The 22nd Annual Continuity Insights Management Conference will take place at the Sheraton Charlotte Hotel, May 6-8, 2024. This article is the first in a series of interviews that will introduce the many business continuity professionals scheduled to speak at the event. As part of the Group C Media family, Facility Executive is pleased to share this information with you.
In these times, when the need for critical information-sharing has never been greater, the Continuity Insights 2024 Management Conference offers insight, inspiration, and actionable ideas presented by a faculty of leading business continuity experts and practitioners. This conference will provide a timely and important opportunity to share best practices, lessons learned, and effective strategies employed to ensure organizational resilience.
Here, Continuity Insights chats with Scott Baldwin, a BCI Board Member presenting at this year’s event.
Continuity Insights: Tell us about your background. How did you first get involved with business resiliency?
Scott Baldwin: I started out as a software engineer during the dot-com boom. As I progressed to team lead and then engineering manager, I was struck with the number of times my team would lose their code, or our closet-server would crash. Backing up and recovery of data an IT became a crusade for me. It wasn’t until 2005 that I realized there was an industry that focused on just this thing. As the dot-com bubble burst, transitioning to DR seemed like a logical move for me.
CI: What is a control-based resilience program? How does this program differ from other resilience programs?
SB: Control-based resilience programs shift the focus from traditional strategies to a more dynamic and practical approach. Traditional methods often rely on the quantity of Business Impact Analyses (BIAs), Business Continuity Plans (BCPs), and validation exercises as indicators of success. However, control-based programs prioritize operational resilience through measurable and actionable controls.
This approach offers a more nuanced understanding of a company’s ability to sustain continuous operations under varying conditions. By emphasizing tangible, quantifiable controls, these programs provide clear insights for enhancing resilience. Furthermore, they integrate these improvements into daily operational activities, ensuring a more cohesive and robust approach to resilience. This method marks a departure from ‘break glass in case of emergency’ planning, towards a practical, day-to-day application that prepares organizations to appropriately resilient.
Not only do control-based programs provide a much better view into an organization’s true resilience capabilities, it’s also much less expensive in terms of time and engagement required from our business partners.
CI: Out of the elements that go into a control-based resilience program, why are you focusing on risk integration in this presentation? Why do you think this is important to focus on in 2024?
SB: I was close to not choosing ‘risk’ as the theme for this presentation, given how many see it as a bit dry and unexciting. This is a misconception. Risk isn’t just an intriguing and lively subject; it’s the cornerstone of any successful resilience program…
