Seek Input - from executive management on risk tolerance, areas of concern and unknowns. In addition to their primary roles of business continuity planning, business impact analysis and understanding of key risks and vulnerabilities to the organization, business continuity professionals also must: Industry associations: Professionals need to be associated with specific industry associations dedicated to business continuity, as well as related disciplines including: Association of Contingency Planners (ACP), Disaster Recovery Institute (DRI), Business Continuity Planners Association ( BCPA). an executive search firm that places business continuity, disaster recovery, information security and emergency management professionals internationally.Īmong the business continuity credentials most demanded by employers, Haase says: "The right fit for business continuity function is professionals coming from a risk management background with exceptional risk monitoring, measuring and mitigating skills," says Cheyene Haase, President of BC Management, Inc. The key questions: Who are the right people, and what role do they play within an organization? "All of these events are uncomfortably recent, and as we've learned, any of them can bring a country or community - let alone a single firm - to a standstill," says Steve Ross, Executive Principal, Risk Masters, Inc., a New York-based business continuity and crisis management consulting firm. "Executives are forced to pay close attention to the areas where businesses are struggling: testing more thoroughly and frequently, involving business owners in the process from start to finish, and ensuring the business continuity readiness of strategic partners," Balaouras says.Īlso, the emergence of increased threats such as pandemic outbreak, recession, power outages, terrorism and cyber fraud pushes the need for qualified business continuity professionals. In the past organizations often focused their BC/DR efforts on natural disasters and overlooked mundane events that actually cause most disruptions - power outages, IT failures and human error.īut leaders have come to realize that they must take the time to conduct a more comprehensive risk assessment to identify all probable risks to safeguard company reputation and meet the expectations of customers, external parties and internal auditors. Risk assessment skills have become significant in business continuity, says Stephanie Balaouras, Principal Analyst at Forrester Research. With the emergence of BC/DR comes a greater emphasis on hiring professionals with the right skills and credentials. "We are now seeing a wonderful convergence and subsequent maturity in the form of a new paradigm of business continuity management which involves more formal risk management practices integrated with information security," Staley says. In this post-9/11 world, BC/DR functions have emerged to play critical roles in protecting organizations from natural, man-made and pandemic disasters.