Organisations Should Reduce Business Continuity Planning Efforts and Increase Business Transformation Planning Efforts in Order to Survive

In my post last week, I discussed how the current coronavirus situation would herald three seismic shifts in the way we work. This week I want to take a look at the issues surrounding Business Continuity Planning vs. Business Transformation planning.

Increasing numbers of organizations say they are stepping up their Business Continuity Planning efforts. Stepping up efforts is a good idea, but as we know for many, it is really code for saying, "We just realized we need a continuity plan," and the sad news is that as ever when it comes to planning work, it’s too late.

All around the globe, there will inevitably be executives and managers realizing that it would have been wise to allow the budget to those who wanted to undertake planning work. When things are going well, people think they can put it off, that it's a waste of money or that it won't be needed for them! Now they find themselves scrambling to catch up.

The reality is that Business Continuity at this stage should be about executing the processes, policies, and procedures that you had already planned, taking the plans out of the drawer, checking how best to communicate them, and running simulations for longer-term disruption. It is easy to say we never expected it to be this bad or to go on for so long, but in true what-if planning, good planners will have gamed many of the scenarios.

Faced with the human tendency to deal only with what is directly in front of them, organizations will face an even bigger problem soon, the challenge of transforming quickly. Continuity planning comes with a mindset of how to carry on as before, with minor or temporary changes. But, as I stated in my other post, the world is not likely to go back to how it was, which means we need to ramp up transformation planning to prepare to make deep, long-lasting, and in many cases, permanent changes.

Imagine for a moment 9-12 months down the road, when hopefully the main issues will be behind us, how will;

a) The retail world look - Will everyone go back to physical shopping, or will the new habits of online shopping have become entrenched?

b)   Vehicle ownership change - For extended periods we won't have used our cars, or will have used them differently, will this change our buying behavior, and what might that mean to manufacturers, leasing companies, or insurance companies?

c)    Transportation needs have shifted, we already see that many more people will work from home and people will be more willing to accept virtual meetings, so what does an airline or travel company of 2022 look like?

d)   Bank usage is affected - Banks have been looking to reduce the branch network for some time. After 6-9 months of internet banking and cashless transactions, how much will people see they no longer need branches, and indeed could it see reduced use of cash as a currency?

e)   Supply chains change - Will we see the migration of manufacturing from one continent to another, shorter supply chains, or greater redundancy within supply chains?

Hopefully, these quick and simple examples serve to illustrate my point. Business continuity planning is not likely to address such shifts. To survive and thrive in the new world of 2022 is going to require most organizations to transform more significantly. So, at a time when organizations are likely to reign in spending, cut costs, and hunker down, I suggest that spending on Business Transformation Planning should be accelerated.

Anyone who remembers the recessions of the 80s and 90s will know that post-recession companies that had continued to invest heavily in advertising did better post-recession. Those organizations not only saw revenues bounce back stronger; they also would up eating market share from competitors who had reduced advertising. I predict that the same will be true in this situation but using business transformation planning as my proxy for advertising.

What should we be planning, who should be doing it, and what should they be doing? Well, the good news is that organizations already have roles and teams that can help. Business Architects within the Enterprise Architecture teams, Process Analysts, and Process Architects are just some of the key people you can deploy.

In terms of what you might want them working on, I would suggest the following two concepts will be crucial.

a)    Journey Modelling – instead of merely applying the technique via customer experience and marketing teams for sales and pipeline management, use it broadly. Have your business architects and process teams use it to "imagine" journeys of the future. Customer Journeys, Patient Journeys, Employee Journeys, capture, and model them all. Don't be constrained with how things were, remember the winners in 2022 will be those who better imagined the future before it arrived.

b)   Business Capability Modelling – Many in the business architecture community have started to become more dependent on capability models. In this situation, they are a great tool to begin assessing what capabilities you may no longer need, which you will need to find and which you may need to change. Rather than start with the current state, why not start by taking those journey models and working backward to create a future state capability model first. You can then compare your future capability model with your current one to identify the roadmap for change.

As you create these future state models of how things might be, share them widely around your organization, leverage the wisdom of the crowd. Especially at a time like this when many people are feeling disconnected from colleagues and organizations, sharing via some type of portal or collaboration hub, will prove a great way of helping feel involved. Of course, many of your staff will also be looking for additional things to do, so having them applying their thinking skills makes sense. Beyond soliciting input, you will also be subconsciously preparing the teams for change and, in many cases enabling them to feel secure that there will be a future for the business.

Another area that is likely to be significantly transformed are your process models, managing the changes to process models will be a little more challenging. Processes are likely being tested to the limit via continuity changes, and many will be found to either not work or not have been clearly captured, documented, and communicated. Immediate changes to processes should be undertaken by a separate team (probably an Operational Excellence team); this team focuses on the urgent need to keep things working today. You cannot limit your tomorrows with today's processes, nor can you restrict today's business needs by having to wait for tomorrow's process. My advice is to keep it as two workstreams. Once you have identified journeys and capabilities, you can then cautiously map processes to journey steps and capabilities to see how they fit. I say cautiously because the chances are many of your processes will need completely reengineering, or at least the leaders of tomorrow will reengineer. In contrast, others try to push square pegs into round holes.

With the innovative technologies available, and now ever stronger motivation, change is your only way to survive. The chances are that there are organizations today already planning on how this presents them with opportunities to enter your markets, disrupt your traditional ways of doing business, and steal your customers. By taking the journey/capability approach, I suggest then you will be well-positioned to fend them off and to successfully deliver on the Customer Excellence demands that will be expected by 2022.

In summary, while, of course, it makes sense to be doing some business continuity planning, I suggest that at least 50% of your efforts over the next 6-9 months in planning should be on business transformation planning. Only history will show whether I am right or wrong, but I would hate to be saying I told you so in 2022 as your business fades into obscurity. I would much rather that you were all operating healthy, profitable businesses and were able to say that you did not need to use all that you did.

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For those seeking other ideas and inputs you might be interested in the “7 Step Guide to Effective Business Transformation” paper I wrote, or for those who prefer watching to reading why not take a look at Understanding Customer Journeys as a Strategic Imperative or 7 Steps to Operational Excellence