Is Management Under a False Sense of Recoverability?

Is your management team aware of your true recovery capabilities? Are you transparent on what the BCM program can really do in a disruption? Or, is management under the misguided impression that whatever the situation is, they will make it through and be a recovery superhero?

Tragically, even as the BCM and risk management industry continues to mature, we are finding that management is often still living under a mistaken belief that their recovery capabilities are much better than what they really are.

But, why is this happening? Who should we blame? Is the BCM office not being transparent, is it lacking the right knowledge or information, or is it being ignored by management? Or, much worse, is management turning their heads away, saying nothing is going to happen, or that as an organization we are too big to fail?

We have worked across all kinds of organizations; those with seamless, proven capabilities, and others with pieces and parts in place or nothing at all.

Recently, we worked with a client that had the majority of the proper pieces of the recovery vehicle in place (a working backup data center, contract for alternate business workspace, resilient network, documented plans, etc.). However, what was missing was the documented proof that these individual pieces had been exercised, both individually and together, to prove that the organization could recover what it said it could in the required timeframes.

Management was upset that even though we felt that the organization was well on its way to a decent program, we could not confirm that it could recover its business, and therefore was deficient. I use the example: If I had a Porsche sports car and I took you for a drive to prove it could meet all of its speed specifications, that is a lot different than me saying I have a fast Porsch,e but the parts are laying in the garage and the car needs to be assembled first.

The bottom line is you and your executives must be transparent, knowledgeable, and willing to attest to the real capabilities – not we imagine or believe can be accomplished when a disruption occurs.  As the old saying goes, “the proof is in the pudding.”