Many business continuity plans aim to cater for the ‘worst case scenario’. But what exactly is meant by ‘worst case’? For many it’s the loss or unavailability of a single building or facility, whilst for others it could include significant loss of staff or be a city-wide disaster. And who knows, some of the real pessimists might even be planning for the end of the world as we know it!

Before launching into the development of business continuity strategies and plans, it’s worth taking a while to think about exactly what you’re planning for, in the form of the ‘maximum survivable incident’ for your organisation. There’s probably little point in spending huge amounts of time and money planning for anything bigger if there’s no way you could recover from it anyway.

Sometimes, we have to accept that there are some things that are just too big to plan for. Setting and agreeing the boundaries early on will help you to focus your attention and could save you some wasted effort in the long run.