Regardless of what it is you have to say, there has never been a better time for any person or organization to have something to say. You have more options today than at any time in the past to get your message out, and those options can spread your message faster and to a larger… Continue reading The Message Critical Crisis Communications Criteria

Disasters seem all around us nowadays. Not a day goes by without some sort of disaster or terrorist attack occurring somewhere in the world filling the news. The New York Times on July 21, 2015, ran an article on a study from the Norwegian Refugee Council. The Refugee Council reported that natural disasters had forced… Continue reading Resilience

The resounding success of more than a hundred BCP/DR drills that I have done with my clients actually worries me! In delivering business continuity (BC) and disaster recovery (DR) services over the years, I have closely worked with clients in making every single exercise a success. Those are our moments of glory, the BC/DR managers… Continue reading Let’s Get Real About Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery

How do you explain what it is you do? Do you use words like continuity, recovery, planning, contingencies, and resiliency? Are you sometimes confused over what term you should be using these days? You’re not alone – the growth and boom in our industry has resulted in an influx of new terminology so it’s no… Continue reading It’s What You Do

At this time of year, many of us are scrambling to get plans exercised to meet a calendar year commitment or deadline, so I’d like to explore the issue of continuity plans and how “actionable” they really are. This actually applies to all types of continuity plans – whether they are business continuity plans, IT… Continue reading Continuity Plans Can You Actually Use Them?

With several standards being developed and some areas overlapping, compliance requires significant effort and is mandatory. If compliance is costly, then we need to think of the cost of non-compliance, which is more costly. This article focuses on business continuity compliance but can be applied equally to other areas as well, and is being produced… Continue reading Compliance a Problem, But Still Mandatory

It is hard to pick up a paper or listen to the news without being reminded of the ever-increasing amount of natural and manmade disasters occurring in today’s world. Currently, there are reports of tornadoes and flooding in the Midwest; at the end of summer, we’ll see the focus on hurricanes; and spattered throughout the… Continue reading Communicating During a Disaster

Automats – those fast-food vending machines – were before my time. I wasn’t born in Gotham. I wasn’t raised in the Windy City. I grew up hopelessly suburban and automats were mostly out of vogue before I showed up. Still, whether seeing an automat in an old film, photos, or a period piece, I always… Continue reading Automats of Readiness

When organizations decide to outsource a critical service, business continuity (BC) leaders must increase vigilance over third-party contractual obligations related to recovery. Recovery time objective (RTO), one of the most commonly-used terms in our profession, can take on dramatically different shades of meaning, depending on the broader context in which it is established. In fact… Continue reading Analyzing RTO for Outsourced Capabilities

Your company’s risk landscape is constantly changing. There’s a wide scope of factors to take into account, from weather-induced regional risks to the potential chaos provoked by cybersecurity breaches. Two vendor surveys recently found that 54 percent of organizations lack the intelligence they need to protect against sophisticated cyberattacks, and companies continue to overlook threats… Continue reading 7 Easy Steps to Weather any DR Storm