Incident Management training for Chief Executive and Senior Management Team
PlanB Consulting was asked to carry out training for the Senior Management Team of a government agency, who had had a number of near misses over the severe winter and wanted to be better prepared to take part in government exercises.
Charlie trained them in:
1. An introduction to incident management
2. Their role in an emergency
3. The type of incident which would cause them to invoke the strategic plan
4. Incident decision making
5. Crisis communications
Comments varied from “enjoyed” to “the workshop was a useful mechanism to highlight key issues and simple tools to use on the day.”
Presentation to Caledonian University’s MSc Risk students
Charlie presented on business continuity at Caledonian University to MSc Risk students. He covered the basics of business continuity, and there was a practical session on BIA with students developing a BIA using their course as the subject. At the end of the session, Charlie presented on the business continuity profession, what qualifications were needed, where to find a job and how much could be paid.
Feedback from the talk included:
“I had one of the students in this afternoon and they thought your session was great; they felt all the examples and your explanations were really helpful. So, some positive feedback already!?”
Business Continuity Awareness Week 2011 webcast by Charlie
Business Impact analysis – A new methodology to define your critical activities, MTPD and RTOs
Many business continuity parishioners struggle with their BIA making sure it is aligned to the needs to the business, making sure that it is objective and that meets all the requirements of the relevant business continuity standards they are working to. Too often BIAs contain lots of information but it doesn’t really help in the planning process, parts of the organisation demand that they are recovered within 2-3 hours and they want their IT applications NOW, when logic says they can wait for 24 hours or more and nobody can agree on the list of critical activities across the organisation. Charlie believes that a robust list of critical activates each with an agreed RTO (recovery time objective) is the cornerstone of developing business continuity within an organisation. During the webinar Charlie will explain the relevant terms such as RTO and will give a simple and robust methodology for developing consistency, relevance and ensure that the results of the BIA are aligned to the requirements of the organisation. This methodology has be used for large and small organisations and by a number of organisations as part of their BS25999 certification. Link here
Speed exercising – the next big thing
An innovative idea that has resulted in relationship building across the business continuity profession in Scotland is speed exercising, devised by Charlie and co-director, Kim Maclean-Bristol, and developed in association with Ken Wratten of the Business Continuity institute (BCI) Scotland Forum.
Speed exercising uses a similar concept to speed dating – exposing participants to a number of different scenarios, based on actual risk ratings in the UK National Risk Register – within a very short time.
Ken Wratten explained: “Charlie proposed the speed exercising workshop for the BCI Scotland Forum. It was an excellent idea. “
“The idea of using the National Risk Register was also a good one, taking scenarios that were at the top end of the risk scale for the UK. It raised awareness of the National Risk Register and encouraged people to think more strategically.”
Twenty-two people took part, representing local government and the health service, the MoD, finance, major banks, insurers and the drinks industry.
Ken continued: “We split them into groups and presented them with scenarios that included severe weather and flooding, cyber-attack, a ‘WikiLeaks’ scenario and someone attempting to exhort money. They had 20 minutes to consider each scenario and exchange ideas. This raised common issues and challenges and meant that people were able to learn from each other.”
“The workshop generated a stack of information that is being compiled into a report for BCI Forum members. The event was very well received. It was fast and furious and involved BC professionals, who are more used to directing things than participating. “
“The speed made it very realistic, people had to make decisions on their feet and quickly weigh up the pros and cons of their actions. Speed exercising is fast, effective and easily transferrable as a product or tool that people can use in their own organisations.”
PlanB multinational client passes part 1 of BS25999 audit
PlanB are working with a multinational company, taking one of the company’s main divisions through part 1 of the BS25999 standard in just eight months. The part 1 audit was passed first time with only a small number of non-conformities. The company, whose resilience was thoroughly tested during adverse weather conditions over the winter, remained operational, even when some of its clients had closed down. PlanB is now working with the company to roll out the standard across a number of other operating divisions, with the aim of achieving parts 1 and 2 of the standard by autumn 2011.
The General Manager of the division PlanB has been working with says: “Charlie has been working on our company’s business continuity journey over the last ten months.
“He has been a great source of inspiration and knowledge for us as we developed our existing continuity plans against the BS25999 standard.”
“His approach to the training and development of the team and his enthusiasm and knowledge of his subject have inspired the team to successfully achieve part 1 of the accreditation and have generated positive comments from the external audit team. We approach part 2 of the accreditation audit with the same enthusiasm and drive as Charlie ? who is seen as part of the team. True testament to his ability as a BC practitioner.”
