Management thinker Peter Drucker affirmed, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” Wherever your business continuity management program and culture is today, you’ll never know if you’re getting better unless you measure. But if you are measuring your performance, you will be able to make informed decisions and take targeted actions to improve that performance. Metrics drive behavior.
Here’s what you should be sure to measure!
Measure things that answer WHY business continuity is important, such as:
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The number of single points of failure
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The percentage of revenue exposed to single points of failure
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The number of client contract requiring it
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The percentage of new opportunities requiring business continuity
Measure WHAT you are doing, such as:
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Plan coverage
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Exercises conducted
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Reduction in expected loss outage and outage duration
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The number of contracts and revenues associated where business continuity was a criteria for winning business
Measure things that confirm HOW the program is doing, such as:
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How efficient and effective it is
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How current and complete it is
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How reliable and cost-effective it is
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How aligned with business objectives for revenues and profit it is
Think for a moment about all this information can for you. With measurements and metrics in hand, you can deliver reports that will help keep business continuity in front of the company executives. You can demonstrate how you are supporting business goals and objectives. You can track the percentage of plans that are completed, the updates that are being made, the improvements that are being executed, and other relevant data. You can continuously expand and enhance your program until you have established a true business continuity culture in your organization.
Find out more on how to build a business continuity culture by reading the white paper 8 Steps to Building an Engaging Business Continuity Management Culture.
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