The meaning of letters in the world of business continuity

Donna Monkhouse - Your BC Eye

AMBCI, CBCI, FBCI all sounds impressive, but what exactly are you getting for your money when you recruit a qualified BCM professional with these letters after their name?

As a newcomer to the BCI and the world of business continuity, part of my company induction was spent with the membership team, and it was here that I was subject to an avalanche of acronyms that engulfed me with so much confusion that it threatened to suffocate 'my little grey cells' as they fought to digest and assimilate the coded messages that were winging their way to me.  This is my attempt to cut through the letters and shed some light on what these all stand for from a practical point of view.  

My key question is: what sort of skills and competencies can you expect if you hire an MBCI or FBCI etc. into your business?

Well let’s begin at the beginning with Affiliate Membership just because it seems like a good place to start.   For someone who is genuinely interested in business continuity or is possibly considering embarking on a career as a BCM practitioner, this is the best starting point.  Affiliates quite often acquire their Affiliate Membership to the BCI as a spin off from attendance at a relevant training course.   They may well have experience in BCM, but generally speaking they are not  yet qualified enough to take the examination that leads to statutory membership and any experience they may have is usually not certified. 

Now let’s move on to the different variations on a theme of the ‘BCI’s.  Anyone with the letters ‘BCI’ in their title, be it CBCI, MBCI or AMBCI or indeed FBCI all have some knowledge and competence across six key skills areas.  How much will depend on a variety of factors, which I will explain later.

So what are these key skills?

1.     BCM Policy and Programme Management, which means that they will have the skills and knowledge to establish appropriate policies and procedures for BCM in your organisation as well as set up, implement and manage a BCM Programme. 

2.     Embedding BCM in the Organisation’s Culture, which means they will be able to create a programme of activities that will help raise awareness of BCM with your staff and thus achieve corporate buy-in to BCM, which is critical if it is going to work.

3.     Understanding the Organisation, which means they are able to carry out a Business Impact Analysis, including threat evaluation risk assessments and mitigation measures. 

4.      Determining Business Continuity Strategy, which is in itself self-explanatory really.

5.     Developing and Implementing a BCM Response, which covers things like emergency response procedures, business continuity planning, including recovery and communication with both internal and external stakeholders.

6.     Exercising, Maintaining and Reviewing BCM, which means that they will be familiar with planning and coordinating walkthroughs and exercises to ensure your staff knows what to do when disaster strikes.

These are often referred to as the ‘basic skills of business continuity’.  However, how much experience and knowledge your people will have, how skilled and competent they will be, will depend on a variety of factors, including the number of years of practical experience they are able to evidence. 

The next step on the business continuity ladder is the CBCI, the Certificate of the BCI.  Individuals who hold this certificate are qualified across all of the six skills areas in line with the Good Practice Guidelines.  They may have some practical working experience in the field, but their experience hasn’t been officially assessed or proven by the BCI.

Moving onto our Associate Members (AMBCI), this is someone who too is qualified in the basic skills of business continuity, but unlike the CBCI they do have proven practical workplace experience (at least one year to be precise) in a business continuity role, which has been properly assessed.  

The ‘Specialist’ on the other hand, that is our SBCI, is the exception to the six skills rule.   As the title implies they tend to be specialists in one particular area only.  They may well have some knowledge across the six core skills, but generally speaking they are only master of one.  In order to achieve ‘Specialist’ status, you need to have worked in that area in that capacity.  Specialists have at least 2 years’ proven experience and assessed practical workplace experience in their area of specialism.  They will also either hold some form of certification from a professional body that is relevant to their specialism or be a member of a relevant professional body.

As we move further up the ‘food chain’ to the level of MBCI, that is Member with a capital ‘M’ as I was told by our Membership Manager, we once again have an individual who is certified in the basics of business continuity, but is proven to be more experienced with at least three’ years’ practical working experience in a business continuity role.  This is where we start to see some real value add to the organisation in terms of the length and breadth of the skills and competencies they can bring to the table. 

