I recently had the opportunity to participate in a business continuity event, hosted by the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, which took a close look at resilience in supply chain management. It was a wonderfully new experience, with at least two-thirds of the audience comprised of students from UMD graduate programs. Rather than a group of “seasoned” professionals having different iterations of the same conversations we’ve been having for years, these bright young minds offered fresh new perspectives on old topics. Seeing this, I wondered, “How do we convince these kids to look toward business continuity as a career?” After pondering the question for the weekend, I realized that the answer is both simple and obvious.
We don’t.
In my experience, good business continuity programs are never created from whole cloth. Rather, they are the result of an effective combination of good professional practices, understanding the intricacies of an enterprise, and lessons learned through exercise and experience. The professional practices can be taught in school, without much in the way of context or experience, and should be. However, to lead or materially participate in a successful business continuity program, a professional must be able to intuitively understand how the professional practices support and intertwine with the regular function of a business. When describing business continuity to stakeholders and convincing them of its value, the professional must understand and be able to clearly describe the result of a failure normal business processes and how the professional practices relate.
The skills required by a successful business continuity program are diverse. Project, program, risk, and incident management, along with public relations, process analysis, technology, and exercise design and execution are just the highlights of an expansive list. There are also the secondary skills such as leadership, communications, interpersonal relations, good professional writing, and navigating corporate politics. For an individual to attain even a moderate level of skill in all of these, it would take a lifetime. It is better to build a program made up of members who bring these skills to the table and turn them into business continuity professionals rather than try to inject this breadth of knowledge into young brains.
This isn’t to say that there isn’t a place for academics and science in business continuity. Our industry can’t help but benefit from in-depth analysis of the indicators and effects of business disruptions. This research is a great tool for business continuity professionals for which to make use of and participate. But if there’s anything that experience has taught us, it’s that running a business continuity program is more art and negotiation than it is science.
Therefore, if there are any students who are evaluating a career in business continuity reading this, please take this to heart: business continuity makes a great second career. If you want to be the best you can be, master other aspects of business first. Learn how businesses succeed and how they fail of their own accord. Learn how businesses cope with adversity that isn’t catastrophic. Discover how people are motivated and discouraged. Learn these things either by doing or analyzing others. Either way, make sure you enjoy a few disasters along the way. At that point, with your toolbox stocked, your resume lengthened, and your understanding broadened, come back to the world of business continuity. We’ve been waiting.
Christopher Bingel is an emergency preparedness coordinator and COOP team lead at the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Any facts or opinions offered are his own product and opinion and not necessarily those of the FBI or United States government.
