10 Reasons Why Business Continuity Plans Fail
By Arlin Sorensen
Arlin Sorensen serves as the CEO and Founder of the Heartland Companies which includes HTG Peer Groups. When he is not traveling to speak and consult, he is home on his farm in Iowa with his wife Nancy. He is a proud “Pop” to four precocious grandchildren who serve as daily reminders of why he is intentionally living to leave a strong legacy of faith and integrity. He loves making a difference in the lives and businesses of small business owners.
In preparation for the upcoming Q3 HTG meetings, Mike Semel has written a primer on business continuity plans. You can hear him deliver an advanced workshop in Denver as part of our Leadership Academy on Wednesday. Join us in Denver and work on your plan!
Here are 10 reasons why business continuity plans fail...
1. KEEPING YOUR PLAN IN YOUR HEAD
Having a plan in your head is not having a plan. Some of the smartest people I know have told me when disaster struck they couldn’t remember names of close friends and even family members, phone numbers, and where they hide valuables. They said that having a written plan saved them.
2. FILLING IN FORMS WITHOUT THINKING
There are many business continuity checklists and plan templates available from the government, the Red Cross, and other organizations. Some folks just fill them out and check boxes to comply with a requirement to have a plan, without thinking through what will happen in a disaster.
3. UNREALISTIC EXPECTATIONS
Many plans are created expecting that power, cell phones, phone lines, Internet, and water will all be working; and roads will be open. Plans are written expecting that everyone will show up for work, staff won’t have damage at home, won’t have to take care of families and pets, and won’t be stressed. Or injured or dead. Some plans include alternate sites that have never been cleared in advance.
4. FOCUSING ON THE WRONG THINGS
Question: What is your business continuity plan?
Answer: We backup our servers every night and can recover them in the Cloud.
That is a partial plan. A complete plan will also focus on your personnel (their safety first!) and on your facilities. How will you communicate with your staff during/after a disaster? What if your mail server is down? Who needs to respond? Where should they go?
5. LITTLE OR NO TESTING
Plans are often written and placed on a shelf or distributed to managers with little or no testing. An untested plan is not a plan, but a collection of words. Testing should start out with an exercise around a conference table and eventually to a full offsite simulation.
6. NO DISASTER EXPERIENCE
Plans written by people without disaster experience can be doomed from the start. If you make the wrong assumptions, you will come to the wrong conclusions. Hire a consultant or attend a workshop led by a disaster professional.
7. TOO DETAILED
Plans are not owner’s manuals for your business, but guidance to your managers and staff on what tasks are to be completed, and in which order.
8. NOT DETAILED ENOUGH
Plans should contain critical contacts, phone numbers, account numbers, insurance policy numbers, banking and credit info, logins and passwords, etc. Don’t expect that you will remember or be able to access the information during a disaster.
9. NOT UPDATED
Business needs change. Technology changes. Staff changes. Passwords change. Your plan needs to be current when you reach for it.
10. NOT SHARED
A plan sitting in an office is of no use if the office burns down or you can’t leave your house. A plan is no good if it is only provided to a few top managers or family members and not to those who need to respond. You don’t have to share everything with everyone, but think through who needs to know what.