Operational Resilience Vs Business Continuity Management

Operational resilience and Business Continuity management are two concepts that are related but distinct.

This blog will detail the differences and similarities between operational resilience and business continuity management.

Operational resilience is the ability of an organization to withstand and recover from operational disruptions, whether caused by internal or external events. Operational resilience involves identifying critical business functions and ensuring they can continue operating during a disruption. It also involves developing plans to recover from the disruption and return to normal operations as quickly as possible.

Business continuity management (BCM) designs, develops, maintains strategies, and implements plans of action that provide protection for or alternative methods of operation for a business when they are interrupted.

Differences between Operational and Business Continuity Management

Operational Resilience	Business Continuity Management
Definition
refers to an organization's ability to withstand, adapt to, and recover from disruptive events.	refers to identifying potential disruptions to an organization's critical operations and developing plans to ensure continuity.
Focus
focuses on the ability to bounce back from disruptions	focuses on maintaining critical operations during disruptions.
Scope
is a broader concept that encompasses both business continuity management and other resilience-related activities, such as crisis management, disaster recovery, and cyber resilience	is a subset of operational resilience and focuses on maintaining critical business operations' continuity during disruptions.
Timeframe
focuses on the long-term ability of an organization to withstand disruptions	focuses on the short-term continuity of critical operations during disruptions.
Risk Management
takes a more holistic approach, looking at all potential risks to an organization's operations	focuses on specific risks that could disrupt critical operations.
Planning
involves planning for disruptions and building resilience in an organization's operations to withstand disruptions.	involves creating plans and procedures to ensure the continuity of critical operations during disruptions.
Impact assessment
involves assessing the potential impact of a range of disruptive events on an organization's operations	focuses on assessing the impact of specific disruptions.
Scope of disruption
covers various disruptive events, including natural disasters, cyberattacks, and pandemics.	focuses on disruptions impacting critical operations, such as power outages, IT failures, or supply chain disruptions.
Testing
involve testing multiple scenarios	focused on specific disruptions
Governance
often governed by senior leadership or a dedicated resilience team	managed by a specific department, such as IT or risk management or business continuity team
Resource allocation
may require significant investment in infrastructure, processes, and training to build resilience across an organization	may require less investment but adequate resources to develop and maintain plans and procedures.
Flexibility
requires a high degree of flexibility to adapt to different types of disruptions	may be more rigid in its approach to specific disruptions.
Leadership
require strong leadership to ensure their success and a more collaborative leadership style to build resilience across an organization.	require strong leadership to ensure their success
Culture
requires a culture of resilience across an organization, where all employees are aware of potential risks and are empowered to take action to mitigate them	may require a more specialized culture focused on specific risks.
Integration
is an integrated approach to managing risks across an organization.	focuses on assessing the impact of specific disruptions.

Finally ...

Think of business continuity as a set of procedures that, when activated, help an organisation return to operational status to resume providing products and services. Operational resilience is the capability to absorb a shock to operations and then rebound to a level of operations acceptable to the organisation's customers, management, employees and stakeholders.

Operational Resilience is different from traditional business continuity planning. Business Continuity Planning tends to be seen in silos and as a compliance exercise focusing on minimising the likelihood of a risk event occurring and ensuring firms can absorb financial losses. The ability to withstand financial loss is insufficient to ensure critical business services continuity.

Learn more about Blended Learning OR-300 [OR-3] and OR-5000 [OR-5]

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