Business System Consultation Center - Our Business System ColumnVol.84 2018.05.01 Takahashi Minoru

The tragicomic story of BCP preparations so excessive they disrupt business

Thank you for your interest and continued support.
This is Takahashi from the Marketing Plan Research Laboratory.


It seems that BCP has been a hot topic in the IT industry since the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
(BCP stands for Business Continuity Planning, which involves deciding in advance what will happen and what actions to take in the event of a disaster such as an earthquake.)


The BCP requirements that banks impose on companies partly stem from the underlying motive of “borrow money from us.”
There’s nothing wrong with borrowing money, but you should make a rational decision about whether to invest funds in a BCP as recommended.


The BCPs promoted by IT salespeople are merely a pretext for their underlying motive: “Buy our systems.”
While it is reassuring to know that data will not be lost in the event of a disaster, there are surely other important assets besides systems, so
you should make IT-BCP investments only after carefully considering priorities and the balance of countermeasures.


The fact that it’s written as “BCP” in English makes it seem complicated, but
but this issue boils down to “how to ensure business continuity,”
and most company presidents
most company presidents are already thinking about this on their own.
Don’t be fooled by sales pitches or empty rhetoric from others; make investment decisions based on your own daily thinking.


Furthermore, disasters are, by their very nature, events that even high-ranking government officials, scholars, or experts cannot predict.
Even in the case of a major earthquake, there was likely no such thing as “damage exactly as anticipated.”
Just like running your core business, BCP is about “thinking for yourself”—“if it goes well, you win; if you mess up, you lose.”
Let’s be careful not to blindly follow others’ advice.


That's all, Thank you for reading.

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