And finally to the crème de la crème, FBCI – this lovely “fellow” simply has it all - at least six years’ proven and assessed practical workplace experience in a Business Continuity role; at least two years’ membership with the BCI at either SBCI or MBCI level, as well as enjoying a reputation as a Thought Leader in BCM either through the publication of his/her work in one of the leading industry journals or as an active contributor to the BCI.   Fellows are a rare breed and in fact there are only 108 FBCIs out of a total of just over 7,000 BCI members, so pretty much an elitist group.

And finally, we need to understand how easy or not it is to get from one level to the other.  It is not, as it may seem an automatic progression, but behind it sits a rigorous assessment process that tests and proves the skills, knowledge and competencies of all individuals that wish to move up through the BCI Membership ranks.

So next time you are looking to recruit a BCM professional, remember your letters and know that you are getting technically competent and quality assured experts!

The Virtues of Virtual Workshops

Donna Monkhouse Your BC Eye

Physical workshops offer attendees a fantastic interactive, organic learning environment as well as a superb platform for networking and some great peer to peer information exchange.   You can contribute as much or as little as you like; and if you prefer, you can just simply sit quietly in the background and absorb the flow of information.   The choice is yours.

A safe haven, the physical workshop seems like the perfect setting for effective learning and knowledge transfer.   It even has its quirks for its presenters, offering great scope for different types and blends of communication, ranging from verbal to visual to indeed kinesthetic interaction!  

If that is the ‘good’, what are ‘the bad and the ugly’?  Well, two simple words – time and money!   

With busy work schedules and multiple key diary commitments in place, taking a full day out of a busy working week to attend a workshop off site is not always possible, even if attendance would add real value.  And we haven’t even mentioned the cost of getting there and any possible overnight stays!

But what if the workshop came to you?  What if you could have all the same benefits without the hassles?  What if you didn’t even have to leave your desk to participate?

Well there is a way – and that way is the virtual workshop.  The virtual workshop offers similar benefits to that of a physical workshop plus a few more – you get to network with your peers and profit from the sharing of best practice; you can ‘chat’ to other delegates, ask questions through the Chair and participate in discussions and debates, you just don’t have to travel to get there and if you wanted, you could even attend wearing your pyjamas and slippers – no-one need ever know!

All this adds up to some tremendous cost savings – no travelling costs; no overnight costs.  And then there is the added bonus in that it saves time and can be attended with minimum disruption to your day, enabling you to make the best use of your time and meet critical work and diary commitments and still have some time for important professional development.  And the savings made by the organiser in terms of reduced administration and event management costs are passed directly onto the attendees in the form of reduced delegate fees.  Definitely a ‘win-win’ situation for everyone concerned.

It is easy to set up from a technological point of view, requiring only the minimum use (and understanding) of technology to get started  – internet connection, a laptop or PC and a set of headphones will suffice to link you up to your new virtual learning environment.   

The virtual workshop is a global workshop.  People can potentially attend from anywhere around the world, adding to those already great networking opportunities as you connect with people from across the international scene, rather than being restricted to people who are “within travelling distance”.

But the best bit about a virtual workshop has to be the time and money it saves you.  No need to spend a day out of the office travelling to and fro to attend; the virtual workshop offers you the chance to participate at the click of a button (or two) directly from your desk or wherever you happen to be at the time.   The power of the internet is working at full capacity here; technology is the name of the game.

So with all these virtues, it is no wonder that the BCI is making use of the available technology to bring some of its workshops directly to you with the introduction of BCI Virtual Workshops, which they have just launched.

Four great titles are already planned for 2012, starting with Communicating in a Crisis. 

Take a look here and sign up for some great debates!

Good news for ISO 22301

Lyndon Bird FBCI

The BCI welcomes the news that ISO22301 has finally been approved and will soon be published.

This represents a significant step forward for the discipline of Business Continuity Management but it also raises a number of questions.  Amongst these are the positioning of BS25999 parts 1 and 2, as well as how other national standards bodies in the US, Canada, Australia and Singapore will react to the new ISO.

