[BCM] How Can Business Continuity Management (BCM) and Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) Complement Each Other?

How Can BCM and ERM Compliment Each Other?

Business continuity management (BCM) and enterprise risk management (ERM) are complementary disciplines that strengthen an organisation's risk posture.

ERM takes a broad view, proactively identifying potential threats across the organisation. BCM focuses on reacting to disruptions that occur, ensuring critical functions can resume quickly. Together, they provide a comprehensive approach.

ERM helps BCM prioritise its efforts by highlighting the most impactful risks. BCM's testing process informs ERM, providing valuable insights into real-world risks and the effectiveness of mitigation strategies.

This collaborative approach strengthens the organisation's overall resilience and preparedness. BCM and ERM work together to create a robust organisational defence system.

While they have distinct focuses, they complement each other beautifully:

Proactive versus Reactive

ERM takes a proactive approach, identifying potential risks and developing mitigation plans. BCM, on the other hand, focuses on reacting to disruptions that occur, ensuring critical functions can resume quickly.

Analogy: Consider ERM as preparing your hiking backpack with supplies, while BCM is knowing how to use those supplies if you get injured.

Informing Priorities

ERM helps prioritise risks. By understanding which disruptions could have the most significant impact, BCM can focus on creating plans for specific scenarios. This ensures resources are directed towards the most critical areas for business continuity.

Continuous Improvement

BCM plans are constantly tested and refined. The information gained from these tests feeds back into the ERM process, allowing for a more comprehensive understanding of actual risks and how well current mitigation strategies work.

Boardroom Backing

A strong BCM program, integrated with ERM, demonstrates a proactive approach to risk management, which can boost confidence among leadership and secure vital resources for both disciplines.

Summing Up ...

By working in tandem, ERM and BCM create a more robust risk management framework, enhancing an organisation's preparedness and resilience to disruptions.

This is a series of questions asked during the monthly BCM Institute's Meet-the-Expert seminar. Questions that were not answered due to the lack of time and their relevance to the speaker's topic will be deferred.

However, I felt this was very relevant, hence the short reply to the questions. I hope it is useful.

More Information About Business Continuity Management Courses

To learn more about the course and schedule, click the buttons below for the BCM-300 Business Continuity Management Implementer [BCM-3] and the BCM-5000 Business Continuity Management Expert Implementer [BCM-5].