The Utilisation of Business Impact Analysis

Business Impact Analysis (BIA) is the primary tool used in Business Continuity Management (BCM). The utilisation of the analytical approach supports decision-making and increases robustness and, thereby, the speed of recovery from adverse events in a social system. The paper argues that organisations can utilise findings in two distinct ways, in the form of risk reduction plans (RRP) and business continuity plans (BCP), both of which are used to create and improve preventive and protective barriers. Organisations can strategically increase their robustness by using the BIA’s output to develop strategies to target vulnerabilities, thereby increasing the resilience of value-adding critical activities using fewer resources. Creating an effective response is improved by developing BCPs that target the recovery of specific critical activities. The paper uses examples from wildfire events in Greenland to illustrate how the analysis can play a role in increasing the resilience of a social system.