The Top 10 Reasons Why Business Continuity Programs Fail ...

I am often asked why it?s hard for many organizations to develop and maintain?their programs for emergency response, crisis management, business continuity, and disaster recovery. I always say that it has two main causes.

One is to do with commitment ? commitment of the business?s executive team to starting and continuing a brand new business practice. ?If the executives (or owner) don?t make it important to the rest of the company, then it won?t be done or maintained well.

The other is the fundamental lack of understanding out there that it IS possible plan for major, bad events that seriously affect your business. ? There are process, methodology, tools, and wealth of knowledge about how to do this. Unfortunately most small businesses and many medium sized businesses don?t know this.

So, with apologies to David Letterman for stealing his format, here are what I think are the top 10 reasons that business continuity programs fail:

?The auditors said we have to do this?. Clearly, nobody else in the business thinks it?s important when you hear this.

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?We have insurance?. Just great. And the claims will be paid after the business is bankrupt.

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?We already know how to deal with disasters. We do it every day?. This is usually an engineer talking. Engineers are great at fixing things that are broken. They are not great at rebuilding plants, productions lines, or supply chains fast enough that the business survives.

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?It hasn?t happened yet. It will never happen to us?. I don?t hear this very often these days. Too many executives actually read newspapers and watch the news. They know that it can and does happen.

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?Here. Use this software package (or book or template or set of forms or?). Tell me when you?re done?. Another example of zero commitment from the top ? no budget, no training, no help, no support.

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?I?m too busy with my day-to-day stuff?. Nobody from the top of the organization has bothered to enable success. People need time to do this kind of work. If it?s added to an already big workload, guess what doesn?t get done.

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?You have to develop plans. Tell me when you?re done?. See my comment for 6. above ? zero commitment.

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?It?s not my job?. I think you are probably getting the idea now ? zero commitment and, therefore, no work done..

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?This is easy. I?ll have it done in a few weeks?. What we have here is a failure to communicate. This person doesn?t understand anything about the work to be done.

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?I don?t know how to do this?. At least this person knows what he doesn?t know. Unfortunately, this is the number one reason for SMBs. A business continuity management program is a net-new function for many SMBs. The first time they start a project to develop the program, they must find a way to turn the project into a program. Other common business functions started out the same way ? accounting, vacation planning, budgeting, and so on.

Thanks, Dave. Good format.

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