Business Contingency Planning....

Preparing for something unexpected is called contingency planning.  From the business perspective, unexpected event or situation can be financial crisis, market share of company going down, or it can also be large order, high market demand etc.  So anything that disrupts the company’s day to day operation by something unexpected is known as Business Contingency.  When businesses creates a plan or are ready to cope with any unexpected situation, it is known as business contingency planning.  Some of the threat usually covered in contingency plans is crisis management, business continuity, assets security, mismanagement and reorganization.

Crisis Management:  Some of the crisis that company run into includes natural disaster, terrorist attacks, fire in the warehouse, on the job injuries or even unhappy customers. Any plans to deal with these kinds of crisis are Crisis Management.

Continuity Plan: Business continuity plans cover a range of situations, including the death of a key executive or managers, threat to shut down of business, or other financial situations. Continuity plan generally involve insurance policies that provide cost of keeping the company in operation, and the cost and hiring consultants that can help solve problems.

Asset Security:  This includes the theft or destruction of intellectual property such as trade secrets or computer programs. A security plan attempt to block any negative contingencies that might occur is asset security.

Mismanagement: Fraud, theft, operational errors, mismanagement and personal scandal are all mismanagement crisis. Companies create a system of checks and balances to prevent such problem.

Reorganization: After any unexpected event happened, companies contingency plan also covers how the company will re-establish normal operations and reorganize to limit. It is very important to reorganize the new challenges that might come.

So what happens when Business Have Contingency Plans?

    A Contingency plan is a question and an answer to the questions. Contingency plan is also “What if Scenario”.  So what can a management do when they have a contingency plan? Here are few lists that a management can do:

Ø  React Quickly

Ø  Stay Ahead of Competitors

Ø  Lead with Confidence

Ø  More Accurate Forecasting.

Duff, V (n.d.) What is Business Contingency Plan?. Retrieved from url : http://smallbusiness.chron.com/business-contingency-plan-1081.html

Hill, Brian (n.d.) what happens when business have contingency plans? Retrieved from URL: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/happens-businesses-contingency-plans-20616.html