Remove the Pressure: Smarter Strategic Thinking
- May 6
- 3 min read
By Erika Andresen, JD, CBCP, MPA
Picture it: Sicily, 1922. I’m kidding (IYKYK). For real, now…
Picture it: A disaster (doesn’t matter what kind: hurricane; ice storm) is about to hit your business location. What do you do?
Now, picture it: An unexpected disruption occurs (a key piece of machinery stops working; the warehouse wins Powerball and quits the next day). What do you do?
In any of these scenarios (minus the Sophia Petrillo nostalgia trip) panic is an option, but it doesn’t have to be. There is a professional practice called business continuity. It enables you to keep your doors open and cash flowing no matter what. When you’ve allocated mental bandwidth to sorting out the “what if”s ahead of time, you already have things in place that allow the system to do what you set it up to do: be continuous. This is how you create business resilience. Bonus: if you do have to close your doors, that time is minimized and you can come back more easily, cheaply, and quickly than your competitors.
When is the best time to do this? There are two answers: now and when things are calm.
“Now” refers to the stage of business you are in. You don’t need to get bigger to do business continuity, you actually need business continuity to create a secure platform from which to grow. You don’t need to wait to do business continuity until you’re established; it makes more sense to get the lay of the risk land before you plop your baby in a flood zone. Starting over is harder (and more expensive) than starting right in the first place.
“Calm” is also the best time to figure out your plan. That means in advance of anything bad happening. Planning in advance and being ready for any situation is key to business success and growth. Strategizing over potential risk issues and their solutions before they happen puts leaders in a position to be prepared instead of reacting. Reacting may be a super power of yours, but it also creates a haste-makes-waste scenario which can make a bad situation worse.
You can miss obvious solutions when you’re stressed, which may turn out very costly to the business overall.
Let’s talk about the alternatives to business continuity. That’s a short conversation because there aren’t any. How about risk management? No, business continuity picks up where risk management fails. It’s risk management plus. Will insurance cover you? Insurance can help alleviate a financial burden, but the risk still exists. Think of car insurance: are you less likely to get into an accident just by having car insurance? No. Plus the claim may not pay out. How about having cybersecurity? That’s only technology - you have physical space, employees, processes and vendors to worry about as well. It takes a village, not just a secure connection to the cloud.
Smarter strategic thinking involves dedicating time to doing business continuity early. You can’t solve the problems you don’t know, and thinking out strategic solutions before you need them has a big payoff. Like what? Getting a discount on business insurance premiums. Getting approved more easily for a commercial loan. Receiving a higher valuation for the sale of your business. Getting free grant money. Keeping employees employed. Having a reputation for being reliable no matter what. Staying in business.
Incorporating the principles of business continuity is not a luxury, it is a leadership strategy.
Now when I say, “Picture it…”, your response will be, “I already did! We will be ready. It either will be a minor issue or won’t be an issue at all. Next!”
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