Many organisations focus on producing ‘the plan’ as the main aim of their business continuity programme. But, sadly, the plan itself won’t save the business in the event of a major disruptive incident. What will save the business is key people making key decisions and taking key actions – the business continuity plan merely supports that process. It’s important, but a business continuity capability is far more important.

Developing a business continuity capability requires a number of things, including :

• An effective strategy that meets the needs of the business, plus realistic and workable solutions to deliver that strategy.
• Proving the strategy, solutions and plans, by exercising, testing and rehearsal, and by challenging and validating assumptions. This includes proving the incident management, communication, technical recovery and business recovery capability.
• Awareness, education and training. Key players need to know their roles and responsibilities and may well need some education & training to help them be effective in their roles. 

A business continuity capability doesn’t come about through merely writing a plan then putting it on a shelf to gather dust – there’s a teeny bit more to it than that.

So which would you rather have? And more to the point, which do you actually have?