How business continuity plans help operational risk management keep operations running during disruptions

What is the purpose of business continuity plans in ORM?

• A. To enhance employee morale
• B. To maintain operational continuity during disruptions
• C. To outline strategic marketing initiatives
• D. To reduce regulatory compliance costs

Answer: (B)

The purpose of business continuity plans within the framework of Operational Risk Management (ORM) is to maintain operational continuity during disruptions. These plans are essential for ensuring that an organization can continue its critical functions and services in the event of various types of disruptions, such as natural disasters, cyber-attacks, or other unforeseen events. A properly developed business continuity plan identifies potential risks and establishes procedures to minimize the impact of these risks, ensuring that the organization can recover and resume normal operations as quickly as possible. This includes resource allocation, communication strategies, and recovery procedures tailored to the specific needs of the organization. While enhancing employee morale, outlining strategic marketing initiatives, and reducing regulatory compliance costs are important aspects of organizational management, they do not pertain directly to the primary function of business continuity plans. The focus of these plans is specifically on preparedness and resilience in the face of disruption, making them a crucial component of operational risk management.

Business continuity plans aren’t flashy, but they’re the quiet backbone of any strong ORM program. When things go off track—be it a cyber hit, a storm that knocks out power, or a critical supplier hiccup—these plans keep the show running. In Operational Risk Management (ORM), the main job of a business continuity plan (BCP) is simple in the core sense: maintain operational continuity during disruptions. Everything else—soft wins like morale boosts, strategic marketing moves, or cost tricks—needs to sit beneath that umbrella of resilience.

Let me explain what that really means in practice.

What a BCP does in ORM: staying operational when disruption hits

Think of a business continuity plan as a well-rehearsed response to chaos. It’s not just about keeping a fancy disaster room on standby; it’s about ensuring that the organization can continue its most critical functions no matter what happens. That means:

• Identifying what truly matters: Which products, services, or processes are non-negotiable for the business to survive and serve customers?

• Pinpointing risks that threaten those essentials: Power outages, cyber incidents, supplier failures, or regulatory hiccups—whatever could derail the core operations.

• Setting clear recovery steps: Simple, actionable actions that guide people through restoring operations as quickly as possible.

• Allocating the right resources in advance: People who know what to do, the tech they need, backup data paths, and the facilities that can keep functioning.

• Communicating under pressure: A plan for how to talk to employees, customers, suppliers, and regulators so information flows consistently and calmly.

• Recovering and resuming normal work: A playbook for returning to standard operations, often with a staged approach to avoid overloading systems or staff.

In short, a BCP is about resilience—about the organization being tough enough to absorb a shock and bounce back rapidly. It’s not an idle document; it’s a practical framework that guides real decisions during tough times.

Key components you’ll see in a solid ORM-friendly BCP

• Business Impact Analysis (BIA): This is the map of functions and their importance. It answers questions like: Which activities keep the customer’s trust? How long can we survive without X or Y in place? The BIA helps determine acceptable downtime and data loss—things you’ll see echoed in RTOs (recovery time objectives) and RPOs (recovery point objectives).

• Recovery strategies: For each critical function, a plan for how to recover. This might include alternative workflows, offsite data access, or secondary facilities. The goal is to have a practical, actionable path rather than a vague idea.

• Plans and procedures: Step-by-step instructions that staff can follow. Clear ownership is essential—who does what, when, and how to escalate if needed.

• Communication plan: A predefined briefing style, contact lists, and media handling guidelines. When stress levels rise, you want consistent, direct messages rather than a scramble for information.

• Training and exercises: People practice the plan so it becomes second nature. You don’t want a good plan met with hesitation when disruption arrives.

• Testing, review, and maintenance: Plans are living documents. They must be tested, updated after lessons learned, and kept aligned with changes in people, processes, and technology.

A practical scenario: cyber disruption, or weather, or supplier hiccups

Let’s walk through a concrete example to see how the pieces fit. Imagine a mid-sized company relying on a cloud-based ERP system to manage orders, inventory, and billing. A ransomware incident or a major regional outage could wipe out access to critical data. The BCP kicks in:

• First, the BIA tells us which processes are truly critical: order fulfillment, customer invoicing, and inventory reconciliation, for starters.

• The plan specifies how to switch to a degraded mode: a pre-approved manual workflow for order entry, a secondary data access path, and a manual invoicing process to keep cash flowing.

• Resources are prepped: backup laptops, pre-loaded offline files, a secondary site or a secure cloud alternative, and contact lists for key staff plus critical suppliers.

• Communication routines go live: a simple chain of command, a prewritten customer notice about temporary delays, and internal updates so teams aren’t guessing about priorities.

• Recovery steps are executed in order: bring up the temporary system, verify data integrity, run a parallel reconciliation, and then phase a full restore while monitoring for issues.

