Define stakeholders

It is important to understand the stakeholders in the organisation in order to ensure that all aspects of Business Continuity planning have been addressed and all concerned parties have been accounted for in the BCP. A stakeholder in any particular organisation is any party that has an interest in the success and ongoing operation of an organisation such as employees, directors, shareholders, regulators and customers. Each stakeholder, while sharing a common interest in the ongoing health of an organisation, can and will have slightly different perspectives:

• Employees will have expectations relating to security of employment and a safe working environment (the latter often being a regulatory requirement also) Directors will have expectations and responsibilities for ensuring growth, protection of revenues and profits and reputation management
• Shareholders will be concerned with the financial performance of the organisation, its commercial prospects and, particularly in the case of institutional investors, the overall systems of control and governance that are in place
• Regulators, depending on their remit, will have specific concerns regarding workplace safety, environmental issues, financial and/or operational controls
• Customers will be primarily concerned with availability and quality of goods and services provided

   

An organisation’s Business Continuity arrangements should encapsulate all of these considerations when setting both its Business Continuity strategy and its specific recovery approaches.