It seems risk generally is not being handled as well as it could be. Coming out of research from McKinsey Global Board Survey, April 2015 – 2017, only 6 percent of boards believe that they are effective in managing risk. Only 6 percent? That seems surprisingly low. A common observation is that a reactive approach to risks remains too common, with action taken only after things go wrong.
Some more research, from a Spiceworks study in 2018, 95% of organisations have a disaster recovery plan in place. Which is good. But only 29% test them annually - which is not so good, and 23% never test them at all – which is not good at all.
I was amazed at how low these figures are. Why are they so low? Because people don’t know? I’m sure they do. Because people don’t care? Again, I’m sure they do. I think people are just so busy. When you are fighting crocodiles all day, being reactive, it is hard to do anything more then survive. It is hard to take a step back and consider actions that lead to not being so reactive, to take a pro-active perspective to improve things going forward. That is hard.
As a business owner, or as a manager responsible for running a business, how will your company cope with a major disruption - and on what basis can you answer that? Business Continuity might not be glamorous, but if it keeps you going when things go pear-shaped, it is worth the effort to a) create yourself an effective plan or b) ensure the one you have is up-to-date and effective. The alternative is to wait until things go pear-shaped, then react – as, it seems, most boards do.
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