Personal Business Continuity Planning

Business continuity planning has assumed a high priority since the beginning of this decade, which began with the unforgettable 9/11 incident claiming almost 3,000 lives. Since then we have seen many terrorist attacks around the world, one of the most recent being the November 2008 terrorist attack in Mumbai. Apart from terrorist attacks, even nature does not seem to be very kind to us. This decade has seen tsunamis, tornados, wild fires, and earthquakes of increasing magnitude. During the Mumbai mega-flood of July 2005, many lost their lives just walking on the flooded streets. While all these man-made and natural disasters make us seriously plan for business continuity for our organizations, hardly any systematic efforts are visible for making business continuity plans (BCPs) for our own lives. Sudden death due to heart attack seems to have risen in the prime age group of 35-45. Continuing with the business of life is as important, or even more important, as continuing with the business of the organization. In fact, if we do not create a BCP for us, we are exposing ourselves, our families, our organization, and ultimately our society to grave risks. Creating a personal BCP will greatly reduce our anxiety levels and we, or our surviving family members, will be able to resume the business of life (which has to go on despite disasters) quickly and effortlessly. The habit of creating, updating, maintaining, and testing personal BCP will also help organizations. The same thoughtfulness will also be shown by individuals while managing the organization's BCP. They will be able to see the importance of managing the BCP, both at the personal level and organizational level. This article will apply the same basic approach to BCP as is used for organizations. It will look at the "why" of PBCP (Personal BCP), the various personal business processes, business impact analysis (BIA), risk assessment, business continuity strategies, business continuity response, business continuity documentation, exercise, maintenance and review of BCP, and embedding business continuity in the family culture. The approach should be taken as indicative and not prescriptive. Appropriate customization will have to be done to the documentation for each individual's own PBCP.