[OR] [BNM] [C5] OR Planning — The Three-Phase BCM Institute Methodology and its Relevance to BNM’s Operational Resilience Expectations

Chapter 5

OR Planning — The Three-Phase BCM Institute Methodology and Its Relevance to BNM’s Operational Resilience Expectations

Operational resilience has become a regulatory and strategic imperative for organisations—especially in the financial sector—as rapid digitalisation, complex interdependencies, and third-party reliance create greater susceptibility to operational disruptions.

Bank Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) Operational Resilience Discussion Paper articulates high-level regulatory expectations for the Malaysian financial industry, emphasising continuity of critical services, interdependency visibility, impact tolerances, scenario testing, and governance.

To operationalise these expectations, the BCM Institute developed a three-phase Operational Resilience Planning Methodology: Plan, Implement, and Sustain.

This methodology underpins the OR-5000 Operational Resilience Expert Implementer course, which equips professionals with the knowledge and tools to design, build, and maintain a regulatory-aligned resilience programme.

Phase 1 — Plan: Foundation for Resilience

Objective

Establish readiness by assessing the current state, defining the strategy, and ensuring alignment of governance and risk appetite.

Key Activities

1. Assess Capability & Maturity — Understand current resilience capabilities and gaps.
2. Analyse Gap — Identify where capability improvement is needed.
3. Develop Strategy & Roadmap — Define how resilience goals will be met.
4. Confirm Risk Appetite — Set organisational risk tolerance levels.
5. Develop & Embed Governance — Secure leadership accountability and oversight.

Why This Matters for BNM Alignment

BNM emphasises that organisations must prioritise the continuity of critical financial services and adapt to complex threats, including cyber risks, outsourcing, and technology failures.

To meet these expectations, institutions must first assess their current position with respect to these outcomes.

The Plan phase provides a structured, strategic approach to align internal capabilities with regulatory direction.

Outcome

Professionals completing this stage can translate regulatory principles into an executable resilience strategy with formal governance and risk appetite, thereby preparing organisations to meet both internal and external expectations.

Phase 2 — Implement: BUILDING RESILIENCE CAPABILITIES

Objective

Turn strategy into operational reality by identifying critical services, mapping dependencies, setting tolerances, and testing resilience.

Key Activities

1. Identify Critical Business Services — Define what must remain operational under stress.
2. Map Processes & Dependencies — Visualise end-to-end internal and external dependencies.
3. Set Impact Tolerances — Determine acceptable levels of service disruption.
4. Conduct scenario testing to validate resilience against severe yet plausible disruption scenarios.
5. Improve Lessons Learned—Iteratively strengthen resilience based on test results.

Why This Matters for BNM Alignment

A central thrust of BNM’s consultative paper is that institutions must go beyond traditional recovery metrics to operational resilience outcomes—specifically, staying within tolerable impact thresholds during disruptions. Scenario testing and dependency mapping are key to demonstrating these outcomes in practice.

Outcome

Professionals who master this phase will be able to design and execute resilience solutions that directly demonstrate alignment to regulatory expectations—such as the ability to withstand and adapt to disruptions while preserving critical services.

Phase 3 — Sustain: EMBEDDING AND MATURING RESILIENCE

Objective

Ensure operational resilience becomes an ongoing organisational capability—supported by culture, communication, training, evaluation, and assurance.

Key Activities

1. Cultural Change Management — Embed a resilience mindset across the organisation.
2. Develop a Communication strategy — Ensure clarity of roles and expectations, both internally and externally.
3. Implement Training & Awareness — Build skills and readiness at all levels.
4. Provide Self-Assessment — Regularly evaluate resilience performance and alignment to strategy.
5. Conduct Independent Quality Review — Use internal or external reviews to assure effectiveness.

Why This Matters for BNM Alignment:

BNM’s expectations extend beyond initial implementation to continuous adaptation and learning. Its consultative paper highlights that effective operational resilience requires ongoing evaluation and governance to respond to emerging risks and ecosystem changes.

Outcome

Professionals trained in sustainment can drive resilience programs that endure, evolve, and satisfy both organisational needs and regulator expectations over time.

Why OR-5000 Teaches All Three Phases

The OR-5000 Operational Resilience Expert Implementer course is structured to mirror this three-phase methodology—from planning through implementation to sustainment—because operational resilience is neither theoretical nor one-off; it is a lifecycle discipline.

Comprehensive Competency

Participants learn to:

• Translate high-level regulatory principles (like those from BNM) into actionable strategies.
• Build end-to-end resilience capabilities across people, process, technology, and third parties.
• Sustain resilience within an organisation’s culture and governance.

Practical and Applicable

The course includes:

• Assignments are aligned to each stage of the resilience lifecycle.
• Interactive workshops focused on real-world operational disruption scenarios.
• Guidance on regulatory alignment and practitioner challenges.

Professional Relevance for Malaysia

For Malaysian professionals, especially in financial services:

• BNM’s Discussion Paper signals that regulators expect a shift toward outcomes-based operational resilience—not just compliance checklists.
• The OR-5000, or Operational Resilience Expert Implementer, course curriculum equips practitioners with the skills needed to meet these emerging expectations, including governance, scenario testing, impact-tolerance design, and assurance.
• A dedicated run of the OR-5000 course tailored to Malaysian financial institutions reinforces practical regulatory alignment and industry relevance.

Operational resilience is now a strategic imperative, not merely a risk-management add-on. The BCM Institute’s three-phase methodology ensures professionals can:

• Plan with strategic intent and governance alignment,
• Implement resilience with operational precision and regulatory proof points, and
• Sustain these capabilities over time through continuous improvement.

The OR-5000 Expert Implementer course covers the full lifecycle because regulators such as BNM expect organisations to demonstrate not only preparedness but also consistent, evolving resilience practice.

Completing the course equips Malaysian professionals with the tools and confidence to lead resilience programs that meet both organisational goals and regulatory expectations.

If you’d like, I can provide a modular mapping of BNM’s discussion paper to the OR-5000 syllabus to support Malaysian institutions' preparation for regulatory alignment.

Note from Author/Speaker

Author Comment: This is a summary chapter that integrates the three phases of the BCM Institute’s Operational Resilience (OR) Planning Methodology (Plan, Implement, Sustain) with the Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) Operational Resilience consultative paper, and explains why this comprehensive content is taught in the BCM Institute’s OR-5000 (Operational Resilience Expert Implementer) course—especially for Malaysian professionals.

Gain Competency: For organisations looking to accelerate their journey, BCM Institute’s training and certification programs, including the OR-5000 Operational Resilience Expert Implementer course, provide in-depth insights and practical toolkits for effectively embedding this model.

More Information About Operational Resilience Course OR-5000 [OR-5] or OR-300 [OR-3]

To learn more about the course and schedule, click the buttons below for the OR-300 Operational Resilience Implementer [OR-3] course and the  OR-5000 Operational Resilience Expert Implementer [OR-5] course.