Business Continuity For Dummies

Looking at Risk in a Business Continuity Context

Risks surround you every day. You take a risk when crossing the road that you may be struck by a car, cyclist or bus. But you take precautions to manage the risk, such as checking the road is clear first or using the underpass as an alternative.

The precautions that you take to deal with a risk are based on the likelihood of it happening. For example, you may do lots of things to deal with the likely risk of your old, but only, car breaking down – particularly if you need it to take the children to school. You service it regularly, buy breakdown cover, change the oil and so on. But for other risks, such as being struck by lightning while dashing home in a thunderstorm, you may do nothing. This different approach is because the likelihood of these two risks happening is very different.

You may well ask: isn’t there a way for me to avoid risk entirely? The quick answer is no; organisations have to take risks because otherwise they’d fail to meet their objectives. Standing still and doing nothing in itself runs a different risk – that of being overtaken and put out of business by competitors. Therefore, risk is an inherent part of being in business and you have only one option: deal with it through effective risk management.

Good risk management allows your organisation to:

Have increased confidence about achieving its desired outcomes. ...