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BUSINESS CORNER
Tony Ngo, BMO
Bank of Montreal
The value of being prepared
The images from last summer’s
flooding in Alberta are a clear
reminder of how events like the
one experienced in southern Alberta can
impact and disrupt your business. But
what if a similar weather event occurred
in Manitoba, disrupting electricity and
communication for weeks? Do you
have a current Business Continuity Plan
(BCP) in place so your operations could
stay afloat and serve your customers’ in
a time of substantially increased needs?
If the brokerage you are in is caught
off guard by an unexpected event,
operating at close to normal may be
difficult if not impossible. Now the
goal is not to panic but to be prepared.
The development of a BCP is a simple
and important exercise that would pay
massive dividends. Ultimately a BCP
may place brokerage employees in a
position to carry on effectively in that:
• Priority services and operations
will have been established;
• Employees will have been trained
to handle the jobs of co-workers;
• Policies for flexible hours and
alternative compensation will
have been established;
• A list of alternate suppliers
or awareness of their operational
directives under a BCP will
be available;
• Countless other contingencies
that apply specifically to the
brokerage you are in will have
been considered and planned for;
and
• Employees will understand the
brokerage’s BCP and will be ready
to take appropriate action
There are numerous government
resources and private sector experts
available to assist businesses in
developing an effective BCP. While
utilizing experts for any area that you
are not fully proficient is good advice,
seven simple steps can be taken by any
brokerage to develop a BCP:
1. Identify potential threats:
a BCP starts by recognizing the
potential threats that could impact
the brokerage.
2. Assess the risks: this involves scaling
the probability of a threat and the
impact that the threat could have on
the brokerage.
60 | SPRING 2014 | Manitoba INSURANCE BROKER ⬅ Index