Six Sigma: Deliverables at the end of the Define Phase
Well Defined Scope of the Project: A well-defined scope of the project is perhaps the most important deliverable of the Define phase. Scope document goes a long way in finding the solution. A lot of organizations resources have been wasted and no substantial results have been obtained because of the failure to correctly scope a […]
Asset Management and Budgetary Control
One of the major financial functions is the management of fixed assets. Asset management module primarily maintains asset register, which provides information about asset related transactions. Asset Management thus helps in keeping track of fixed assets, handling fixed asset depreciation for fiscal reporting and revaluation of asset. Budgetary control (BC) module is another important finance […]
Why the Business and Commerce Battles in the Digital Age are over Data as the New Oil
Why Data is the New Oil Data is the New Oil, proclaimed, India’s Richest Person and the one of the World’s leading Businessperson, Mukesh Ambani. He was referring to the fights over data in the digital age being similar to the battles over Oil in the Industrial Age. As Oil was the Lubricant that made […]
Step 1: Selecting the Correct Variables to Monitor
Since the entire premise of having a Six Sigma process is based on measurement, comparison of measurements and setting corrective action plans, it is crucial that the variables (metrics) being measured are appropriate. Wrong measurements lead to wrong decisions which are expensive and a wastage of time and resources. As explained in the Define module, […]
Strong Medicine: A Case Study of the Indian Healthcare Sector
The Paradox of the Indian Healthcare Sector For a country that prides itself on being a welfare state that looks after its many poor and underprivileged citizens, India spends surprisingly less on healthcare as a percentage of GDP or Gross Domestic Product than other developing and developed countries. Indeed, India is among the countries with […]
In previous articles, we have seen how Business Continuity Programs are formulated and how they are executed in times of crisis. In this article, we look at the role of the Risk Management and Risk Mitigation Team in aiding the organization towards formulating contingency planning. The risk management team is responsible for identifying risks, coming up with a strategy to mitigate them and to ensure that the organization has a fail proof contingency plan. The risk management team is also responsible for coordinating with the various project managers in the company to prepare and roll out the contingency plan to tackle the emergencies as and when they arise. Further, the risk management team should assist the project managers in preparing risk matrices and contingency plans to take care of anticipated and unanticipated emergencies.
Companies like Unilever, Infosys and Citigroup have dedicated risk management teams in place to work closely with the project managers in identifying and mitigating risks.
The risk manager has the responsibility to coordinate with the project manager in proactively identifying risks and planning for contingencies. There is a concept called call tree which indicates the people needed to be called in case of an emergency and this call tree has to be tested periodically to find out the response time that is needed to activate it.
The point here is that the risk management team needs to ensure that the contingency plans are well oiled and the organization switches over to the backup site or the systems quickly and smoothly in case of an emergency.
Companies like Fidelity have risk management teams that publish risk matrices for individual teams based on their assessment of how the team would adapt to the emergency and hence the risk management team is responsible for ratifying the risk matrix for each team. The risk matrix consists of identified risks and the mitigation plan for each. Unless and until the risk manager signs off on the risk matrix for each team, the overall contingency plan for the organization cannot be put in place. The key point to note is that the risk management teams ought to identify risks and prepare a plan for mitigating them. Of course, not all risks can be anticipated but the overall thrust is to ensure that as many risks are covered as possible to ensure that emergencies are handled adroitly.
The risk management team has the added responsibility of publishing a risk management plan for the entire organization which identifies macro risks and the plan to mitigate them. For instance, Citigroup has country wide risk management plans for each country in which it operates so that the mix of global and local risks that are unique to each location can be identified and mitigated. In this way, the risk management team is a crucial component of the organizations’ business continuity planning process. It is for this reason that many companies have started to have dedicated risk management teams in place to identity and suggest risk mitigation plans.
In conclusion, business continuity planning is planning for the unplanned emergencies and hence must be as thorough and detailed as possible. Only by having dedicated resources that would be on the job all the time in planning for contingencies can the organization hope to achieve full compliance with the business continuity plans. Hence, risk management teams are vital to the success of the organizations’ push towards having a robust and fool proof business continuity plan.
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Business Continuity Management Planning around the World
February 12, 2025
