Business Resilience Plan Template

What Is A Business Resilience Plan?

A business resilience plan is a set of strategies, procedures, and processes that help organizations prepare for and respond to emergency situations (from pandemics to natural disasters). It outlines the steps to be taken in the event of a disaster or disruption, providing business continuity and protecting the organization’s assets and reputation. It also helps organizations identify and prioritize potential risks and develop mitigation strategies to minimize their impact and return to normal operations as fast as possible.

What's Included In This Business Resilience Plan Template?

• 3 focus areas
• 6 objectives
• 6 projects
• 6 KPIs

Once you have set your template, you can also create dashboards for real-time performance monitoring.

And yes - you get free access with no credit card required. ✅

Who Is The Business Resilience Plan Template For?

The Business Resilience Plan template is incredibly versatile and caters to organizations of all sizes, from startups and small businesses to large enterprises.

For small businesses, the template provides a scalable approach that aligns with their available resources and requirements, empowering them to build robust strategies for maintaining continuity and minimizing disruptions, even with limited budgets and personnel. Larger organizations can benefit from the template's ability to handle the complexities associated with multiple teams, departments, and locations. It encourages cross-functional collaboration, ensuring a unified approach to resilience planning.

The template's flexibility also allows it to adapt to different industries. It acknowledges that each sector faces unique risks and regulatory requirements. Whether you're in finance, hospitality, energy, or any other field, the template can be customized to address industry-specific challenges.

It can be used by teams in different business units and functions. With this template, risk management teams can create and implement measures to ensure resilience, but it can also be used by any employee, from staff members or team members to senior management.

👉🏻The template will guide you with an easy framework to help identify, measure, and monitor potential risks and develop an action plan to mitigate them.

Business Resilience And Business Continuity Plan - How Are They Related?

Business resilience and business continuity plan go hand in hand, working together to safeguard organizations in the face of disruptions. While they have distinct roles, their shared objective is to ensure the survival and success of a business.

Business resilience is all about adaptability and thriving in the face of challenges. It encompasses a broader perspective, focusing on proactively identifying risks, developing mitigation strategies, and fostering a culture of preparedness. It's like building a strong foundation that can weather any storm, ensuring the long-term sustainability of the organization.

A business continuity plan (BCP), on the other hand, is a practical and operational approach to maintaining critical functions during and after a disruption. It's the tactical side of things, outlining specific procedures and actions to keep the business running smoothly. A BCP includes emergency response, crisis management, backup systems, communication protocols, and recovery processes.

Think of it this way: business resilience sets the stage, while the business continuity plan takes center stage when a disruption occurs. Together, they form a powerful duo. By integrating a well-designed BCP into the broader resilience strategy, organizations can effectively manage risks, adapt to changes, and ensure their long-term viability.

📚Recommended read: 16 Business Continuity Plan Templates For Every Business

How To Use This Business Resilience Plan Template

Follow the following step-by-step instructions to make the most out of your template and ensure you build a successful plan to achieve business resilience.

1. Define clear examples of your focus areas

Focus areas are the broad categories on which your business resilience plan should focus. By addressing these areas, businesses can proactively identify and mitigate risks, ensure the continuity of critical functions, and inspire stakeholder confidence. Each focus area should have clearly defined objectives, actions, and measurable targets (KPIs) that can be used to assess the success of the plan.

Consider the following examples as inspiration to define the focus areas for your business resilience plan:

• Risk Assessment and Management: Assess potential risks and vulnerabilities, including natural disasters, cybersecurity threats, supply chain disruptions, and others. Develop mitigation strategies and protocols for ongoing risk monitoring.
• Business Impact Analysis: Analyze the impact of disruptions on critical business functions, operations, and financial stability. Identify key resources, prioritize continuity measures, and minimize impact on customers, employees, and stakeholders.
• Incident Response and Crisis Management: Establish business processes and protocols for incident response, defining roles, communication channels, and decision-making processes. Test response plans through drills, ensuring coordination.
• Business Continuity Management: Develop a comprehensive BCP for critical function continuity, including alternate facility and alternate site options, redundant systems, data backup, and recovery measures.
• IT Disaster Recovery Strategy: Create robust IT (information technology) recovery plans, implementing data backup, redundancy, and recovery procedures. Enhance cybersecurity measures against threats and breaches.
• Supply Chain Resilience: Evaluate supply chain resilience, collaborate with critical suppliers, diversify, and implement contingency plans to minimize disruptions.‍
• Employee Preparedness and Training: Train employees in emergency management and procedures, crisis communication, and business continuity protocols. Foster a resilient culture and employee participation in preparedness efforts.‍
• Communication and Stakeholder Management: Develop a communication plan for timely and accurate information dissemination. Establish protocols, designate spokespersons, and update stakeholders on recovery efforts.

👉🏻These are just a few examples of focus areas you can use for your own business resilience plan. Our Strategy Experts at Cascade recommend selecting 3 to 5 key areas to prioritize. In our Business Resilience Plan Template, we provide focus areas such as Business Continuity, Risk Management, and Recovery. These areas can be easily customized to align with your organization's specific needs.

