Proper Business Continuity Planning Means Planning For The Unexpected

One of the most important things you can do for your business is to have a business continuity - disaster recovery plan.

Businesses from the smallest home office to the largest enterprises with multiple locations need to have these plans in place to ensure continuity of operations should a disaster or emergency happen.

One of the things I am sometimes asked as a consultant in this area is "how can I protect my business from ___________" (fill in the blank with your own choice of disaster type). The problem with this is that you can not predict effectively what disasters you will be affected by. In other words, if you pick and choose what specific disasters you prepare for you can be caught off guard by the unpredictability of life.

Ultimately what you should do is create a plan that can effectively mitigate any situation that your business may face.

As an example I am going to use the scenario of a deer running into a store and causing damage to the inventory and scaring the customers that are inside. Now most people would not even consider this as something that could happen to them, but as you will see below this is something that can and does happen.

This is why when you create a COOP (Continuity of Operations Plan) it needs to contain enough information that people will know what to do If... and, What to do When something unexpected happens. Instead of what to do only when specific events occur.

Three Deer Enter Store In PA (The owner said almost all items in the store were damaged, and he lost a lot of money since he will have to sell everything at a deep discount).

One Large Deer Enters Large Department Store