Many BCI members around the world have made significant contributions to this new standard and the BCI would like to thank them for their hard work in representing both their national standards bodies and (at least indirectly) the BCI in the process.

 The BCI are launching an important consultation survey with our global membership to solicit your opinion on the new standard.   Watch this space for more news from the BCI Research and Advocacy department.

BCI comes out at DRJ Spring World Conference 2012



John Di Maria Winner
Business Continuity Manager Consultant of the Year
 sponsored by IT Professional Group

Last week saw the first outing of the BCI as Education Partners of the Disaster Recovery Journal (DRJ) at their Spring World Conference held in Florida.

As a first time visitor to both Florida and a DRJ event, I was very impressed with both.  The location was excellent, convenient for the airport, beautifully laid out with good accommodation and wonderfully warm.  Inside the conference venue, however, things were even better.  DRJ offered a superb range of plenary and breakout streams catering for all levels of expertise and learning requirements. It was obvious from the buzz in the dining area and corridors that many attendees also used the event to catch up with old friends and make new connections.

The BCI Team at the BCI North America Awards

The BCI Team, including Central Office, the US Office and both US and Canadian Chapters, was out in force to show our support for DRJ and to talk to the many visitors to our booth about why the BCI is unique and what we can offer members.   Activities and outputs from the very recent Business Continuity Awareness Week featured highly in our discussions as we showcased why the BCI is the thought leader in the BCM arena.  We also registered a great deal of interest in the Institute and will shortly be welcoming many more new members.

DRJ also offered the chance to get to know colleagues and partners in a more relaxed social environment.  The BCI US Chapter was pleased to greet in excess of 300 guests to a welcome reception which kicked off the event.  Send Word Now (Platinum Sponsor of the BCI’s BCM World Conference) hosted a superb 30’s style, classy evening down on the beach.  The final night, however, saw the inaugural BCI North American Awards ceremony presented by our own Master of Ceremonies, Frank Leonetti MBCI – well done to all winners.

The night was wrapped up with a high octane party from xMatters who kindly sponsored the BCI Awards – those guys really know how to party.

Lorraine Darke

Executive Director BCI

How much third party due diligence is enough?

Lee Glendon CBCI

Reputational risk is a hot topic as many of you will be aware.   Last week, I was invited to  a debate at the UK’s House of Lords, following comment in the Financial Times on the need to understand and prepare for the reputational consequences of moving production to countries with potentially very different business practices to the UK.

The debate was intended to focus on anti-corruption due diligence following the introduction of the UK Bribery Act, which requires adequate procedures of due diligence; however, it soon became a broader debate on the limitations of a compliance approach.  How much due diligence and compliance would be enough if you have 60,000 suppliers?  How do you justify to the board that the investment will be effective?  Some participants were looking at potentially spending millions of dollars on the due diligence

This debate would resonate with many BCM practitioners, who have been looking at supply chain resilience issues, even more so when the topic of standards and kite marks was discussed.  It has to be said that while kite marks were seen as a good in theory and reference frameworks had been developed for third party due diligence in this area, it was widely felt by those present that they would be an insufficient means of assurance, when applied in isolation.

One participant, who is a serving board member, noted that his boardroom had discussed the issue of anti-corruption and noted that Non-Executive Directors were particularly attuned to the issue as they would be held responsible. However, executive directors were less animated by the issue - one had commented that the legislation would make it impossible to do business in some of the major growth markets around the world.   

The debate moved on to an area familiar to all of us:  compliance alone is not enough to address the issue, it’s about the culture of the company and executive commitment.    The board needs to be engaged and understand that they are responsible when this goes wrong. 

The thought running through my mind was simply: here’s another part of the organisation that is looking at supply chain resilience, wanting to engage with procurement and bidding for resources from the board to perform due diligence. 

Surely, there is some opportunity for BCM practitioners to leverage this activity, share expertise and position BCM as a framework for understanding this problem?

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