Contingency plan calls for deployment of floating booms across the width of the creek downstream from the spill, but access points to the creek are not periodically inspected.
A business continuity plan and a business contingency plan share some similarities, but a business continuity plan primarily focuses on how an organization can continue operations during an emergency, whereas a contingency plan addresses a broader range of risks.
Business contingency plans and project risk management plans both identify potential risks and determine ways to respond to them. The former focuses on risks to the entire organization, while the latter focuses on risks to a particular project.
In a project risk management plan , teams identify and assess possible risks to a specific project. It then determines how project leaders can respond to, eliminate, or mitigate those risks.
A business contingency plan identifies potential threats to an organization's ability to continue operating. It assesses risks that could temporarily or permanently halt operations, and then outlines plans to mitigate or eliminate those risks.
Empower your people to go above and beyond with a flexible platform designed to match the needs of your team — and adapt as those needs change.
The Smartsheet platform makes it easy to plan, capture, manage, and report on work from anywhere, helping your team be more effective and get more done. Report on key metrics and get real-time visibility into work as it happens with roll-up reports, dashboards, and automated workflows built to keep your team connected and informed.
When teams have clarity into the work getting done, there’s no telling how much more they can accomplish in the same amount of time. Try Smartsheet for free, today.
Updated on: 2 November 2022
How to avoid disasters? Be prepared for them.
When things are going well, you often forget to plan for the bad times. But when disaster strikes, you could lose everything in a heartbeat.
An earthquake can bring your whole shop to the ground, your biggest client can choose your competitor over you, your system suddenly can crash making you lose important data etc. There are endless possibilities of disasters if you really think about it.
That’s why lack of a plan can be a disaster of its own.
Let’s see why you need a business contingency plan and how to create one in a few simple steps.
But first, let’s define what a contingency plan is.
A contingency plan is a proactive strategy that describes the course of actions or steps the management and staff of an organization need to take in response to an event that could happen in the future. It plays a significant role in business continuity , risk management and disaster recovery.
It helps you stay prepared for unforeseen events and minimize their impact. It also outlines a plan for carrying out the normal business operations after the event has occurred.
It’s also known in names such as plan B, backup plan, and disaster recovery plan. In case your primary plan doesn’t work, it’s time to execute the plan B.
Without a contingency plan you’re opening yourself to unnecessary risks. Here are some important benefits of a contingency plan that you cannot look away from.
An effective contingency plan is based on good research and brainstorming. Here are the steps you need to follow in a contingency planning process.
Identify the major events that could have a negative impact on the course of your business and on the key resources, such as employees, machines, IT systems etc.
Involve other team heads, subject experts, and even outsiders like business consultants to get a deeper understanding of things that may cause problems and jeopardize the direction.
Use a mind map to organize and categorize the information you gather from the brainstorming session with the staff. You can easily share this with everyone in the organization to get their input as well.
Once you have created a list of all the possible risks that could occur in different areas of your business, start prioritizing them based on the threat they pose.
The risk impact probability chart is a handy tool you can use here. It helps you evaluate and prioritize risks based on the severity of their impact and the probability of them occurring.
In this step you’ll create separate plans that outline the actions you need to take in case the risks you identified earlier occur.
Consider what needs to be done in order to resume normal operations after the impact of the event.
Here you’ll need to clarify employee responsibilities, timelines that highlight when things should be done and completed after the event, restoring and communications processes and the steps you need to have taken in advance to prevent losses when the event has taken place (i.e. insurance coverage).
You can use a visual format here to highlight the course of actions. It would be easier for everyone to comprehend.
Once you have completed the contingency plans , make sure that they are quickly accessible to all employees and stakeholders.
Review your contingency plans from time to time and update them as needed. And it’s a best practice to inform your employees of the changes as well, as it may include updates to their roles and responsibilities.
That is how you make a detailed contingency plan. List down the major incidents that could harm your business operations, prioritize them based on their impact and probability, create an action plan explaining what you should do in case they occur, and review and update them frequently.
What is the contingency planning process at your organization? Let us know in the comments section below.
Join over thousands of organizations that use Creately to brainstorm, plan, analyze, and execute their projects successfully.
