Welcome back

Welcome to the second week in this course on Business Continuity and Crisis Management. This week, you can expect to explore the key drivers shaping the direction of legislative, and statutory requirements, alongside sector-specific examples of Business Continuity Management (BCM) as applicable to transnational operations and even small businesses from a variety of geographies and sectors.This week you will:

• Examine the significance of utilising available risk resources such as the World Economic Forum Global Risk Reports, and National Risk Registers (or comparable information sources)
• Discuss some of the potential challenges that smaller companies may face when attempting to implement business continuity procedures
• Be given the opportunity to share your learning by preparing a framework of a case for business continuity management to an interested company (to be reviewed by your peers)

We’ll explore diverse and persistent threats and risks such as the nationwide ransomware cyber-attacks impacting the UK NHS system (called WannaCry). How this malicious cyber threat occurred, and the role of BCM arrangements in maintaining the smooth running of one Trust’s healthcare systems.We’ll review nonphysical threats such as the Oxfam sex scandal which exposed the entire charity sector to intense scrutiny and public outcry.We’ll also explore how planned business change and IT transformation programmes at a UK bank (TSB) went wrong, resulting in the failure of internal IT systems for the bank, subsequent knock-on disruptions to customers and investigations and critical findings by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).In addition to the materials ahead, we encourage you to read around and try to undertake your own self-directed study beyond the reports and links provided.