Resilience Definitions – All at Sea; Crisis Management, Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery

This month a ship described as China’s first luxury cruise liner has been detained at a port on the South Korean island of Jeju because of a legal dispute.

A local court ordered the Henna not to leave after a request from a Chinese shipping company. It is not clear what the dispute centres on. The ship’s operator is providing free entertainment and food to more than 2,300 passengers and crew on board.

Thinking about this from a crisis management and business continuity point of view we can see that the reputation protection, in part, takes the form of a message statement voicing concern for the passengers. Tick. But business continuity considerations centre around the matter of looking after hundreds of passengers who now need supplies and care. There are also the onward changes to the itinerary to manage and organise. Do different suppliers need to be brought into play in place of those initially contracted? Is it known who these are and what their availability and capability is? Business continuity planning examines and mitigates such business impacts, enhancing business resilience in the process.

Business continuity planning is a key service that Socom provide. Operating a business without a business continuity plan is like parachuting without a reserve chute.

Note: disaster recovery looks at the IT and data resilience during a business critical event – a consideration within the wider context of business continuity.