The role of business continuity management in organisational long range planning

Abstract

Since the early 90s, business continuity management (BCM) has gradually established a foothold as a function and profession within business organisations. Despite its rapid development in the last two decades, BCM, as a discipline and a profession, is still regarded by many as an operational entity of management. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the role of BCM in corporate long range planning. It critically evaluates a number of typical definitions and derives three key elements of BCM. It then relates the role of BCM in corporate strategic management and proposes a set of strategic skills for business continuity managers in order to execute the BCM programme effectively. Finally, a number of salient points on strategic BCM are proposed to underpin the importance of its role in sustaining organisational performance.