📚Recommended read: Supply Chain Risk Management Examples

2. Think about the objectives that could fall under that focus area

Consider the objectives that can be associated with the chosen focus area. Objectives serve as specific goals that contribute to the overall success of the plan.

Examples of objectives within the Business Resilience Plan Template are:

(Focus Area) Recovery

• (Objective) Streamline recovery processes to minimize downtime
• (Objective) Enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of recovery efforts

👉🏻Remember to tailor the objectives to your own focus areas in your plan.

3. Set measurable targets (KPIs) to tackle the objective

KPIs, or Key Performance Indicators, are tangible benchmarks that can be used to measure the progress and success of the plan. Effective KPIs are specific, measurable, attainable, and defined within a certain timeframe.

Examples of time-bound KPIs for the Recovery focus area:

(Objective) Streamline recovery processes to minimize downtime

• (KPI) Reduce recovery time from 24 hours to 12 hours within the next six months

(Objective) Enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of recovery efforts

• (KPI) Increase recovery effectiveness by 20% within the fiscal year

👉🏻Think of KPIs that will allow you to easily gauge the progress and success (or failure) of your objectives.

🤔Don’t know where to start? Check out our articles:

• How to Write KPIs in 4 Steps + Free KPI Template
• 84 Key Performance Indicators (KPI) Examples (Tips + FREE templates)

4. Implement related projects to achieve the KPIs

Projects, also known as actions, encompass the steps taken to implement the plan and accomplish the identified KPIs. These projects should be realistic and customized to suit the specific requirements of the organization.

Here are some project examples to help you build your business resilience plan:

• Enhance employee preparedness through targeted training programs
• Strengthen data protection with updated security measures
• Expand supplier network to mitigate dependencies and ensure continuity

• Develop contingency budgeting and risk-based insurance coverage
• Establish effective communication channels and share contact information
• Upgrade infrastructure for robust hard drive backups

💡Pro Tip: Projects must be related to your KPIs, objectives, and focus areas since they’re the actions you’ll take to achieve your goal.

Define your projects following this framework/structure:

Focus Area: Supply Chain Resilience

Objective: Minimize supply chain disruptions

KPI: Reduce average delivery time by 20%

Project: Implement a vendor performance tracking system to monitor and improve supply chain efficiency, ensuring timely deliveries and reducing lead time.

5. Utilize Cascade Strategy Execution Platform to see faster results from your strategy

In today's business landscape, organizations face the challenge of answering critical economic questions and adapting to changing circumstances. However, the ability to access and analyze the right information promptly is essential for informed decision-making.

That’s where Cascade comes in!

As the world's leading strategy execution platform, Cascade revolutionizes the way businesses operate, enabling you to navigate complexity with ease. By seamlessly connecting metrics, initiatives, and investments, Cascade's platform empowers swift decision-making based on actual performance.

With Cascade, you can bring order to the chaos, gain unparalleled visibility, and make better decisions faster. This agility is crucial for building resilient businesses that thrive in uncertainty.

• Map your business. Gain a comprehensive understanding of your current performance and the factors driving it. This insight empowers you to make informed and adaptive decisions.
• Connect the dots. Centralize visibility over your execution engine, identify dependencies, and proactively address risks. Strengthen your chances of success by streamlining your execution processes.
• Maximize returns. Optimize your business operations by untangling complexity, reallocating resources, and making efficient investments. Achieve cost savings and operational efficiency while driving growth.

Achieve business resilience with Cascade

Explore the unique product features designed to help you achieve business resilience:

• Relationships: Prepare for the unexpected by tracking program dependencies, blockers, and risks that may arise on your strategic journey.

• Integrations: Consolidate your business systems under one unified platform, enhancing clarity in strategic decision-making. Seamlessly import real-time context through Cascade's extensive library of +1,000 native, third-party connectors (Zapier/PA), and custom integrations.
• Dashboards & Reports: Gain a comprehensive view of your strategic performance and easily share it with stakeholders, suppliers, and contractors. Evaluate revenue-generating initiatives against cost-impacting factors to make informed decisions.

Related Templates

• BCP - Business Continuity Plan Template
• Business Continuity and Disaster Preparedness Plan
• Business Resilience Plan Template for Supply Chain
• Risk Assessment Plan Template

🔍 Didn’t find what you were looking for? Check out our Template Library with thousands of templates to help you streamline your strategic planning process.

🆘Need extra help? Book a guided 1:1 tour with one of our Cascade in-house strategy execution experts.

FAQs

What is a disaster recovery plan?

A disaster recovery plan (DRP) is a documented approach outlining processes and strategies for recovering critical systems, data, and operations after a disruptive incident. Its goal is to minimize the impact of a disaster, restore essential functions quickly, and ensure business continuity. The plan includes steps for response, recovery, and restoration, covering aspects like data backup, infrastructure restoration, and communication protocols. Regular testing and updates are essential for its effectiveness. With a solid DRP, organizations can minimize downtime, protect assets, and swiftly recover from disruptions.