DRI KL2013 Regional Conference... A Reality Check on Crisis Management

 

Assalamualaikum and Greetings,

The annual DRI Malaysia regional conference has just concluded yesterday. This is the kind of event which new and seasoned BCM practitioners will flock to, not only to meet new and old friends of the same interest, but most importantly to stay up-to-date on the latest trends and standards/regulation, and to learn fresh and innovative best practices out there. Experiences and knowledge that you gained from event like this are something that you will never find in a class room or in a professional course. 

From left Trevor, Al Berman (President of DRII), En. Wahid and Murari during the second day plenary session

This year's theme was "Emerging Issues & Challenges"... but strangely enough (a presently good kind of "strange" though) the papers presented mainly revolve around the importance of an effective Crisis Communication. Mr. Trevor Murphy of Société Générale for example had creatively shared how communication with media should be handled via a very interactive simulation of a tabletop exercise. Mr. Craig Paterson of JLT Risk… had opened up our eyes on the importance of a well coordinated multi-parties communication in the event of an incident.

It is as if they know that I’ll be focusing a lot on Crisis Communication in 2014… and is actively seeking the best way to roll-out the program. Alhamdulillah (all praises to Allah)… the conference had given me many great ideas which I can implement. The experience that I gained as a “spokesperson” (volunteer) during Mr. Paterson interactive role play is priceless!

Aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan in Tacloban City

This year’s conference had also hit us hard on the reality of Crisis Management. Mr. Antonio A. Grageda, the Director of Crisis Management Office, Central Bank of the Philippines… shared with everyone, up-to-the-hour update on the situation in Tacloban which is hardest hit by the Haiyan Typhoon. The city of Tacloban is no stranger to typhoon as such it is one of the most well prepared cities in the country… but, as Mr. Grageda puts it… “you can never know how hard it will hit you until it actually did”. In this case, the crisis plan simply failed because everyone in Tacloban was hit by the calamity. They have no one left to carry out the Crisis Plan. All our prays to the victims… may Allah ease their suffering and make them stronger to rebuild their tomorrow.

There are a lot more about the conference that I would like to put down here... but that may make this entry too long and may qualify to be published as a book... haha!!! In short... the event had opened up my mind to a lot of new ideas, giving me fresh perspective on crisis management, and charged me up to be the best in this field. Thank you to all the speakers (there were 10 of them coming from various industries and backgrounds) for sharing your precious knowledge. [Click HERE to view profile of all the speakers]

 

Last note… congratulation to all DRI Award of Excellence winners. This year I only got to the finalist stage… I guess I have to work harder for 2014… hahaha. And also my big congratulation to the organizing committee too for a very well organized event.

See you again in DRI KL2014…!!!

 

Your BCM Mentor,

SHARIMAN AZEZE OTOH
(aka CYBERAZEZE)

You are a BCM Pioneer

Assalamualaikum and Greetings,

Ready to start your BCM adventure? Awesome...!!! Allow me to show you the starting point to your 10,000 miles journey (pssttt... this is not the First Step yet).

Don't be surprised that many people do not know or ever heard of BCM -  Business Continuity Management. Even for those people that asked you to enroll into a BCM related training (and willingly pay for the fee)... may actually knew very little about what BCM is.

Unless you are in a financial or banking industry, BCM is a fairly new thing to many organizations, especially in Malaysia and the region. They are more familiar with Emergency Response, Risk Management, Disaster Recovery... but not BCM.

The good news is that BCM is gaining interest by the industry mainly due to two (2) main reasons:

• Customer start asking for BCM and insisted that BCM to be clearly spelled and included in the business contract
• Requirement by regulators (and customers) for an organization to be certified (or in compliance) to international standards such as the ISO27001, ISO22301, BS25999 etc

So you see... to many organizations the implementation of BCM is mainly business driven, and not about ensuring continuity of the company in the event of disaster.

I will show you how you can take advantage of this fact when presenting your case to the top management. But for now...

STEP #0: TO REALIZE THAT YOU ARE A PIONEER OF BCM

You attended a professional course, and came back to your office... voila... suddenly you are the MASTER of BCM. Within days or weeks, you start to realize that people start to point at you whenever there is a task, no matter how small as long as it has some flavor of crisis management, or disaster or business continuity... you are the man (or lady) for the job.

Management team will start to hound you for BC Plans, DR Plans, Crisis Plans etc... and it will get worst if any of your customers are coming to assess/audit your company's BCM readiness. At this point of time you might start to think... "what kind of mess you had yourself in... arrrghhh!!!"

Hey... relax!!! Take a deep breath and smell the roses (or hot pizza or anything that might comfort you).

Pssttt... listen to me... "you are a BCM Pioneer!". It is very important for you to realize and accept the fact that as a pioneer, not only you are the most knowledgeable person in your organization on BCM, you may also be the one and only person that are responsible of the topic.

I'm not trying to scare you out. What I'm trying to tell you is that while you might be all alone there... DON'T BE AFRAID. Because there are many of "us" in this universe that are willing to help and hold your hands throughout your BCM journey.

I will tell you more on the advantages of being a Pioneer in my next post. But for now, take time and look around (or ask Mr. Google) on how other people or organizations are implementing BCM. It will open up your eyes of what you have learned in theory may not be the same in a real world application.

Oh... You might also want to check related topics too such as: Risk Management, Business Resiliency, Crisis Management, Disaster Recovery etc.

Don't worry... be happy!!! I'll be back soon...


Your BCM Mentor,
SHARIMAN AZEZE OTOH
(aka CYBERAZEZE)