Please enter an answer in digits: three − one =
Copyright © 2024 Entrepreneur Media, LLC All rights reserved. Entrepreneur® and its related marks are registered trademarks of Entrepreneur Media LLC
By Greg Davis Edited by Chelsea Brown Apr 27, 2023
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
In today's ever-changing business environment, business owners, entrepreneurs and franchise owners need to be prepared for the unexpected. Contingency planning is a critical component of business growth, enabling organizations to minimize disruptions and recover quickly from unforeseen events.
In this article, we will discuss the importance of contingency planning, the key elements of a comprehensive plan and how to implement a contingency plan effectively. By taking proactive steps to prepare for potential challenges, businesses can build resilience and ensure continued growth and success.
Related: 4 Ways to Prepare Now so Your Business Survives the Unexpected Later
Disruptions can come in many forms, from natural disasters to cybersecurity breaches, equipment failures or even changes in the competitive landscape. Without proper planning, these events can have a devastating impact on a business's operations, finances and reputation. Contingency planning helps businesses minimize the impact of disruptions, maintain operational continuity and recover more quickly from setbacks. This resilience is crucial for business growth, as it enables organizations to adapt to changing conditions and capitalize on new opportunities.
Developing an effective contingency plan involves several key steps:
Step 1: Identify potential risks and vulnerabilities
The first step in creating a contingency plan is to identify potential risks and vulnerabilities that could impact your business. This includes both internal and external factors, such as natural disasters , equipment or network failures, supply chain disruptions, cybersecurity breaches, changes in the landscape or the loss of key personnel. By identifying potential threats, businesses can better understand their exposure and develop targeted strategies to address these risks.
Step 2: Develop response strategies
Once potential risks have been identified, businesses should develop response strategies to mitigate the impact of these events. This may involve developing alternative suppliers, establishing backup systems or processes or implementing new security measures. Response strategies should be tailored to the specific risks faced by the business and should take into account factors such as the likelihood of the event occurring, the potential impact on operations and the resources required to implement the strategy.
Step 3: Establish a communication plan
In the event of a disruption, clear communication is essential to ensure that all stakeholders, including employees, customers and suppliers, are aware of the situation and know what steps are being taken to address the issue. A comprehensive communication plan should outline how the information will be shared, who will be responsible for providing updates and what channels will be used to communicate with different stakeholders.
Step 4: Train employees and build awareness
For a contingency plan to be effective, employees need to be aware of the potential risks facing the business and understand their roles and responsibilities in the event of a disruption. This may involve training employees in new processes or procedures, providing guidance on emergency response protocols or conducting regular drills to ensure that all team members are prepared to act quickly and effectively in the event of a crisis.
Step 5: Review and update the plan regularly
As the business environment continues to evolve, it is essential that contingency plans are regularly reviewed and updated to reflect changes in the company's operations, industry dynamics or the broader economic landscape. This may involve conducting periodic risk assessments, updating response strategies or refining communication protocols to ensure that the plan remains relevant and effective.
Related: 5 Reasons Why You Should Create an Emergency Response Program for Your Business
With a comprehensive contingency plan in place, businesses can take steps to minimize the impact of disruptions and maintain operational continuity . Key steps in the implementation process include:
Developing an action plan
An action plan should outline the specific steps that will be taken to address each identified risk, including timelines, resources and responsibilities. This plan should be clear, concise and easily accessible to all team members, ensuring that everyone understands their role in the event of a disruption .
Allocating resources
Contingency planning may require the allocation of resources, such as budget, personnel or equipment, to implement response strategies effectively. Businesses should prioritize resources based on the likelihood and potential impact of each identified risk, ensuring that the most critical vulnerabilities are addressed first.
Testing and refining the plan
Once the plan has been developed, it is essential to test its effectiveness through simulation exercises, drills or other means. This will help identify any weaknesses or gaps in the plan and enable the business to refine its strategies accordingly. Regular testing also helps ensure that employees are familiar with the plan and prepared to act in the event of a disruption.
Monitoring the environment and adapting
Contingency planning is an ongoing process that requires businesses to monitor changes in their operating environment and adapt their strategies accordingly. This may involve updating the plan to address new risks, adjusting response strategies in light of changing circumstances, or reallocating resources as needed. By staying attuned to the evolving business landscape, organizations can remain agile and resilient in the face of uncertainty .
