Commercial Insights

Business continuity: Four steps for creating an effective plan

Business continuity plans must be flexible, adaptive and forward-thinking.

While businesses have always had to contend with uncertainties, the spectrum of factors that can affect the stability of business operations is perhaps now wider than ever before. Natural disasters, cybersecurity threats, geopolitical tensions, regulatory shifts, supply chain issues and a host of other challenges can arise with little advance notice – making it essential for organizations to develop business continuity plans that can cover a wide range of potential events.

“Disruptions occur constantly, and for businesses to remain relevant in today’s environment, they must proactively anticipate a range of potential changes—sometimes unexpected—that could impact their operations,” said Christian White, Birmingham Market Executive at Regions Bank.

Even if businesses already have a continuity plan in place, one of the biggest challenges they can face is to make sure that plan is adaptive and can withstand today’s and tomorrow’s disruptions.

Here are four steps to ensure a business continuity plan can withstand a multitude of risks.

Step 1: Evaluate your continuity plan

According to White, businesses should work with their bank to review and strengthen their continuity plan regularly—ideally on an annual basis. A banker can help identify gaps in the plan and offer solutions or ideas on how to make relevant updates.

The evaluation process is especially important in light of a business’s need for data protection. While all aspects of a business merit a critical eye, businesses are increasingly reliant on their data, and IT disruptions such as outages and cybersecurity threats can have grave consequences, potentially costing a business millions of dollars.

Likewise, for companies with very specific concerns—such as accessing capital or paying vendors and employees during a crisis—a banker can help identify potential solutions.

“Bankers play an important role as trusted advisors,” White said. “We help identify potential gaps—whether from a technology standpoint or a risk standpoint—and we work with our customers to explore strategies that can help mitigate those risks.”

Step 2: Think globally—and locally

While some disruptions occur on a global scale, affecting businesses across the board, individual organizations must also consider all the potential local factors that can impact operations, personnel, customer demand and more.

Those factors may include regional economic trends, overseas competition, legislative or policy issues, access to qualified employees and climate risks – which is why working with a bank that has both deep industry and local area knowledge can be important.

“At Regions, our Commercial bankers take the time to thoroughly understand each client’s business, its operational needs, and any potential risks that require careful planning,” White said. “Our local teams draw on their deep knowledge of our customers and their industries to design continuity plans tailored to each business. Ultimately, it all comes back to the strength of the relationship—our understanding of the business and the industry enables us to develop a comprehensive, customized plan.”

Step 3: Future-proof your plan

The hard part about business disruption is that it’s difficult to anticipate what could come next. That’s why it’s good to have a broad plan that is versatile enough to address any kind of disruption.

That may sound like a tall order, but this is the task facing today’s business leaders. A ready-for-anything continuity plan requires not merely thinking ahead but tapping into industry resources that are focused on anticipating trends—and identifying likely challenges.

“We often say it’s far better to recover from a disaster by enhancing an existing plan than to be forced to create one in the middle of a crisis,” White said.

Step 4: Communicate the plan as it evolves

It’s not only business leaders who live in a climate of uncertainty; so do executives and staff. To boost morale and help reinforce the efficacy of a business continuity plan, it’s essential to have a robust communication strategy once the procedures are in place.

This will help ensure that the plan or plans are comprehensive and reflect internal structures and priorities. Management and team leaders can help establish checklists to support systems and protocols, as well as ways to access sources for essential supplies and materials should they become compromised or unavailable.

While no one has a crystal ball, and there’s no way to 100% predict the threats that may lurk beyond the horizon, these four steps will enhance current continuity plang so that a business is in a stronger position, no matter what unfolds.

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