You rely heavily upon people, facilities, computer systems, telecommunications, equipment, and business partners in the course of doing business today. The reliability and continuity of these operations are critical to your business survival and building a competitive advantage.

The challenge comes in managing the complexity of these operations across multiple entities as you integrate business partners, suppliers, and even competitors into an extended enterprise. Whether you do business domestically, in just a few countries, or across the globe, many more factors than ever before converge on a daily basis to affect the success of your business.

This is why risk intelligent executives are rightfully troubled by recent events that highlight the potential vulnerabilities of businesses around the world. Consider how factors like these could negatively affect your company’s revenue stream and brand image:

• Unplanned events, including natural and technological disasters and infrastructure and human threats.
• Security threats, such as computer viruses, worms, and denial-of-service attacks.
• Ever increasing volume of data and the very high cost of downtime due to data loss or unavailability.
• Increasing infrastructure and application interdependencies.
• Regulatory and compliance requirements, which are growing increasingly complex.
• Globalization and the challenges of operating in multiple countries.

The need for an effective risk reduction and business continuity program has never been so evident. Deloitte & Touche LLP (“Deloitte & Touche”) can help.

Related Information:
Meet Steven J. Ross
Business Continuity Survey
Business Continuity Management highlights