Most people think of anniversaries as celebrations- usually with a positive spin. To make another trip around the sun. To mark an achievement. To honor the longevity of a relationship. Yes, this is wonderful and I’ll address the wonderment in a bit. But first…
Anniversaries also memorialize tragedies.
9/11
Pearl Harbor
(hard hitters on the national scale)
The Joplin tornado
Columbine
(hard hitters for the local communities)
Why is this important for business continuity purposes?
Humans have short term memories. We forget things easily, which brings about complacency. The benefit of remembering is to not repeat what happened, to be better prepared for next time. It’s to examine the event with the benefit of hindsight and learn from it. Surviving a disaster is not supposed to bring on feelings of “oh, this won’t happen again” but rather “I’m ready for next time!”
Another reason to mark an “anniversary” is knowing when the last time it was that you either 1) updated your business continuity plan or 2) did a full scale exercise of your plan.
Lots of things happen in a year. Externally, climate change may have impacted your supply chain – are you willing to risk hoping the same thing won’t happen next year? New regulations may have been enacted that you will need to adhere to (hi, Securities and Exchange Commission with the reporting of “material” events). Maybe a massive municipal construction project started that impacts your route to your safe site. Internally you may have had a decent personnel changes, which means people have different duties and you may have new vulnerabilities since positions may be vacant.
And finally, on a more personal note, to see how much you’ve grown as a company and what steps you want to take next in your growth. Business continuity is great for growth since – direct words from a client’s mouth – without the security that business continuity provides, you can’t grow. It can also mean a pivot or change based on the circumstances of the environment you are in or want to be in due to shifting tides (I did a post a long time ago about vineyards in Napa) or personal interest.
This week, on September 29th, EaaS will be 2 years old! And the book, How to Not Kill Your Business will be 1 year old. I can see the growth year over year and where I want to be. They are both things I am proud of and am happy to reflect back on how much both of them have helped other people, which was always my intent.
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