Reimagining Business-As-UnUsual Through Business Continuity Planning

 Reimagining Business-As-UnUsual Through Business Continuity Planning

In late 2019, BCP had a different vibe. Business Continuity Planning was ensuring that your business could continue should an internal or external shock hit it. Such shocks were limited to (externally) interruptions of the supply chain, policy adjustments, shifts in significant clients; and (internally) staffing issues, succession planning, and the like.

 

A global pandemic was not quite on the cards; nor was the word “pivot” such an oft-used term as it is today.

 

Enter Business Continuity Planning 2.0 (2020) and now 3.0 (Malaysia, 2021) – how have we, as functioning business, adapted to the tectonic shifts in our business landscape, and how have we ensured that we stayed afloat, and continued to succeed and thrive under such dynamic and challenging conditions?

 

The pandemic poses new and unique sets of challenges for brands. Not only does the coronavirus spread from one person to the other, and has no geographical focus, its destructive influence is vigorously changing without concern for boundaries. For brands to remain competitive, build resilience, and preserve business continuity, they have to be analytical and proactive in their approach to retaining their business community, consumers, employees, and teams.

 

Business Continuity Planning is an essential process for all brands; finding ways to reimagine a business-as-unusual environment that minimises disruption requires intelligent thinking and planning, followed by consistent action and credible communication.

 

Brands have to be predictive and proactive in their decision-making. People are looking to their employer, community, business leaders, and governments for guidance and inspiration.

 

Almost all businesses are likely to experience significant disruption to their business-as-usual operation, and will face underperformance issues throughout the crisis. Brands are experiencing logistical and operational disruption, as well as significant shifts in consumer demand.

 

Clear, transparent and timely communications are necessary when creating a platform to reshape the business and to secure ongoing support from customers, employees, suppliers, creditors, investors and regulatory authorities.

 

Business Continuity Planning is not only examining, understanding, and activating realignments and pivots to ensure the business continues, but the effective communication of this with all stakeholders, ensuring that transparency enables and facilitates mutual support and opportunity through changes.

 

Once the pandemic is controlled, brands need to review and renew business continuity plans; they will need to assess how existing plans are working. Brands will then need to consider activating new guidelines in place, based upon lessons learned, as well as solid contingency plans to build resilience and better respond to future crises.

 

Orchan’s curated Business Continuity Planning for Startups and SME’s works both in a consultancy or training mode; enabling your decision-makers to embrace the approach that meets their needs best. Our core focus is on embedding and activating effective and informative communication strategies to keep your publics aligned to your business path.

 

Drop us a line (changenow@orchan.asia) or give us a call at 03-2110-9407 to have a chat about your needs. It’s never too late to ensure the future of your business is on the right track.