• After the disruption, the plan calls for a debrief, a quick post-mortem, and plan tweaks to reduce the risk of a repeat.

That kind of sequence isn’t about heroic acts; it’s about making the right choices quickly and keeping the business moving.

From risk to resilience: how BCP links to the ORM mindset

Operational Risk Management isn’t only about avoiding losses; it’s about preserving service to customers and maintaining trust. A robust BCP supports that by ensuring you can keep delivering essential goods or services even when the environment throws a curveball. It also speaks to regulatory expectations in many sectors, where organizations are judged on their preparedness and their ability to recover from incidents without causing undue harm to stakeholders.

A few more ideas that help merge BCP into the ORM fabric:

• RTO and RPO as decision anchors: These aren’t just numbers. They guide what resources you must keep ready and how you structure your recovery sequence. If your RTO is short, you’ll lean on cross-trained teams and automated failovers. If you have a longer window, you can accept a staged restoration with more comfort.

• Dependency mapping as a backbone: You’ll want to understand who or what depends on what. A single supplier or a certain IT service might be the choke point. Document these links so you know where the chain could break first.

• Realistic training beats theoretical drills: People respond better when they’ve practiced real-world actions. Short, frequent exercises with tangible triggers are usually more effective than annual, long-winded simulations.

• Maintenance as a culture: Plans become stale if they sit in a folder. Schedule quick reviews, update key contacts, and refresh recovery steps to match new tools, vendors, or processes.

Common myths—and why they trap teams

• “A BCP is only about IT.” Not true. IT is critical, sure, but disruptions touch people, facilities, suppliers, and information. The best plans consider the entire ecosystem.

• “If we have a plan, we’re safe.” Plans reduce risk, but they don’t erase it. They’re living guides that reveal gaps and force improvements.

• “We’ll wing it if something happens.” In a crisis, you don’t improvise from scratch. A clear playbook keeps decisions aligned and cuts the confusion.

Practical steps to craft a practical, ORM-friendly BCP

• Start with the core: List the most vital functions and map how they flow from order intake to delivery (and back if needed). Understand what downtime looks like for each piece.

• Identify dependencies: People, data, facilities, technology, and third-party partners—all of them. A single weak link can derail even the best-laid plans.

• Create simple, actionable procedures: If A happens, do B. If C occurs, escalate to D. The steps should be easy to follow, even under pressure.

• Define who speaks for what: Assign decision-makers and ensure everyone knows who to contact. A good plan reduces a flood of questions and rumors.

• Train, test, repeat: Run quick drills, gather feedback, fix what’s broken, and re-test. Treat exercises like a cycle rather than a one-off event.

• Keep it current: Update plans after changes in staff, technology, or vendor relationships. A living document stays useful.

Tools, standards, and practical resources

• ISO 22301: This international standard provides a solid framework for business continuity management. It’s widely recognized and can help structure an ORM program without turning it into red-tape.

• NIST guidance (for many sectors): Specific standards and best practices for risk management and incident response. They’re practical and widely applicable.

• Industry-specific guidelines: Depending on your sector, there are established norms for continuity planning, cyber resilience, and incident communication. Synergy across disciplines often strengthens the overall plan.

Why leaders and teams should care

A well-executed BCP doesn’t just save money when a disruption hits; it preserves relationships with customers, regulators, and your own people. It signals reliability—an essential asset in any business world where the next surprise is not a matter of if, but when. People feel steadier when they know the company has a plan. Customers, in turn, appreciate the transparency and consistency, which often translates into loyalty when times get tough.

A taste of practical wisdom you can carry forward

• Treat BCP as a living, breathing part of ORM, not a separate appendix. Its insights should influence day-to-day decisions, not sit in a vault until a crisis arrives.

• Embrace the balance between speed and accuracy. In a disruption, getting a critical function back online matters more than perfect, flawless execution across every process.

• Build a culture where preparedness is normal, not exceptional. When staff sees planning as part of the job, resilience becomes instinct.

To wrap it up: continuity as a discipline, not a plan tucked away

Business continuity plans are not a flashy compliance checkbox. They are the practical spine of operational resilience. By focusing on maintaining essential operations when disruptions strike, ORM teams can safeguard service levels, protect stakeholders, and shorten the path back to normalcy. It’s about turning chaos into coordinated action, and that begins with clear priorities, well-understood dependencies, and plans people actually want to follow.

So, if you’re building or refining an ORM approach, treat the BCP not as a single document but as a living toolkit. Map the critical functions, spell out the recovery steps, practice them, and keep the plans updated. In the end, resilience isn’t a one-off effort—it’s a continuous way of running a business, come rain or shine. And that makes all the difference when the next disruption arrives.