Disaster Recovery Journal- Volume 19, Issue 3 - Summer 2006 Issue

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Summer 2006 Issue

DISASTER RECOVERY
JOURNAL

P. O. Box 510110
St. Louis, MO 63151
(314) 894-0276
Fax: (314) 894-7474
Internet www.drj.com
E-mail drj@drj.com

PUBLISHER
Richard L. Arnold, CBCP
richard@drj.com

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Jon Seals
jon@drj.com

SENIOR EDITOR
Janette Ballman
janette@drj.com

COPY EDITORS
Richard Sandhofer
richards@drj.com
Pamela Clifton
pamelaclifton@hotmail.com

ADVERTISING
Robert Arnold
bob@drj.com

_____________

Corporate

President/CEO
Richard L. Arnold, CBCP
richard@drj.com

Vice President
Robert Arnold
bob@drj.com

CONFERENCE COORDINATOR
Patti Fitzgerald, CBCP
patti@drj.com

CONFERENCE REGISTRAR
Merce Knese
mercedes@drj.com

CIRCULATION
Laura Baugh
laurab@drj.com

EXECUTIVE COUNCIL
Jeff Dato, MBCP, KPMG
John Jackson, J Albright Advisors
Edward Devlin, E.S. Devlin & Associates
James Hammill, CBCP, JMH Consulting
Pat McAnally, SunGard Availability
Brian Turley, Strohl Systems
Belinda Wilson, Hewlett-Packard

INTERNATIONAL
CONTACTS
England: Thom Hetherington
Business Continuity
Phone: 0161-237-1007
thomh@tempus.demon.co.uk

Australia: Anthony J. Harvey
Journal of Business Continuity
Phone: 0011-613-953-0055-8
fax: 0011-613-953-0528
sector@notability.com.au

Japan: Shinji Hosotsubo
Quake Japan Co., Ltd.
Phone: 03-3215-2880
fax: 03-3215-2881

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Point of No Return

By YVONNE LEWIS, CBCP

At the DRJ Fall World 2005 conference a group met to review the Generally Accepted Practices (GAP) document relating to “Developing Business Continuity Strategies.” This was shortly after Hurricane Katrina, one of the deadliest and costliest hurricanes in history.
Several comments from this review came back to our committee for discussion. One individual wanted a statement indicating a “point of no return” to be added to the planning process of developing a strategy. The question was asked, “What is the point of a strategy when no one is around to execute it and no customers to buy goods/services?”
The task before our group was how to respond. It generated a lot of discussion. Was this an emotional response to a devastating experience? Was this a common reaction? Was this a defeatist attitude? Is this a valid planning assumption?
Our feelings were that this was indeed an emotional response, but like all responses to life-changing events there is something to be learned. In the end our team decided that adding a “point of no return” when developing a strategy was not the best approach. At the same time we felt this type of thinking could not be ignored and had to be addressed. It was agreed that we needed to add, “Review assumptions to ensure they align with new and emerging threats,” to the pre-planning stage of developing a strategy.
How do you ensure your assumptions align with new and emerging threats? My recommendation is to review your worst-case scenario assumptions on an annual basis. Each year we are faced with new events/threats we never imagined would happen on the scale on which they did, such as 9/11, SARS, the Asian Tsunami, and Hurricane Katrina.
One might ask, why didn’t we plan for these? Did we think these things would never happen? Were they so far out of the realm of possibilities? The answer is “no” for several reasons. History tells us terrorist attacks are nothing new. Natural disasters, pandemics and a host of other disasters have resulted in many deaths and a changing landscape since the beginning of time. Why don’t we incorporate these types of events/threats into our planning scenario? Why don’t we plan for worst-case scenario? Human nature is such that most people think “it won’t happen to us” or they look at the magnitude of these types of disasters and feel overwhelmed at the prospect of planning for such an event.
My recommendation is to define worst-case scenario assumptions around criteria that will provide the ability to continue performing your most critical functions:

The above list is by no means exhaustive in criteria or risks to be assessed and represents a sampling of the most common elements to be considered.
Breaking down your worst-case scenario into meaningful, manageable groupings and staying away from a position of, “If it’s going to happen and I can’t do anything about it, why bother?” will help you focus on your planning efforts.
Having said all this, even if you have planned for the worst, a point could be reached where all measures have been exhausted and a decision must be made to “pull the plug.” Regardless, one never knows if it may come to this. Response and recovery operations should be planned for and utilized until it is no longer safe or practical to do so.

Yvonne Lewis, CBCP, is the relationship manager of business continuity management, corporate risk and insurance service for Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. Lewis is a member of the DRJ Editorial Advisory Board and the GAP Committee.