Author: Jim Mitchell

Perhaps it’s the longer days or the warmer temperatures.  Summer changes how we perceive our world.  Sunny days and warm evenings generate idyllic visions of beaches, exotic travel, cool mountain breezes, holidays and vacations.  At work, there is a general feeling that things have slowed down.  Perhaps they have, but unlike the days before air-conditioning, […]

This is the 4th in a series of articles discussing the future of Business Continuity Management.  The series starts here.  In today’s business ecosystem, with RTO’s approaching zero and new threats emerge with regularity, organizations can ill afford to pay for Business Continuity teams that simply write Plans – to meet regulatory and audit requirements, […]

For some time, Government agencies (especially in North America) have focused their Business Continuity efforts (or Continuity of Operations, COOP, as they often prefer to call them) on an ‘All-Hazards’ planning approach. Several years ago, I attended a presentation by a major US Government institution.  The presenter began by defining Continuity of Operations “COOP is […]

This is the second in a series of articles focusing on tools and concepts to address the next generation of Business Continuity Management.  BCM industry guidelines and ‘best practices’ continue to leverage what has worked in the past.  These articles are intended to shift the focus from yesterday’s methods to tomorrow’s needs. How many times […]

It’s been years since I last attended school, but unless things have changed dramatically, tests are still basically the same as they were back in the day.  You know the subject of the test, you can study the material in advance, but you’re not privy to the questions until the appointed hour the test begins.  […]

A recent blog addressed the personal qualities most useful to an effective Business Continuity Management Team member.  The article prompted a question regarding whether the first trait on the list “Someone who has a good grasp of how your organization works” was not specific enough.  The questioner asked whether experience in the particular industry was […]

(NOTE: This is Part 1 of the 6th in a series of articles discussing the future of Business Continuity Management.  The series starts here.) If we’ve done all of our Planning properly – acknowledged our risks and vulnerabilities and identified the gaps in our current capabilities, we may have begun to comprehend how we should respond […]