What you can mitigate.

Mitigation Strategy.

Having a practical strategy for the mitigation of risk is the way to go here, you can spend as much time and money as you want mitigating potential problems and still not be ready for the one that stops everything! Some mitigations are best planned in broad strokes, don’t get into the detail if it can be avoided.

Strategy Example.

One of the more common considerations in a Business Continuity Plan is the loss of the office, for which a strategy is required – it sounds stupid, but there can be differentt degrees of loss as in;

Someone forgot the office keys;

An inconvenience, generally easy to mitigate – second keyholder, lockbox or keys held locally – the impact may only be in the order of an hour.

The office caught fire or was flooded.

This is a serious problem, cannot be easilly mitigated – professional advice required – the impact may be protracted – there may be a need for alternate offices for staff.

Sudden unavailability of one or more staff.

From someone having to leave at short notice, through to a “Global Pandemic”. There are many reasons why staff are not available, in some cases there won’t be a suitable depute and in other cases there will. The mitigations are a mixture of documentation, training and planing.

There are other examples that could be used, the ones listed show the spread of the impact. The first, just some lost or forgotten keys results in a short delay in accessing the office but a spare set of keys mitigates the problem. The fire could be very disruptive, cannot be easilly mitigated. The burglary, the duration is determined by how long the investigation takes.

Strategy is important.

Your mitigation strategy is important, but understanding what you can mitigate is equally important. It is also very important to focus on the reason for planning a mitigation, don’t plan if you don’t have too.

If you decide to have an all singing and dancing business continuity plan, then expect to pay handsomley for it. It should be noted that any effective plan will involve cost, but a plan that covers what is required will cost a lot less than one that tries to cover every situation.

So deciding what your strategy should cover will to some extent determine the cost, this is a primary consideration for many organisations. Even a one man band will incur costs, even if that cost is in the form of insurance, a second phone or an extra desk diary. This is not an option for a small or medium sized company, where there is a greater liklihood of other advers effects like reputational damage or loss of customers.

It does not take much to shake a customers confidence, it can take years to build a good working relationship with your customer base – it can take just days to damage the relationship beyond repair.