BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLANNING – WHAT IS IT?

Rule 1: It is NOT preparing for ‘business as usual’ in a crisis – if it were, there would be no need for a plan.

Rule 2: It’s all about the objectives.

Crisis or no crisis, all businesses should live and die by their objectives; what are we trying to achieve and why? If we can’t answer that then we can’t know if we are succeeding or failing. So, from the outset there must be clear objectives and, yes I know it is old, but the SMART concept is still valid. What is wrong with having business objectives that are ‘specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound’? Or some similar version thereof. Personally, I think we should add an E in there somewhere, for ethical. And you might not be able to satisfy every single one in every objective but it is a good starting point.

Once our goals are clear we can identify that anything which could adversely affect the ability to achieve them is a threat which we must have a plan to counter. Anything that does not is of no interest whatsoever, however bad it might otherwise be, and should be ignored. Straightaway we have focused our attention and our resources onto the things that matter and not wasted them on things that do not.

Rule 3: Have a plan.

This is when you need some first rate pessimists. The business continuity plan consists of protecting as much of the suite of objectives as possible against the increased threat level presented by any conceivable crisis. Which objectives can be postponed? The T element extended? Can others be scaled back but still maintained in essence? Is there a plan to review the objectives in light of the new threat level? Must some objectives be abandoned because the achievable A element or the relevant R no longer exist? And this may be where the ethical E becomes important – how do we manage our social responsibility values in a crisis? If they can be ignored when times are tough they are not really values at all…

A footnote on objectives:

A popular corporate objective these days is ‘Zero harm’. The best definition of harm I have seen comes I think from the old Warsaw Convention and states: ‘Loss or damage to property, injury or death to persons’ or something like that. Nowadays I would add the environment in there too. Is this ‘achievable’ in many of today’s industries? Probably not but especially when it comes to lives and health, zero is the only goal we can have. No company is going to have an objective of just maiming two people this year, although that may be what they mean!

SAFETY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS... WHAT?

We have all learnt about safety management systems (SMS) and the 4 principal components - Safety Policy & Objectives, Safety Risk Management, Safety Assurance and Safety Promotion. Buried in Safety Assurance, within the sub-element Safety Performance Monitoring & Measurement are things called safety performance indicators or SPIs.

Most organisations have actually defined SPIs and slavishly track them at SAG and SRB meetings. But many don't really understand what SPIs are and what they should be doing for the business, so actually a lot of the effort is wasted on meaningless data.

Take a look at the diagram below - see how it shows SPIs as the very foundation of an integrated safety management plan:

Gates Aviation offers a one-day training course for aviation organisations, which clearly explains and demonstrates how to set useful and effective SPIs (and KPIs) that really answer the question:

"How good is our safety performance?"

PEOPLE ASK ME WHAT I DO...

You know how it is. Introduced to a complete stranger at a polite drinks party, once you have exhausted the pleasantries, one of you is going to ask "What do you do then?" My wife has taken to interjecting with "He's a pilot", which was once true of course, because she has grown tired of watching me struggle to explain what I actually do. With a little time to think, here are some of the things I have done in the last couple of years:

Written and presented a course on Compliance Monitoring to an airline in Nepal, which almost unbelievably operates helicopters to Everest Base Camp as a routine, and exceptionally up to Camp 2 in emergencies;
Closely engaged with an ambitious and rapidly expanding airline in the UK, helping to develop an organisational culture which embraces the concept of a Management System as defined in ORO.GEN.200;
Spoken on the merits of procedural compliance at the Eurocontrol Safety Behaviours Forum in Brussels;
Run a human performance and error management workshop for a large group of anaesthetists at a hospital in Essex - interestingly they invited me to observe the teams in action for two days in live theatres ahead of the workshop, to better understand their work (challenging for someone who doesn't do blood very well);
Conducted an audit of a UK operator's management system, using the new EASA Management System Assessment Tool for the first time;
Acted as an expert witness in flight operations and safety in a European airline's defence against injury claims (all successfully to date);
On the subject of expert witnesses, I have developed and delivered a course on how to present expert evidence (see below);

Lukla, NEPAL

Delivered Safety Management System initial and recurrent training to another Nepalese operator - this one ferries thousands of trekkers each year in and out of Lukla, gateway to Everest and one of the world's more challenging destinations;








Led a safety review of an extreme aviation sports portfolio in the Middle East - skydiving, paramotors, gyrocopters etc;
Delivered Upset Prevention & Recovery Training (UPRT) to a group of flight instructors in Lithuania;
Presented seminars on Evidence Based Training to operators and industry professionals from around Europe and Africa;
Trained departmental Risk Champions for a UK operator;
Developed and directed several emergency response exercises;

You see why my wife says I'm a pilot...