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Small Business Armageddon

9/3/2015

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Business Continuity Planning – Are you ready?
By Michael Curtis – President of The Response Team Inc.

Why is it that your business should be thinking about a business continuity plan?  Well quite simply – “stuff” happens.  Sometimes that “stuff” is within our control but some of the time it is not. First of all I think that we should define a couple of terms:

A Business Continuity Plan enables critical services or products to be continually delivered to clients and endeavors to ensure that critical operations continue to be available.

The Disaster Recovery Plan is a subset, a small part of overall business continuity. It is the process of saving data with the sole purpose of being able to recover it in the event of a disaster. 

A Business Resumption Plan describes how to resume business after a disruption.

These three plans are quite different from one and other.  If you have questions about them please get in touch with me and I would be happy to walk you through them and the processes involved in them.

So what is this “Stuff” that I refer to?  These are the hazards that we face every day and how they could impact our businesses.  Generally these hazards are identified in the risk analysis (Which I will talk about later).  These risks are generally broken down into two distinct groups and are identified as either natural or human caused.

Natural hazards may include the severe weather phenomenon that we are aware of, such as: severe bad weather including high winds, hail, tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, forest fires, earthquakes, epidemics, and tsunamis.

Human caused hazards can be broken down into two categories as well: intentional and non-intentional.

Non-intentional human caused hazards include: construction of failures (roads, bridges, water systems, etc.), Power or energy failures, explosions and fires, hazardous materials spills, financial issues, etc.

Intentionally caused human hazards include: civil disobedience, work action or stoppages, sabotage, terrorism, etc.

While this is just a short list, and any incident, emergency, or disaster may provide minor or significant impacts to any organization and their ability to continue business. This is why we need to have a plan in place ahead of time.

Business continuity management is not a new topic. However many people misunderstand what’s involved in business continuity management. My experience has taught me that business continuity management can actually be thought of as an umbrella. The umbrella can be thought of as the overarching and encompassing combination of the following components:

1.       Risk management
2.       Disaster Recovery
3.       Facilities Management
4.       Supply Chain Management
5.       Quality Management
6.       Health and Safety
7.       Knowledge Management
8.       Emergency Management
9.       Security
10.   Crisis Communication and Public Relations

Do not let this list overwhelm you. The vast majority of companies do not have a solid grasp on all 10 components. So what steps can you take? What’s involved you may ask? While there are six steps in completing a business continuity plan. They include:

1. Risk Management (or Risk Assessment)
2. Business Impact Analysis
3. Business Continuity Strategy Development
4. Business Continuity Plan Development
5. Business Continuity Plan Testing
6. Business Continuity Plan Maintenance

I will go through the steps of a couple of these in this blog. The risk management staff or risk assessment enables your organization to determine:

a)      What incidents can occur
b)      How often they are likely to occur
c)       The damage and incident is likely to cause
d)      How will an incident likely affect the organization
e)      How vulnerable the organization is to the hazard

Once the risk assessment is completed and we have a better understanding of the hazards that the organization may face we need to turn to the business impact analysis. The business impact analysis (BIA) is the assessment of the impact of a disruptive event on the business and the importance of that business function as it applies to your mission.  In other words it will identify:

•      Which business areas are critical to the your business survival
•      Time imperatives on the delivery of products and services
•      RTO – Recovery Time Objectives
•      MTO – Maximum Tolerable Outages
•      Who is involved both internally and externally in the achievement of the business objective  (Dependencies)
•       Minimum Resource requirements.

The BIA will assist in identifying the quantitative and qualitative impacts of a negative event:

Quantitative: Financial in nature (Sales, property loss, penalties, unexpected expenses

Qualitative: Operational or Non-Financial (Loss of Staff from this point in the process, low morale, reputation or credibility, customer relations etc.

From this point in the process we will begin to develop the strategies necessary to combat the effects of the most likely incidents to affect your organization.  Once those strategies are in place we can begin to put together the plan which will help drive how you will implement these strategies if an incident were to occur in your organization.

Once the plan is in place it is important to test the plan. Testing can occur on small or large scales depending on the needs of the organization. As testing of the plan occurs your organization will soon determine what levels of maintenance need to occur on the plan.

Maintenance should occur on a yearly basis at minimum, so as to incorporate changes in your business as they occur including personnel, location, buildings affected, expansion, contraction, or changes in significant business processes.

One of the significant steps that you will notice in the process is that as you move outside your comfort zone, what was once the unknown and frightening becomes your new normal.

Our Vision: Providing you peace of mind –               A sense of calm.

  It is normal to be concerned and in some cases afraid of the unknowing certainties that lie ahead. With the assistance of professionals in the field of business continuity management and emergency management response, we can help bring those concerns to a manageable level. At the response team Inc. our mission is to provide you with timely, professional, and responsible direction and manpower before, during, and after an incident. It is our vision to provide you peace of mind - a sense of calm.

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If You Build It...

9/22/2014

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Noodle Box Logo
The Noodlebox started out as a simple food stand in Victoria and has since expanded to 13 locations in BC and Alberta.  Airdrie is fortunate enough to host the FIRST Alberta location and after trying one of their free samples at Airdrie Fest the other week, their rapid success is not surprising.  However they are not just another pretty face in the restaurant industry.  They are setting a new standard in the way businesses interact with their communities and the environment.

From breaking ground to day to day operations Noodlebox stands alone in thinking “Outside the Box”.  (Yes, the pun was intended.)  Their motto of course has been Reuse, Recycle and Re-Purpose.  During the construction of their location which is across from Walmart on Main Street, they did things like use beetle damaged wood from BC to build their tables.  They sourced unwanted materials from local construction sites and re-purposed them into other items such as their chairs.  Even the light fixtures are up-cycled cooking woks.  If you’re looking for a one of a kind ambiance while enjoying some delicious food then the Noodlebox restaurant has it in spades.

What else have they done that makes them truly unique?  They are the first and ONLY business in Alberta that composts 99% of their product.  Their To-Go containers, napkins and even sauce containers are all compostable and their composting bins are conveniently built and located right at the front door.  The only thing they can’t recycle are their straws.  They encourage patrons to use filtered water rather than bottled.  The food they use is sourced locally, supporting food growers in our own community and leaving a smaller carbon foot print with reduced transportation requirements.  Even the chicken they use in their recipes are free-range which is one of the most eco-friendly not to mention ethical methods of livestock farming.

Why did they bother going the extra “green” mile?  For one the staff were excited and felt a greater purpose by being a part of something bigger than themselves.  Their commitment to the company and its philosophy was strengthened and resulted in less turn over.  Thinking local when sourcing products or materials reduces overall operation costs; and establishes a network of supporting businesses.  By being so environmentally conscience, Noodlebox definitely stands out from their competitors; which is an effective and comprehensive marketing campaign.  Pros for any business.  A little extra time when planning and some specialized education was all it took to engage not only the staff and the customers in treating the environment better but the community as a whole.

While that may be all fine and well for a restaurant, how can other types of companies improve their sustainability methods?  No one person or company can save the world but we can certainly all do our part.  Consider banding together with other nearby businesses to split the costs of composting or recycling waste materials.  Try personalized coffee cups or water bottles for employees rather than disposable.  Source local materials or services when possible. Simple steps can make a big difference... all it takes is a little innovation.  Create an expectation and others will follow suit.

Thanks for setting such a great example Noodlebox!

www.noodlebox.net


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