Building adaptive business continuity plans: Practical tips on how to inject adaptiveness into continuity planning processes

With the world becoming increasingly complex and uncertain, the disruptions that businesses face are becoming increasingly unpredictable. Traditional approaches to business continuity planning must therefore evolve to enhance organisational resilience. As this paper will discuss, it is vital to ensure a balance between detailed planning and flexibility and adaptability. This can be achieved through: 1) creating closer links between business continuity and strategic management; 2) embedding a culture of resilience throughout the organisation; 3) decentralising business continuity planning and enabling teams and departments to design and own their own plans; 4) making planning principles- based; and 5) exercising more frequently. This paper argues that planning must be based on principles and outcomes rather than processes, and how it must, to be integrated within broader risk management and strategy functions to be inclusive of everyone, from the staff all the way up to the board. In short, preparedness and resilience must become part of their DNA.