A new report by the Business Continuity Institute, supported by certification body NQA, has shown that 6 out of 10 organizations adopt ISO 22301, the international standard for business continuity management. Organizations with strong top management commitment to standardising business continuity practice are four times more likely to adopt ISO 22301 than those who do not.
There are many reasons why an organization would want to embrace ISO 22301, most notably it provides assurance of continued service with 61 percent of respondents identifying this as a significant reason. By certifying to the Standard, organizations can provide reassurance to their stakeholders that, in the event of a crisis, it will still be able to function. Other reasons include:
- Reputation and brand management (48 percent)
- Reduced risk of business interruption (48 percent)
- Greater resilience against disruption (45 percent)
- Quicker recovery from interruption (44 percent)
There are of course barriers that prevent such commitment and those identified were resource constraints (25 percent), complexity of implementation (19 percent) and top management buy-in (18 percent). It is perhaps encouraging that these barriers each had relatively low percentages suggesting that the barriers aren’t that widespread.
If reassurance is one of the primary reasons to commit to the Standard then one can only wonder why many organizations don’t expect the same of their suppliers as supply chains can only be as strong as their weakest link. 82 percent or respondents stated that their organization does not seek certification to the Standard from their suppliers.
To read the report, click here (registration required).
