Business ContinuityBoth continuity and resilience are vital to long-term business success, but there are a few overlooked differences between them that you need to be aware of.

If there is one thing that business leaders have learned from the unprecedented events of the past few years, it is that nothing is certain.

From the security challenges of remote work to the fragility of global supply chains, it is clearer than ever that organizations need to be prepared for practically any eventuality.

Following the lockdowns and work-from-home mandates during the pandemic, organizations have started to shift their attention from short-term survival to long-term growth and recovery. In other words, the focus has moved from continuity to resilience – two vital but closely related areas every business needs to think about. It is also important to understand the difference between the two.

Business continuity refers to an organization’s ability to maintain mission-critical operations during periods of unexpected disruption. By contrast, business resilience is a broader and more strategic initiative that refers to an organization’s ability to adapt to a constantly changing environment. Both areas are just as important, and they should play an integral role in your company’s shared vision.

Planning for the worst with business continuity

Failing to plan is planning to fail, as the quote commonly attributed to Benjamin Franklin goes. In business, unexpected disruption can come in many different forms. It might be a localized problem like power or network outage or hardware failure, or it could be something far bigger, such as a global pandemic forcing businesses to have their employees working from home.

Given the enormous reliance that today’s businesses, and their customers, have on modern technology, business continuity planning is most often discussed in a technical context. That said, there are plenty of non-technical risks that businesses face, such as sudden skills gaps appearing or widespread economic disruption. However, technological solutions can assist in the mitigation of both technical and non-technical disruptions.

Business continuity management needs a consolidated approach that minimizes the impact of any disruption to your critical operations. Many of these operations rely on knowledge work, whether they pertain to human resources, finance, sales, marketing, or customer service. This is why continuity planning starts with choosing the right software and taking an integrated approach that prevents single points of failure from arising in your operational infrastructure.

Another vital area of business continuity management is, unsurprisingly, backup and disaster recovery. Given the limited resources in most organizations, there is also a need to prioritize backup and recovery operations, hence why it is important to start with a risk assessment and business impact analysis. These steps serve to evaluate the risks facing your routine business operations, employees, and assets and gauge the possible impact that those risks may have.

Armed with this knowledge, organizations can identify their optimal recovery point objectives (RPOs) and recovery time objectives (RTOs). In data management, an RPO is the maximum amount of data you can afford to lose. Your RTO is the maximum length of time it should take to recover a system or process without experiencing unacceptable losses. Businesses assign different RPO and RTO values to different data and operations, depending on how important they are to the organization. Both metrics play a defining role in continuity management.

Empowering long-term success with organizational resilience

The term business resilience is sometimes used interchangeably with business continuity or, in other cases, they are considered competing initiatives. Both assumptions are incorrect.

Though closely connected and forming part of a broader strategy that incorporates business continuity, business resilience comes from a different angle. Resilience refers to an organization’s ability to adapt to a changing environment to enable long-term growth. To that end, it goes beyond disaster recovery and mitigation to bolster defenses and respond quickly to both unexpected and predicted changes. In other words, resilience is about being prepared to tackle the as yet unknown challenges the future may bring.

Business resilience and continuity are often approached as competing strategies, even though both are required. In fact, a better approach would be to view continuity as a component of resilience, not least because the need to adapt to longer-term changes also transcends the immediacy of short-term disasters.

Resilient businesses are also less susceptible to disasters. For example, although work-from-home mandates during the pandemic caught most organizations off-guard, those with fully integrated, cloud-enabled software environments had far less trouble accommodating remote workers than those that were still heavily reliant on in-house tech.

Of course, business resilience goes far beyond the technology itself – even in organizations that are purely involved in knowledge work. For example, resilience also requires maintaining good governance, risk management, and compliance (GRC) and the necessary diversity of skills, experience, and leadership. Fortunately, technology also offers the solution in the form of integrated collaboration and communication platforms that make it easier to consistently align goals with business needs, address ambiguities, and act with integrity.

Final words

There is no need to reinvent the wheel to implement a robust continuity and resilience strategy. Following the industry best practices, such as those outlined in the ISO 22301 standard, is a good starting point. From a technical perspective, business leaders should ensure they are in complete alignment with their IT departments when it comes to choosing integrated solutions that help, rather than hinder, mission-critical operations. The scalability and flexibility of cloud computing is a strong starting point since it can help limit single points of failure.

Finally, business continuity and resilience should not be approached as a destination. Rather, it is a process of continuous improvement and adaptation that must incorporate ongoing digital transformation, regular policy reviews, and constant modernization. That goes far beyond the immediacy of an unexpected disaster to help businesses prepare for an uncertain future and all the challenges and opportunities that will come with it.

ContinuSys is a suite of integrated cloud tools designed to help streamline your operations and enhance both business continuity and organizational resilience. Start your 30-day free trial now to see how it works.

Author Bio:

Mitch M

Mitch is a founder of ContinuSys, which is an Integrated Business Management system (IBMS) that helps organizations become resilient against short and long-term disruptions.

The IBMS ecosystem specifically helps businesses in developing and implementing robust business continuity plans to ensure uninterrupted business operations.

Connect with Mitch on LinkedIn.