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Maintaining Operations in the Face of Unexpected Loss New Realities in Business Continuity Management

Maintaining Operations in the Face of Unexpected Loss New Realities in Business Continuity Management . William Pollock Snr VP & National Manager MRC-Risk Services Melbourne. General Overview - MRC. Management Consulting Division of Marsh Global Representation

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Maintaining Operations in the Face of Unexpected Loss New Realities in Business Continuity Management

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  1. Maintaining Operations in the Face of Unexpected Loss New Realities in Business Continuity Management William Pollock Snr VP & National Manager MRC-Risk Services Melbourne

  2. General Overview - MRC • Management Consulting Division of Marsh • Global Representation • Principal focus - To provide risk solutions to clients • Multiple portfolios / services / operating synergies

  3. BCM - A Viewpoint BEING PROPERLY PREPARED IS A COMPLEX SCIENCE

  4. AN OPINION • MURPHY’S LAW STILL EXISTS - BUT WE DON’T HAVE TO MAKE IT EASY FOR HIM • WE CAN NEVER COVER ALL THE BASES ALL OF THE TIME - BUT GOOD BCM CAN KEEP YOU IN THE GAME • “WINGING IT” • IS FOR THE BIRDS - AND SHOULD BE AVOIDED OR BECOME AN ACTION OF LAST RESORT • IT USUALLY ONLY WORKS WELL: • IN THE MOVIES OR • IF YOU ARE ALL GOING IN THE SAME DIRECTION AND READING THE SAME SCRIPT - (ie GOOD BCM)

  5. BCM - What Does It Mean? • DEFINITION: The development, maintenance and implementation of strategies; plans and actions to ensure the continued availability of critical business processes and services • It includes: • pre-empting the impact of an incident / crisis • responding to the incident / crisis • implementing contingency / continuity plans • stabilising / recovering critical functions • resuming / restoring normal operations

  6. BCM – What are the Drivers? • Legislation / Regulations / Statutes / Standards / Government Reports • ASX Corporate Governance guidelines, • CLERP 9 • APRA - Australia (GPS 222) • Sarbanes Oxley in the USA, • Australian Standards Handbook HB 221 - Business Continuity Management • Precedents / Royal Commissions / Senate Inquiries / Parliamentary Inquiries • Increasing Litigation / Speed of Communication / Investigation / Observations • Customer, employee, stakeholder and supplier expectations

  7. BCM - WHAT IS REALLY DIFFERENT • COMMUNITY IS BECOMING INCREASINGLY MORE AWARE • EXPECTATIONS ARE HIGHER • LEVELS OF TOLERANCE ARE DECREASING • ENVIRONMENT IS BECOMING INCREASINGLY MORE COMPLEX** • PERCEPTIONS CAN “CAUSE DAMAGE” • RULE OF PRECEDENT

  8. BCM - why do it? • General Findings: • 43% of businesses experiencing major disasters never re-open • 29% close within three years • < 50% of organisations have business recovery plans and at least 90% never test the plans • 75% of businesses are UNABLE TO FUNCTION without IT support within 14 days • “recovery time” is invariably underestimated • “costs” of recovery not always recovered by BI

  9. Business Continuity Plan Why is the Plan itself – so important? • regulated requirement • specific response capability vs risk profile vs time • optimisation of response & recovery strategy • pre-determined allocation of resources / equipment • focussed preparation / implementation / training • enables assessment of specific capabilities and preparedness against known risk / incident type

  10. Business Continuity Management How do we go about it?

  11. BCM definitions: • Emergency Response • Crisis Management • Crisis Communication Management • Business Continuity Plan • Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) • Business Continuity Management

  12. What are YOU trying to do? • Prevent the problem • Fix the problem • Manage Issues & Implications • Recover and Continue from the event • Protect the Enterprise • Act diligently

  13. Policy Training/ Awareness BIA / Risk Assessment Enterprise Value Recovery Strategies Emergency Response Crisis Management & Communication Business Continuity Management (BCM) Marsh Integrated Approach

  14. ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS (RECOVERY RESOURCES) BUSINESS OPERATIONS Plan development - Step by Step Process Recovery Options Recovery Priorities Critical Business Processes Recovery Time Objectives RecoveryProcedures ACTIONS COMMUNICATIONS

  15. BCM – A Development Perspective Some questions: • What is the actual composition of the impacted activities? • What are the critical elements / processes / areas of dependency associated with the impacted activities? • Where are the bottlenecks and / or key points of failure associated with the impacted activities? • Where does your office / function / organisation sit within the “greater” network • Are there any factors or 3rd party disturbances - outside your control - which could directly / indirectly affect the recovery efficiency of the impacted activity? • What are the precedents? How can you minimise impact on recovery? • How do you retain control? • What level of pain are you prepared to carry before it detrimentally affects the objectives of the business function and its subsequent recovery?

