I have been in your shoes. I know every inch of the way. I have the successes, lessons learned and ‘bruises’ to prove it. I have built world class resilience programs for some of the largest companies in the world as well as advised mid-tier and smaller companies. I happily poured one-and-a-half years into creating this site. It is the site I would have wanted along the way. Everything I discuss on Ultimate Business Continuity I have done or I would not suggest it.
The tone of the site is not a lecture. It is the two of us sitting in your office or the corner pub ‘talking shop’. Our focus is on how you can build a successful world class innovative value-laden resilience program with the least amount of B.S. along the way.
The Business Continuity / Resilience profession has a great future! Like any young profession, it must grow and mature, which it is doing. We have only scratched the surface of the extraordinary and sometimes surprising value we can provide organizations. I believe Ultimate Business Continuity will help us develop a mindset that will take us to the next level and beyond.
I look forward to the time we will be spending together as we journey through the upcoming pages.
At a high level, there are three over-riding threads that flow through the site:
- Real world ways you can implement the fundamental building blocks – Program Initiation, Business Impact Analysis, Risk Reduction and Risk Assessment, Recovery Strategies, Plan Development, Plan Maintenance and Assessment, Testing and Awareness. Rather than just listing what you should do we discuss how you can do it most effectively! You must put these in place to have a great foundation for your program. We will also discuss the speed-bumps that could slow you down or derail you. We will talk about it at the street level, the way it gets done in the real world.
- How you can leverage technology to its fullest (I do mean fullest and beyond) to build a world-class resilience program for your organization. Where ‘business meets technology’ is my special place in the world. In fact, after reading the posts on Ultimate Business Continuity you may just ‘out IT the IT guys’ understanding and implementing great resilience technology.
- How you can identify unique opportunities to provide exciting new value to your organization instead of possibly being thought of as an expense center. Management’s mouths will water when they get a taste of what you can do! I scored a few bonuses completing the projects described on Ultimate Business Continuity. I hope you enjoy them. I will provide ideas and help you think broadly about the opportunities in front of you.
The site is comprised of:
Parts I – XI: I share 1001+ resilience / BC related tips, techniques, tools, technologies (4T’s) and ideas. Everything is presented in a series of bite size posts with a few longer ones where required (cyber threats that can destroy your organization and suggestions to prevent/mitigate them are a couple of longer ones that comes to mind). Most of the material I share is not taught in ‘business continuity school’:
- Tips, techniques, tools and technologies that can help you build and improve each phase of your program. Most of the information we discuss is not the usual material. Many ideas are unique and innovative, especially the ideas that use technology – creating the mini BC plan, automated real-time program metrics, mashing-up value laden exercises, implementing virtual meeting rooms, converting BC plans into highly readable eBooks and a lot more. Ultimate Business Continuity includes strategies that have worked really well for me and I am eager to share them with you
- Technology tool suggestions that can save you time and reduce pain. My passion and specialty is building BC programs powered by world-class technology and I share my thoughts on leveraging technology whenever possible. I am the BC guy that keeps vendors and internal IT ‘honest’. I have been known to hijack BC tech calls with system vendors to ‘call them out’. We are all understaffed, right? So, let’s leverage tools and technology as much as possible. The right tools will help get us to ‘world-class’, the wrong tools can destroy us.
- Tech skills corner – I will help you become the most tech savvy BC pro at your company. Much more on that later
- Cyber security guidance to help prevent and mitigate ransomware, malware, viruses, worms, data-theft…the nightmare scenarios that can make front page news, for all the wrong reasons. Cyber impacts resilience professions so we had better be comfortable with the concepts. I will help get you get there.
- Techniques to get people excited about upcoming exercises – seriously – excited! Imagine, for a moment, people standing by the water cooler gossiping how they can’t wait for the next tabletop or off-site recovery exercise! I know you are smiling right now, but perhaps not quite believing me – yet!
- Golden opportunities to prove your value beyond core business continuity. I discuss projects I have completed and how I did them. I always been a corporate exec with an entrepreneurial attitude. It worked for me and it will for you.
- Career corner – Ultimate Business Continuity includes my ideas on what makes a great BC professional as well as transitioning into BC/CM/DR from IT. I have been a Business Resilience Director for enterprise companies and I was formerly a Senior Technology Officer for a top 10 financial institution. I guess I did something right along the way and it was not playing politics
- Stories, anecdotes and lessons learned. The site includes believe-it-or-not BC experiences. Some are serious and some hysterically funny
Part XII
Special Bonus 1: The Online Roadmap:
Note: There are select links to products, services and conferences I find valuable, use personally, recommend or have tested. In some cases, the organizations offer special discounts to my readers.
Enjoy the Ultimate Business Continuity Platform
Marty