Every business has vulnerabilities and needs to manage risk, but what if you could anticipate and build a plan before something negative happens? What if you assessed possible outcomes and created solutions in advance?
This is what Erika Andresen, Founder of EaaS Consulting, and Adi Klevit, CEO of Business Success Consulting Group, discussed in a recent episode of the Systems Simplified podcast. During their discussion, Erika talked about her job as a business continuity expert and how companies utilize her services to find, mitigate, and proactively recover from risky situations.
One fascinating topic Erika shared was the risks that companies face when they go viral or go from a medium-demand company to a high-demand company. Usually, one thinks of risks as something negative, but positive changes to a company can also put the business in a risky position. It's vital to consider all situations that may leave a business vulnerable—good and bad.
Along with discussing what qualifies as a risk, Adi and Erika talked about possible company vulnerabilities and how to patch them up before those vulnerabilities are exposed. They answer the question:
Can You Patch Up Vulnerabilities in Your Business Before They Happen?
With a resounding "Yes! You can."
But how does one accomplish this?
The short answer is to build a plan to discover, assess, and respond to your company's vulnerabilities.
Here is a brief overview of the method that Erika shared during their interview:
1. Perform a risk impact analysis.
2. Perform a business impact analysis to determine a. Your most vital operations (what you cannot do without for eight hours or less) and b. How many single points of failure your business has.
3. Utilize the information found during the analysis to heat map where risk is most likely to occur.
4. Build or enhance current standard operating procedures (SOPs) to shore up those vulnerabilities or mitigate risk.
5. Determine if there are risks you have uncovered that you can avoid or are willing to accept.
6. Implement systems to ensure a risky situation can be cared for quickly.
Let's consider this list in action.
Let's say you own a seaside restaurant on a pier above the ocean. There are obvious risks inherent in this location. For example, you will have to live with the risk that the ocean poses, as that's part of the appeal of the restaurant. But, you can mitigate this risk by getting the pier evaluated, performing routine safety checks, ensuring a hurricane map and exit on the landward side are available to all customers and staff, and regularly checking tides and weather.
But on top of the physical safety actions you can take when owning a restaurant (ensuring fire hydrants are available, clear exit signage, food safety SOPs are in place, etc.), you may also have a risk that your recent social media campaigns go viral and your restaurant could become overbooked. With that in mind, you set up booking software to ensure that it is easy to book a table, and the maître d' can keep up-to-date with all reservations and walk-in bookings.
After performing your business impact analysis, you determine that your restaurant could not go eight hours without food, a chef, and service staff to ensure cleanliness. To solve this vulnerability, you have your chef write down their SOPs and train their sous chef so they can take over for the day if your head chef becomes sick or gets into an accident. You bolster the cleaning staff by ensuring they are well-paid, have the supplies they need, and have documented processes to follow to ensure the restaurant stays clean. Finally, you work with suppliers to ensure deliveries happen on time but also have a local farm, market, or CSA available as a failsafe. These actions keep your business running, even if a supplier is late, the chef is sick, and your cleaning staff is out of town. There are SOPs and documented procedures, and your staff is empowered to do their job efficiently.
Of course, a seaside restaurant may have many vulnerabilities. These are just three examples of what could come from a risk impact and business impact analysis.
By setting up processes and procedures to respond to and anticipate vulnerabilities, any business owner can improve their business, save money in the long run, and create true stability during a time of growth.
Get in touch with the experts at Business Success Consulting Group to find out more about how you can accomplish your busines goals by establishing SOPs and business systems. We will provide a free initial evaluation.
