Business organizations

Business companies deal with a wide range of difficulties on a daily basis. These problems arise from both internal and external business environments, but they have various effects on the regular operation of the business (Fink, 2007, p.24). The majority of the occurrences have a negative effect on business performance and lower profit levels in the corporation in question. It is crucial for enterprises to implement a clear business continuity strategy as a way to handle the events and prevent their effects on the business (Comfort, 2007, p.189). The plan will be a reference point and give a step by step way forward in cases of occurrence of a crisis. The plan will assist the organization to update, deploy and skew them with the organizational strategy.

The paper assesses the extent to which an incident may be considered inevitable enough to become a crisis that may, in turn, grow into a disaster within a given business organization. The report believes that the growth of an incidence to a crisis than to a catastrophe happens in the absence of an effective management of the business continuity. Incidences in an organization that may result in huge losses of profitability levels in an organization if not addressed on time. Therefore, the essay is critical in providing the guideline on how business organizations can handle the possible incidences efficiently to ensure that they manage them effectively from evolving into crisis or control the crisis from their growth into the disasters within the business enterprise.

Incidences, Crisis, and Disasters

The incidences, crisis, and disasters are terms that are used to describe an occurrence within a given business organization that happens unexpectedly causing disruption and creating a threat of harm to the business organization (British Standards Institution, 2012, p.5). However, the three terms are differentiated by their magnitude of damage that they cause to the business or their difficulty in controlling them. Whereas the incidences are events that are difficult to control and causes moderate harm to the industry, the crisis is more difficult to handle and have more effect as compared to the incidences. On the other hand, a crisis grows to become disasters, which have a significant detrimental effect on the business and are more difficult for the company to handle (Scholtens, 2008, p.87).

Every company operates on the verge of getting the incidences, crisis or disasters. It is critical for the organizations to assess all the possible incidences that may happen and put in place suitable strategies to handle them in case they take place. Usually, companies consider coming up with the business continuity plan to help them curb the potential uncertainties (Comfort, 2007, p.195). The plan consists of a risk management strategy and the business impact analysis, which is used to identify the possible risks to the company. In most cases, the incident plan clarifies the approach that will be employed by the organization to prevent, stay prepared for the occurrence and define the recovery procedures to be applied (Fink, 2007, p.252).

The Business Continuity Management

The business continuity management is one of the significant roles of the senior management team for every business organization. The concept focusses on putting in place some planned and well-organized procedures that are applied for the sole purpose of increasing the sustainability and the resilience of the specific business processes within the organization. It also entails the mechanisms that the company has set in place as a way to react efficiently to the occurrence of the damaging events within the company and a measure of how the company is prepared for recommencement of the service operation after the occurrence of an event (Kosutic, 2013, p.69). Therefore, the organization’s preparedness to handle the incidence occurrence is critical for the smooth running and the continuity of every organization.

Usually, the primary objective of the business continuity ensures that the organization enjoys the continuity of the operations, through minimizing the possible incidences that may cause interruption and to have resumption strategies laid in place that help the business to recover from events that may happen quickly. Therefore, business continuity significantly aids the company to avoid the incidences and manage the inevitable happenings (Coombs, 2007, p.189). Laying appropriate business continuity strategies in place is essential for every business and helps in maintaining and curbing the incidences. Failure to embrace appropriate business continuity mechanisms will make the company to lack the ability to handle the occurrences. Therefore, in such a case, the event of the incidences in the group makes to become a crisis which in turn develops to become a disaster.

Aspects of the Ineffective Business continuity that makes Incidences to become Crisis which in turn Becomes Disasters

Lack of reactive reporting and responding strategies to incidences. When the business leaders fail to lay appropriate reporting and responding strategies to incidences, it becomes difficult to manage them. This is because the company lacks the preparedness to handle the occurrences. It is essential to lay reporting strategies that will help the management team to become aware of the events and make a timely reaction to them. The respond strategy determines the remedy that the organization applies to the event to curb it (Janssen et al., 2010, p.32). Therefore, it is critical for the business organizations to have a suitable reactive reporting and respond approaches to the incidences. Failure to set the reactive reporting and responding approaches in place will make an occurrence to grow into a crisis which in turn becomes a disaster due to lack of appropriate communication and a way to react to them.

Lack of incidence avoidance and prevention strategies. The incidence avoidance and prevention form critical aspects that help the company to escape severe occurrences that may interrupt the normal business operation. When the management team fails to analyze the possible incidents to the company, set the incidence avoidance and prevention, then the organization is likely to face a dilemma in when a given event happens. Besides, it increases the vulnerability of the harmful events to the business (BSI Standard 100-4, 2009, p.10). The avoidance and prevention approach significantly reduces the extent to which the company becomes prone to incidences that may lead to crisis or disasters in the market. Therefore, it is important for the organization to have appropriate strategies in place that helps it to avoid the occurrence of incidences in the company efficiently. Failure to have the systems in place will make the organization prone to the unknown incidences which may grow to the crisis that in turn becomes disasters.