  16. What happens when a key process is overloaded / disrupted?

  17. BCM DevelopmentSome Practical Considerations – Think PROCESS !!!! • Mission critical activity: • Financial and non-financial impacts • Recovery Time Objective (RTO) & Recovery Point Objective (RPO) • Critical processes / inter- dependencies identified & prioritised • Minimum level of resources identified - phased over time • Key people / teams identified; trained; notified; activated; tasked • Business recovery – linked to – IT system recovery / Hot Site !!!!! • Key documents backed up & stored off site • Expectations of Key stakeholders • Constraints under which the mission critical activities need to operate • Recovery priorities & acceptable levels of redundancy identified & confirmed • Audit; review, train and test not an exhaustive or prescriptive list

  18. Coffee Break

  19. The World Trade Center had two 110-story buildings, known as the "Twin Towers" and five smaller buildings. • Tower One was 414 meters tall. • Tower Two was 412 meters. • Built of aluminum and steel. • The foundation of each tower extended more than 70 feet below ground, resting on solid bedrock. • Each tower consisted of 104 passenger elevators and 21,800 windows. • About 50,000 people worked in the complex, which housed the offices of more than 430 businesses

  20. Indicative Incident Response • Evacuation • Setting up an information centre, to register employees and make an inventory of missing or wounded people • Care for employees; families and victims; community • Setting up communication and IT networks • Creating alternative office space • Managing / Recovering day to day business • Security not an exhaustive list

  21. Merely Identifying Risks is Not Enough • At Corporate level: • many companies completed a risk assessment report to Turnbull or other Corporate Governance requirements - went no further or “believed” controls “in place” were adequate • Insurance was obviously vital for the businesses affected but it was evident that insurance was not enough to ensure continued operation. • Risk Control is only the starting point - a waste of time unless meaningful follow-up action is taken

  22. Some BCM Findings-General Market • Processes • Inability to locate key personnel - after evacuation • poor security at secondary site • ill-defined secondary / alternate site transition • Inability to move to alternative locations with minimal disruptions to ongoing business • Inability to execute critical business functions in a timely manner • undefined alternatives in “supply chain”

  23. Some BCM Lessons - General market • Contingency Planning • detailed plans - less effective • logistical errors - common • inadequate data recovery • optimistic scenario planning • People • plans assumed impact on premises / functions • BUT people skills / intellectual knowledge / resources still available. • People / intellectual property can and were lost • Trauma needed to be managed • Ability to handle stress and trauma is not always directly associated with seniority

  24. Some BCM Lessons-General Market • Logistics • inadequate security for affected offices / companies • relocation of large numbers of traumatised people and / or support teams involved in recovery • impact of loss of personnel; services and logistics associated with relocation • Crisis Management • Confusion • Secondary EOC - “outside” exclusion zone • logistics - impaired efficiency / speed of EOC set-up / • wide area issues need to be considered

  25. Some BCM Lessons-General Market • Telecoms • businesses may not be able to rely on telecom networks in the event of a major emergency • Examples: • need to check for “choke points’ • internet reliant firms saw websites down for days • other firms experienced massive surge on internet utilisation causing servers / routers to overload

  26. Some BCM Lessons-General Market • Reputation Management • all actions in the gun-sight of the media - during and post incident • stakeholder management issues not always clearly defined; differentiated or managed appropriately • public expectations need to be taken into account • corporate reputation; brand management • moral issues are paramount eg: • compensation / medical / general insurance benefits / severance • trauma counselling / NOK • Comparisons are inevitable - No Rules - unless international precedents considered

  27. Some BCM Lessons-General Market • Risk Identification - outside “Comfort Zone” • if “likely” look for “global precedents & parallels • do not be blinkered by “corporate / personal history” • do not avoid the “apparently insolvable” - there is usually a precedent • always debate the acceptance of risk and the associated recovery strategy - they do change with time

  28. What Is Different • Strategic Re-Assessment of BCM fundamentals • multiple and concurrent points of failure in critical systems • increased awareness of integration of “knowledge” and systems • human element + logistics vs technology • geographical impacts (local-regional-global) • supply chains / fish-bones • redundancies vs interdependencies • cross - industry impacts • increased regulatory scrutiny

  29. References – post 9/11 • Text sourced from “global continuity.com” • incorporating findings from McKinsey; Gartner; Dataquest; • Marsh • PWC • Financial Review

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