Case Studies
Establishing a Business Continuity & Crisis Management Program in a Major Retailer
A major US-based home decor retailer approached Bryghtpath to build & implement a business continuity & crisis management program from scratch.
The Opportunity
A major retailer, challenged by its board to improve resiliency and incident management, realized it needed to establish a full business continuity & crisis management program.
The company had previously managed several serious incidents through ad-hoc processes and the knowledge of their experienced field leadership & home office teams. Rapid growth, multi-state expansion, and the COVID-19 pandemic rapidly exceeded their ability to manage disruptions without a sustainable program in place.
Approach and Results
We began our engagement using our Resiliency Diagnosis to review the company’s current capabilities for business continuity, crisis management, disaster recovery, and store/distribution emergency procedures. We reviewed existing documentation and interviewed dozens of key staff, stakeholders, and the executive team.
We met with the CEO & their direct reports to present our findings and recommendations for building out initial year-one capabilities and long-term program management.
We then set about establishing the program structure for business continuity & crisis management through a policy, governance, and framework process – including a steering committee & executive sponsor for the program. We led the business continuity lifecycle with a business impact analysis, business continuity planning, training, & exercises.
Simultaneously, we developed a crisis management framework & plan. Once the new Crisis Management Team was established, we developed role-specific crisis checklists for each member of the team and led the team through a tabletop exercise.
Today, the company has a well-established and integrated business continuity & crisis management program that we continue to support through our Business Continuity as a Service (BCaaS) offering. They continue to further mature their program each year with additional scenario planning, tabletop & simulation exercises, and the annual business continuity lifecycle.
Key Activities
- Completed Resiliency Diagnosis process, including 40+ discovery interviews
- Deep dive into previous incidents and crisis situations
- Review of current emergency procedures, incident management procedures, and disaster recovery capabilities
- Complete business continuity lifecycle – including risk assessment, business impact analysis (BIA), business continuity planning, training, & exercises
- Executive briefing to CEO & direct reports – detailed briefing to program stakeholders
Outcomes
- Resiliency Diagnosis report detailing observations and recommendations, including ISO 22301 Maturity Model
- Established initial business continuity & crisis management capabilities, including a complete business continuity lifecycle (BIA, Plans, Exercises)
- Comprehensive crisis management framework & plan
- Fully trained crisis management team
- Fully managed ongoing support through Business Continuity as a Service, including crisis management
- Strong program governance & executive support
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