Contingency planning is a critical component of business growth, enabling organizations to navigate the unexpected and maintain operational continuity in the face of disruptions. By identifying potential risks, developing targeted response strategies and implementing a comprehensive plan, businesses can build resilience and drive continued success. As the business environment continues to evolve, contingency planning will remain a vital tool for business owners, entrepreneurs and franchise owners seeking to capitalize on new opportunities and protect their organizations from unforeseen challenges .
Related: How to Create a Disaster Plan for Your Business
Entrepreneur Leadership Network® Contributor
CEO of Bigleaf Networks
Want to be an Entrepreneur Leadership Network contributor? Apply now to join.
I started over 300 companies. here are 4 things i learned about scaling a business..
It takes a delicate balance of skill, hard work and instinct to grow a successful business. This serial entrepreneur loves the unique challenge; here are the key lessons she's learned along the way.
The chain is the latest fast-casual restaurant to face difficult decisions amid inflation.
AT&T's CEO called out the seven biggest tech companies in the world.
Resort guests can now book a ride up to a week in advance among other changes.
Cynthia Sakai, designer and founder of the luxury personal care company evolvetogether, felt compelled to help people during the pandemic.
Rivian and VW plan to fine-tune a "next-generation, software-defined vehicle."
Successfully copied link
Filter by Keywords
What is a contingency plan & how to develop one.
Vivian Tejeda
ClickUp Contributor
July 13, 2023
In business, the only constant is inconsistency.
Whether it’s natural disasters, cybersecurity breaches, or supply chain disruptions, unexpected events can strike at any time. And this isn’t simply alarmist talk—obviously, business risks can pop up anywhere, but you can avoid so much with a general backup plan.
It’s why developing a contingency plan is essential for every organization. However, it takes knowing what to include, how to create proactive measures, and how to have this plan ready at any time so you maintain normal operations.
And that’s where this guide comes in. 💪
Let’s walk through the process of contingency planning to help your team navigate unforeseen challenges with confidence. Here’s how to start safeguarding your business against the unpredictable.
Benefits of having a contingency plan, how to create a business contingency plan: a step-by-step guide, elements of a contingency plan, contingency plan examples, get your team prepared with a contingency plan.
A contingency plan is a proactive strategy designed to help businesses prepare for potential risks and disruptions. It outlines the necessary steps to lower potential damage, ensure your business operations continue, and that an organization can recover from its biggest risks or unexpected adverse situations.
Business contingency plans understand the key risks that could derail an entire project or business continuity. Typically, contingency planning relies on business impact analysis to determine the biggest risks and potential setbacks . This allows companies to proactively create a backup option from an original plan.
From weather-related disasters to data breaches, contingency planning makes all the difference when the unexpected occurs. There are plenty of reasons to create contingency plans—for obvious and not-so-obvious reasons.
Here are some of the benefits of contingency planning you might not realize:
Having a solid contingency plan means you’re ready to tackle whatever curveballs life throws at your business. And the best part? It minimizes the impact these surprises can have on your business. For example, it could be financial, operational, or reputational risk management to keep damage and losses to a minimum.
With detailed contingency plans in place, you set yourself up to stay strong, no matter what.
A lot of businesses operate on the model that everything runs perfectly—minus a few hiccups here and there. But how do organizations plan around unpredictable disasters from weather or other emergencies that could break your supply chain?
You could panic—or have some relief knowing the contingency plans you created have a detailed backup plan to maintain business continuity—so everything remains running smoothly. Contingency planning allows you to adapt to whatever comes your way and keep serving your customers with minimal interruption.
Now that’s what you call stability.
Let’s be real—the faster you recover from an unexpected event, the better. Your contingency planning process helps you identify what you need to do to get back on track ASAP.
The result? You save time and resources and avoid any extra headaches that might come from a prolonged disruption—including losing that customer base you’ve worked so hard to grow.
Here’s the thing—your customers and key stakeholders want to know you’ve got their backs. When you’ve got a business contingency plan at the ready, you show customers you’re serious about maintaining top-notch service and reliability.
It’s a rock-solid way to build trust, foster customer loyalty, and show that your business operates no matter the situation—so you can focus solely on what matters most.
Ready to build your own contingency plans? Follow these seven steps to ensure your business is prepared for the unexpected.
Gather a diverse group of employees and stakeholders who understand your business and provide valuable insights into potential risks and solutions.
This team should include representatives from different departments and levels of responsibility, ensuring a well-rounded perspective. Remember, a diverse team spots potential blind spots better and brings creative problem-solving ideas to the table.
