Community resilience: The future of business continuity

Abstract

Business continuity planners must now raise their horizons and engage in developing community resilience for businesses. Community resilience will help businesses to withstand the effects of a major regional or national emergency. Developing these preparations will improve communication between businesses and the authorities which are involved in directing the response and recovery to an emergency. It will lead to improved clarity of the situation and facilitate a better commitment of resources. Economic and business recovery can be a long-term process, meaning that a return to profitability may be slow. The involvement, by businesses, in community resilience will help to shorten that recovery time and will limit longer-term business disruption.