PM ADVISORY:

Crisis, what crisis? How to effectively manage your business contingency plans

By John Lugg
Manager, Moorhouse Consulting

UK

As you ride in on the 6:34 train, something isn’t quite right. There is restlessness in the carriage. The Blackberries and iPhones that usually spark work and conversation are silent. The networks are jammed. Something has gone badly wrong. A major national crisis. Your organisation’s future now rests on your business contingency plans. How confident are you in yours?

Common assumptions about business contingency

The weather, the economy, terrorists, natural disasters - they all have the potential to threaten our livelihood at any time. Yet they remain the nightmare we fail to effectively prepare for.

For too long it has been treated by organisations as a low-priority overhead, and the results are plain to see: passengers walking to safety through the Channel Tunnel when snow caused trains to breakdown; the English tourist industry crippled by the uncontrolled spread of Foot and Mouth disease.

When we know incidents like this can and do occur, why do so many organisations continue to get business continuity management wrong? Common mistakes are:

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About the Author John Lugg Author John Lugg is a Manager with Moorhouse Consulting and a qualified project and programme management consultant with over twenty years of business and leadership experience. He has both led and supported a variety of projects and programmes in areas ranging from IT software development and infrastructure deployment, to corporate acquisitions. He is currently the Business Director on a joint BT-Thales defence bid. John has worked with clients such as Connecting for Health (CfH), BAE Systems, Vodafone, Telia, Xerox, Halfords and General Motors. He joined Moorhouse Consulting after eight years with KPMG Consulting and Atos Consulting and seven years as an Army officer. John has a passion for solving business problems and understands the challenges of implementing change in large, complex organisations. John particularly enjoys working in close-knit, joint delivery teams. For more information on best practice programme and project management visit www.moorhouseconsulting.com or contact johnlugg@moorhouseconsulting.com .