DECEMBER 2020CIOAPPLICATIONS.COM9created individually and as a collective system.When your company is poised to achieve your goals more effectively with these models in hand, you can then maximize your return on investment (ROI) ­ particularly concerning assets, labor, and suppliers. To complete the above models, you must answer the following questions, allowing you to center each step around goal-oriented perspectives. 1. Why must this work be done? For this, you must define your goals.2. What work needs to be done? Here, you must then define the necessary activities and desired output in consideration of the previously defined goals. 3. When does this work have to be done? Develop a timeline by which you envision this work being completed and the dependencies that will influence these activities.4. By whom does this work have to be done? Define the roles necessary to meet these needs ­ whether they are automated or carried out by an employee ­ and assign them to specific activities.Lastly, you must recognize that your staff and dependencies must understand their role in your business process and resiliency. Studies show that only 14% of a given firm's employees have a somewhat thorough understanding of their company's strategy and goals. This means that the majority of employees are spending their time and effort without knowing why or how their work contributes to the company's future.To resolve this, you must integrate a concept known as "cascading goals." This is when the goal-setting process beings at the top of a company ­ starting with the owner, then to executive management, eventually to the employees. At each stage, your staff should all be able to understand and answer the following:· How does my work contribute to the company's objectives?· What am I going to do to contribute to the company's efforts to meet those objectives?· What skills does this work require presently and potentially into the future?The Missing DimensionSo how does this all relate to your customer's value? Throughout each of these steps, you must consider what your customers are concerned with by answering the following questions:· Do you understand their needs? What in your business operations creates value for their customers? If your company were to experience an unexpected event, would these needs still be met? If not, how can you ensure that they will be?· What are their priorities? This will help you in defining your critical jobs. Are your customers most in need of correspondence with customer service staff? Do they expect swift delivery times due to the sensitivity of your product? These questions will allow you to determine what elements of your process to cut and what to invest in, in order to effectively renew your business.· What impact will your customers have when you encounter unexpected issues? Ideally, it should be similar to the customer experience in the example recovery plan illustrated above. This was executed so well that the customers hardly knew that anything happened to the facility at all.· How do you need to redesign your disaster/recovery plan to meet your client needs? After having answered all the questions above, are there areas in your resiliency plan that need redesigning? Is it possible that your current plan neglects customer priorities?Having a customer-centric view will allow you to prioritize your resiliency efforts and expose high-value assets and workflows, leading you to invest wisely. This is part of what defines the concept of Business Continuity Management (BCM). BCM helps you to maintain your customer's trust, even if your company were to experience a catastrophic event. This ensures that you will continue to meet customer needs, even while your typical processes and resources may not be operating as they usually do.As you improve and streamline your business resiliency, you can prioritize your customers' needs and experience by analyzing how various scenarios might impact these factors. (One bonus of an effective BCM is that it can give you a leg up on your competition. For instance, if you can recover more quickly than your competitors following a natural disaster, more customers will visit your business to meet their specific needs.)Far too many organizations overlook the importance of not only a thorough business resiliency plan but how it impacts their customers. Once you review the critical elements of your plan from a customer perspective, you'll be equipped to design a program that allows you to maintain customer trust and appreciation, all while maintaining business continuity.
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