The Greatest Risk for a General Counsel: Business Continuity Tips for Success

The list of urgent matters demanding a general counsel’s attention is never-ending—contract negotiations, litigation threats, investor relations, regulatory concerns, personnel issues—but we cannot allow the urgent to crowd out time to consider the important. Although many of these matters may be time-sensitive, our overriding responsibility is to assess risk and protect the company. Lost in the demands of the urgent, many general counsels don’t take the time to consider the critical importance of business resiliency and the role they have in bringing it to the attention of management and the board.

The onset of the pandemic revealed that many companies are unprepared to adapt to a changed business environment. It was a difficult time. Companies scrambled to figure out what to do, how to do it, and how to communicate effectively with staff, clients, and vendors. While we can’t predict the next pandemic, we can be certain that there will be events that disrupt the normal flow of business in the future. What impact would a cyberattack, a severe weather event, or other unexpected disruption have on your business? If your organization hasn’t considered the risks to its business and prepared for those risks, it’s the general counsel’s responsibility to spearhead the effort to make that happen before it’s too late.

Large companies have long been aware of the importance of business continuity management, and Infinite Blue is proud to work with four of the Fortune 10. We also work with many companies in industries where risk assessment and disaster recovery plans are mandated for regulatory compliance. These companies may be at the forefront of business continuity planning, but it’s important for every company to be resilient. Our solutions can be tailored for any size business, including small and medium-size companies.

With all the other demands on your time, it can be overwhelming to think about how to structure, document, and maintain a business continuity program. How do you get beyond the buzzwords and actually plan for the what-ifs? Maybe your company has tried before, creating spreadsheets that never got updated and that would be of no use if something were to happen. Maybe you’re not sure if your company has the resources, but we all know that unexpected things happen and a failure to plan is a plan to fail. Assessing risk and protecting the company are at the core of a general counsel’s responsibilities. Ensuring the company is prepared and resilient is a key component of that responsibility.

Not sure where to start? Infinite Blue provides integrated solutions to help companies plan, prepare, test, and manage business continuity and disaster recovery plans and to communicate easily and effectively with employees and other stakeholders. Not sure you have the bandwidth to design and maintain your plan? Infinite Blue has industry-certified professionals with decades of experience to deliver as much assistance as you require.

This isn’t something we started thinking about two years ago when COVID-19 hit and everyone’s world changed. Take advantage of our experience as an industry leader to prepare your company for the future, whatever it may bring. Contact us to arrange a demo, check out one of our webinars, or download a copy of our e-book “Steps to Building an Executable Business Continuity Plan”.