Canton on Emergency Management

Emergency Management Solutions - February 2022

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Who’s In Charge Here? Business Continuity versus Emergency Management

by Lucien G. Canton, CEM

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by Timothy Riecker

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by Erik Bernstein

Who’s In Charge Here? Business Continuity versus Emergency Management

I was speaking recently with a good friend who has taken on the job of building a business continuity program for a major information technology company. Like me, he takes a strategic view of risk management and is experienced in both emergency management and business continuity. His problem at the moment is a common one: the company has separated business continuity and emergency management into separate programs, and he is perceived by the emergency manager as the “new kid” trying to muscle in on his turf.

This separation is not uncommon in my experience. Its root cause is the perception that emergency management and business continuity are discrete functions rather than complimentary components of an enterprise-wide function. The result is frequently a battle over which program should be dominant.

The Emergency Management Accreditation Program’s Emergency Management Standard which provides guidance for public sector emergency managers addresses Continuity of Operations (COOP) and Continuity of Government (COG) as essential parts of an emergency management program, suggesting that business continuity is an emergency management. The Professional Practices for Business Continuity Management promulgated by the Disaster Recovery Institute, International (DRII) identifies incident response, crisis communications, and coordination with outside agencies as key practices, all of which are also parts of a good emergency management program.

So, who should take the lead? The question only has relevance if we continue to treat business continuity and emergency response as discrete functions. If instead we recognize that risk management is an enterprise-wide function, then it becomes clear that emergency management and business continuity must work together, not only in those areas where responsibilities overlap but to ensure that the programs mutually support each other. This is the approach taken in the more general standard NFPA 1600 Standard on Continuity, Emergency, and Crisis Management which incorporates both business continuity and emergency management elements.

To understand why this is so critical, we need to debunk the common assumption that disasters occur in phases. A moment’s thought will show why this is a false assumption. There are actions in any crisis that must occur simultaneously or that can have future consequences if not considered during initial response operations. For example, while mitigation is considered a separate phase from response and recovery, mitigation actions to reduce immediate hazards, such as debris clearance, can occur during initial response. However, uncoordinated debris clearance can prevent assessment of how mitigation measures performed and create issues with future insurance or reimbursement claims during recovery.  Failure to coordinate concurrent actions during response can be extremely costly.

Secondly, there is often an unspoken assumption in emergency plans that facilities and support functions will continue to operate. This is particularly true when we consider our increasing dependency on technology. Business continuity is intended to ensure that these facilities and support systems are available when needed or can be quickly replaced. This is the concept behind the prioritizing systems restoration through recovery time objectives (RTO): the identification of how quickly systems will need to be restored following an event.

Most importantly, parallel operations create competition for resources and personnel and can cause conflict during response operations. This is the reason we developed the concept of unified command in the Incident Command System, a single operational and command structure that reduces conflicts and competition for resources. How you opt to integrate emergency management and business continuity in your crisis management team is immaterial; the important thing is that they are integrated.

Solving this problem shouldn’t be a reach for emergency or business continuity managers; it’s what we do for a living. We create interagency working groups all the time. This is no different. Stop vying for control and worrying about turf. Approach the problem as a team.