Perhaps no industrial accident in recent memory has had such an impact on public awareness of chemical safety as the explosions at the Port of Tianjin that killed more than 170 people last year. The largest of the blasts was the equivalent of more than 21 tons of TNT and involved sodium cyanide, toluene diisocyanate,… Continue reading Lessons from Tianjin

Napoleon Bonaparte once said, “The battlefield is a scene of constant chaos. The winner will be the one who controls that chaos, both his own and the enemies.” Organizations, government, and private sector try to control this chaos through plans and training. No matter what you plan for, you aren’t ready for it when it… Continue reading Situational Awareness

The global economy is in a significant state of disharmony involving the flow of trade between the world’s nations. This has resulted in most of the recent major economic calamities. In April 1959, then Sen. John F. Kennedy said, “The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word ‘crisis.’ One brush stroke stands for… Continue reading Kidnap & Ransom: The Risks of Working Globally

As the digital ecosystem within enterprises proliferate, so do the cybersecurity risks and vulnerabilities. Before organizations look outside for effective governance, risk and compliance, and business continuity tools to manage this ecosystem, they also need to understand the importance for defining proper organizational security controls and self-audit requirements. The controls and tests can form an… Continue reading Security Controls, Self-Audit, and Testing

One of the projects I am most excited about in 2016 is my role as BCI US Group chairperson for the Business Continuity Institutes’ 20/20 Think Tank initiative. In the title of this article, you will observe that I use the term BCM, or business continuity management. One of the challenges we all face is… Continue reading BCM Industry Compass: Where Are We Heading?

The ability to recover critical systems in a timely manner during an event is the cornerstone of any effective disaster recovery program. All too often large and small organizations fail to recover their critical infrastructure and applications because of the inability to recognize the variance between the time they would like to recover, known as… Continue reading Closing the Delta Between RTO and RTC

A successful data management organization enables the achievement of business goals and objectives efficiently and in a cost-effective manner. DM organizations which consistently achieve this have a clear, robust, and well-defined data management strategy. Overlooking these five simple but often forgotten considerations when building your data management strategy will diminish the data management organization’s ability… Continue reading Data Management: Top 5 Overlooked Considerations

The federal Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), and corresponding state laws were designed to impose liability on parties determined to be responsible for releases of hazardous substances into the environment, and the potential costs of liability can be devastating. Natural disasters can lead to unexpected liabilities under these laws. Emergency managers should… Continue reading Emergency Management May Reduce the Risk of CERCLA Liability for Natural Disasters

Plan for the future. Act today for tomorrow. Be ready for what comes next. These phrases flash on our screens and in magazines more than we realize. In general, these messages are trying to get people to think about their futures (and sell something). But, for you and I, business continuity professionals, these messages hold… Continue reading Ensure Resiliency

As business continuity practitioners, we should maintain an attitude of “constructive-discomfort.” This mindset should influence our view of our role in the organization, our interaction with supported teammates and staff, the artifacts we produce, and our relationship with management. If one separates “constructive-discomfort” into both components, it would be easy to favor the former and… Continue reading In Search of ‘Constructive-Discomfort’