After much research, Wyeth made a decision late in 2006 to develop an internal Business Continuity Certification course. While comfortable with the scope of their knowledge, they thought they could do a better job training future business continuity leaders and coordinators internally. They teamed with a local collebe to make it happen.
Continuity Insights Staff
In business continuity circles, risk management is a hot topic. Many business continuity professionals talk about integrating with enterprise risk management programs, wonder how to build bridges with risk managers in their organizations, and see risk management, business continuity, and related disciplines "converging" in the future. But what do risk managers think about their business continuity counterparts?
Doug Sievers
If, on July 31, some soothsayer had told me that a major disaster was going to occur in Minneapolis the following day, I doubt my concerns would have flown to the section of Interstate 35W spanning the Mississippi River just east of the historic Stone Arch Bridge. My first thoughts might have included a terrorist attack at the Mall of America, a tornado, a plane crash, a rampage of violence committed by a deranged loner. But the sudden collapse of the nondescript bridge over which I had so often driven — over which virtually every driver in Minneapolis had driven-falling, without warning, into the Mississippi? Now, that's one I hadn't seen coming.
JL Smither
On April 19, 2004, the Department of Homeland Security and the Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism launched Lessons Learned Information Sharing (LLIS.gov). This system, designed to help prevent, protect against, respond to, and recover from all hazards by connecting emergency response providers and homeland security officials, serves as the Nation's online resource for lessons learned and best practices. LLIS.gov contains over 10,000 homeland security-related documents, including after-action reports, federal guidelines, best practices, standard and emergency operations plans, and many others.
Brian Zawada
Every day, unexpected events occur that have business continuity implications. July 18, 2007, was no different. On this seemingly normal Wednesday in Midtown Manhattan, a steam pipe exploded. At first glance (and despite the fact that the explosion was "photogenic" and therefore appeared in every news outlet), the situation appeared to have minimal business impact. However, a number of businesses were significantly and immediately impacted due to lost utilities and other city services. In many cases, employees were unable to reach their workplace (for up to three days in a number of situations).
John M. Stagl
Current educational programs in the field of business continuity (BC) planning are confronted with a problem of semantics. The old school educational effort associated with "disaster recovery (DR) planning" was oriented to internal processes that were going to be needed after a disaster. This information was identified by an internal survey of department managers. This same protocol is being used to try to construct business continuity plans.
Buffy Rojas
Multi-national firms have a need to share information on their employees typically contained in BC plans that some data privacy and employment laws may prohibit from crossing borders. How can BC professionals ensure that their plans are complete and don't break the law?
Mike Hager
Business continuity planning continues to evolve and gain prominence thanks to occurrences like hurricanes, dirty bombs, cyber attacks, etc. And companies with foresight recognize that BCP is a business necessity demanding a move from the traditional concept where IT is the driver, to one where enterprise-wide risk management-incorporating all critical business functions-is the key to addressing a broad range of potential hazards.
Continuity Staff
Quick continuity-related reads