Poor or lack of a clear contingency plan. Usually, a contingency plan involves the management’s prior decisions to handle or react to the possible risks within the organization (Brotby & Hinson, 2013, p.110). When the business organizations lack a well defines contingency plan, an occurrence of incidence is likely to become a crisis which in turn becomes a disaster for the company. A poorly defined contingency plan will help to prevent the occurrence of the incidences and also curb where it is inevitable for them to happen, a good way of avoiding their germination into crisis or the disasters to the company.

Business Continuity Plan Management

The business continuity plan forms one of the main tools that help companies to manage the incidences, and prevent them from growing into the crisis which may, in turn, become disasters. Usually, a business continuity plan consists of information that practically guides the organization on how to prepare for the incidences, to handle them and also defines the actions through which the company continues to operate after an occurrence. The plan outlines four critical incidence aspects of the business which are prevention, the preparedness, response and recovery. Thus, it covers all the aspects incidence management aspects which is a good way to administer the challenges that may face the company (Wisner et al., 2012, p.41). Therefore, in this way, the plan helps the company to ensure that the incidences do not grow into the crisis which may, in turn, become a disaster.

Firstly, regarding prevention, the plan defines the actions that the organization employs as a way to reduce, or even eliminate the chances or the impacts of the incidence. Secondly, the business continuity plan outlines the preparedness of the company by defining all the necessary steps that can be employed early before an incidence happens as to make the company equipped for efficiently handle the occurrences (Moynihan, 2008, p.422). The third aspect of the plan is a response. It states the mechanisms that the organization can employ to contain or control or even minimize the various effects of the incidence. Response actions are critical because it helps the company to know what to be done during the event. Lastly, the business continuity plan focusses on recovery, which defines the steps that the organization employs to reduce the operational disruption that arises from the incidences (Kapucu et al., 2010, p.343).

From the above discussion, it is clear that the business continuity plan is important for every organization. When the incidences happen to the company that has not implemented the plan, it is hard for it to control, respond or recover from the occurrence. The difficulty emanates from its failure to lay appropriate strategies in place. In a case where the event happens to a company that does not have a continuity plan, there is a high likelihood of the incidences to grow into a crisis which later becomes disasters to the company. Therefore, it is clear that the when the organization operates without a business continuity plan, occurrence of the incidence will continue affecting and even becomes a disaster (Treurniet et al., 2012, p.121).

Besides, some organizations have implemented the business continuity plan but have failed to adhere to its requirements that make it effective in the organization. Usually, the plan has its elements that need to be considered to ensure that it remains relevant to the organization and preventing it from becoming outdated. Failure to consider the critical aspects of the plan will significantly reduce effectiveness in the business rendering it useless to handle the incidences. Such a scenario makes it difficult for the company to manage the occurrences effectively, a factor that is likely to let it become a crisis may later grow into a disaster. The main aspects of the plan for consideration include testing, employee training and maintenance (Leonard & Howitt, 2010, p.26).

A scenario where the organization implements a business continuity plan and fails to consider thorough testing, there is a high likelihood of the occurrences to grow into the crisis which later becomes disasters. After implementation of the plan, there is need to repeatedly conduct the tests to ensure its validity to the company. Therefore, it essential that the company have a testing plan in place. A well-designed testing plan will help the company to have a reliable and sure respond system in case of an occurrence (British Standards Institution, 2012, p.9).

The case where a given organization has implanted a business continuity plan but fails to make updates renders it useless when a certain event happens, a fact that may make it become crisis which later grows into a disaster. The plan needs to be updated at least once a year (Kapucu & Garayev, 2011, p.344). Currently, the world is dynamic. Thus, the company needs to modify the continuity plan to ensure that it suits the new industry orders. Failure to consider plan modifications may render the continuity plan useless to manage the events in the company (Boersma et al., 2009, p.2).

Additionally, failure to make an effective communication to the staff regarding the changes in the continuity plan makes increases the chances of the occurrence of incidence to become a crisis which later grows into a disaster (Netten & Someren, 2011, p.87). There is a need for the company to effectively communicate to the key staff members about the changes that are made on the business continuity plan. Communication helps the staff to the device the actions that are likely to help them efficiently react in case of an incidence to the business (Treurniet et al., 2012, p. 122). The communication about the business continuity changes centrally revolves around training, an exercise that effectively equips the staff with the changes in the plan

Conclusion

In conclusion, the presence of an ineffective business continuity in a given organization increases the likelihood of growth of an incidence occurrence into a crisis which later becomes a disaster for the business. The plan focusses on four main aspects of the organization which include the prevention, the preparedness, the response and the recovery of the company from the incidences in case they happen. Therefore, cases where businesses operate without a business continuity plan increase the chances of inability to manage the occurrences when they happen. Similarly, companies that have implemented the plan but fail to consider the important aspects of testing, employee training and the modification are on the verge of suffering from the growth of the incidences when they happen. Therefore, an effective business continuity plan is critical to the success of every business enterprise.

References

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