Facilities Manager's Desk Reference, 3rd Edition

24Business Continuity

24.1 Introduction

Business continuity management (BCM) can be defined as the ongoing process of ensuring the continual operation of critical business processes through the evaluation of risk and resilience and the implementation of mitigation measures. Plans should be subjected to comprehensive risk analysis.

The FM (facilities manager, or facilities management) is usually expected to play a key role in emergency and disaster planning. They may have to develop business continuity plans (BCPs) that cover all aspects of the continuity cycle:

• Resilient design.
• Resilient operation.
• Service restoration.
• Salvage.
• Full recovery.

BCM is a holistic management process that identifies potential impacts that threaten an organisation and provides a framework for building resilience and the capability for an effective response that safeguards the interests of key stakeholders, reputation, brand and value‐creating activities.

BCM comprises security, continuity and compliance. About 40% of businesses have no strategy for BCM in place. Continuous business success requires top management responsibility and commitment to a BCP. Threats can come from man‐made or natural disasters, terrorist attacks, technology failures or environmental devastation. Risks faced by businesses include claims by employees or shareholders, oil price volatility, pension scheme legacies, terrorism, pandemics, climate change, political interventions and changes to financial systems. Losing access ...