Think Like A Coward
Tuesday, April 15th, 2008From the DRJ.com Archives - by Thejendra B.S.
An important question facing organizations today is how to protect their business from various predictable disasters that can strike at any time? Secondly, who are the best persons to protect your business? What sort of qualification and mindset does one need to work in a DR and BC department? Where and how can you find or identify such persons?
The business world has changed significantly and rapidly in the last decade. Regardless of the industry, more and more businesses are operating on a 24×7 global basis. Even tiny organizations with less than a dozen employees depend on several modern technologies and worldwide competition to remain in business.
Nowadays, it is not possible to run any business using the same methods and processes that were used five or 10 years ago. To stay in business, alive and breathing, is of paramount importance to every modern organization.
Less than a decade ago concepts like disaster recovery and business continuity were almost unknown or just considered as optional academic subjects. The only traditional method organizations followed for disaster recovery (DR) or business continuity (BC) was to enroll into some insurance for their key equipment along with a few optional covers. But protecting today’s business is beyond having some insurance covers and keeping your fingers crossed.
An important question facing organizations today is how to protect their business from various predictable disasters that can strike at any time? Secondly, who are the best persons to protect your business? What sort of qualification and mindset does one need to work in a DR and BC department? Where and how can you find or identify such persons?
You may argue that my questions are actually stupid because DR/BC is almost a mature science, and there are umpteen numbers of consultants, templates, certifications, and best practices available to everyone.
If organizations need to establish DR/BC it is easily possible to get competent resumes by the hundreds within hours of posting a job advertisement. So what is the big deal?
Agreed, there are ample sources qualified candidates, books, resources, etc., on DR/BC issues. However, in spite of all such available resources, what is that unique skill that is essential to become a successful DR/BC manager or a team member in any complex modern organization? It is a skill that no training program or certification can teach. How exactly should a DR/BC manager be different and unique from the rest of the employees in an organization?
If you are eagerly expecting me to describe that unique skill you are probably going to be a trifle disappointed. This is because I am going to describe a skill that history and society has never been kind to, something that most people feel uncomfortable or despise to be one. The kind of people I am recommending for DR/BC departments are those who can think like cowards, talk like cowards, plan like cowards, and constantly spread a healthy dose of cowardice around the organization.
Every organization that is serious about risk management should nurture, promote, and respect cowards in their DR/BC departments to protect their businesses from countless risks. Now you may loudly argue why does any organization need cowards? Nobody has ever erected a statue honoring a coward. No management guru or a business school professor drools over a coward.
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