The 3Rs of Business Continuity Strategy: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle

As the world continues to grow and change, businesses around the globe must adapt in order to survive and prosper. One of the most essential components for long-term success is a solid business continuity strategy. A well-crafted plan will ensure that a company can remain operational and recover quickly in the event of an unexpected disruption. In this article, we’ll delve into a crucial part of a robust business continuity strategy: the three Rs of business continuity strategy – reduce, reuse, and recycle.

Reduce

The first step in creating a durable business continuity plan is to minimize the likelihood of a disruption. There are a few ways to accomplish this, including investing in proper infrastructure, implementing preventative measures, and providing employees with appropriate training. Additionally, it’s critical to conduct regular assessments and audits to identify potential risks and vulnerabilities, and to create contingency plans to mitigate them.

One example of a company that took reducing risks seriously is the Daimler AG. The automaker analyzed nearly 200 supply chains and reduced the sites it deemed at highest risk of financial, political, and natural setbacks from 800 sites to 60. By cutting its number of sites, Daimler has been able to simplify supply-chain management, reduce uncertainties, and ultimately operate under a more stable business continuity strategy.

Reuse

Once you’ve minimized the likelihood of a disruption, it’s time to consider how to repurpose available resources in the event of one. Reusing resources can help an organization minimize downtime and reduce the impact of an unexpected event. Examples of reusable resources include backup locations, redundant equipment, and cross-trained employees.

Large enterprises such as IBM rely on an extensive ‘task force’ program for continuous operation across their business units with assigned volunteers from each unit for periodic operations during disasters. Such arrangements facilitate operational continuity in a controlled and organized fashion while minimizing losses. The company also maintains multiple data centers, each having continuous data update and recovery programs that operate seamlessly during disasters to avoid data loss or corruption.

Recycle

The final step in creating a robust business continuity strategy is recycling whatever resources remain following a disruption. For example, a company can recover electronic equipment that remains functional after an event, or salvage reusable materials from damaged facilities to minimise their losses and ensure fast return to normal business operations.

An example of such a strategy in real life is demonstrated by the Xerox Corporation which makes it a point to evacuate and store essential equipment safely hours before a disaster strikes to be prepared for the eventuality. Upon returning to their premises, they proceed to re-install the recovered equipment to quickly get back to doing business while also working on fully restoring the damage.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the three Rs (reduce, reuse, and recycle) of business continuity strategy are critical for an organization to weather any storm that might hinder steady operations. In conjunction with other essential components such as emergency response planning, damage assessment, and continuous education and training, these measures can ensure that a company remains operational during and after the event of a crisis. Moreover, while some strategies may require upfront investment of time and money, they can ultimately save your company a great deal of trouble and ensure stability and continuity even when the worst happens.

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