Identify possible disruptions—natural disasters, cybersecurity breaches, personnel issues, or other hazards—and assess their potential impact on your business. Take a deep dive into your operations and consider both internal and external threats.
Consult with your team and external experts if needed, and create a comprehensive list of risks that could affect your business continuity.
Rank the identified risks according to their potential consequences and the likelihood of them actually happening. Focus on high-impact, high-probability events for your contingency plan.
This prioritization process will help you allocate resources effectively and ensure you’re tackling the most critical threats first. Remember, it’s essential to strike a balance between addressing immediate threats and preparing for longer-term risks.
For each risk, create a detailed plan outlining the steps your business will take to mitigate the threat and minimize its impact. These response strategies should be clear, actionable, and tailored to the specific risk at hand .
Better yet, don’t start from scratch. ClickUp provides a done-for-you contingency template that you can fill in and share with your whole team. As you continue to flesh out your contingency plan, consider both short-term and long-term solutions, and make sure your plan is flexible enough to adapt to changing circumstances. The more specific your action plans , the better prepared your team will be.
Determine how the information will be shared and establish guidelines for coordinating response efforts among team members and stakeholders. This might involve setting up dedicated communication channels, designating points of contact, or implementing a centralized reporting system.
It might even be worth adding it to your onboarding process for employees. The goal is to ensure that everyone involved in executing the contingency plan is on the same page.
Educate your employees about the risks you’ve identified and make sure they’re familiar with the contingency plan. Conduct regular training sessions and drills to keep everyone prepared.
Make sure your team understands their role in the plan and is equipped with the skills and knowledge necessary to execute their responsibilities. Who is doing what? What are the expectations?
An informed and well-trained team is your strongest asset in navigating unexpected challenges.
Stay proactive by periodically reviewing your contingency plan and making necessary updates based on changes in your business environment, new risks, or lessons learned from past incidents .
Schedule routine check-ins to reassess potential risks, evaluate the effectiveness of your response strategies, and make any necessary adjustments. A contingency plan is a living document—keep it fresh and relevant to stay prepared for whatever comes your way.
Creating comprehensive contingency plans takes several crucial elements—think of them as the building blocks for a solid foundation of preparedness. Let’s explore each of these components in detail:
First things first, you need to dive deep into your business processes and identify potential threats that could disrupt your operations.
Consider everything from natural occurring disasters and cyberattacks to personnel changes and to issues with supply chains. Once you’ve compiled a list of risks, assess their potential impact on your business to determine the severity of each threat.
Risk management is all about knowing the likelihood of anything and everything that could pause your operations. Here are some common reasons for developing contingency plans :
Try the ClickUp Risk Assessment Whiteboard Template to collaboratively plan around all of the potential issues that could harm your operations. A visual whiteboard allows everyone to participate and clearly see the risks and strategies to address them in one space. Now, your contingency plan will look better than ever.
Not all risks are created equal. To make the most of your contingency planning efforts, prioritize risks based on their likelihood as well as what their consequences could be.
Focus on addressing high-impact, high-probability events first, then work your way down the list to make sure you’re tackling the most critical threats head-on to have a solid Plan B.
The ClickUp Prioritization Matrix Template aids in prioritizing tasks and projects based on their impact on users and the effort required to implement them. It’s a useful tool for assessing operational workflows and improvements, with prioritization made easy using the 3×3 matrix.
For each identified risk, develop a clear and actionable plan outlining the steps your business will take to minimize the threat and its impact.
Remember, it’s essential to be proactive rather than reactive—having well-defined response strategies in place will help you act swiftly and decisively when faced with unexpected challenges.
For IT teams, contingency plans must include how you’ll address any cybersecurity threats. The ClickUp Cybersecurity Action Plan Template helps IT departments add crucial details to a contingency plan.
Here’s an important note to keep in mind: A contingency plan is only effective if everyone involved knows about it and understands their role.
Outline how information will be shared during an emergency, and establish protocols for coordinating efforts among team members and stakeholders. For example, HR software with clear communication and seamless coordination features can be vital for a successful response to any crisis.
If you need help setting up your internal or external communication process during a crisis, the ClickUp Communication Plan Template is a must. This template provides simple steps to build an effective communication plan with easily customizable sections throughout the Doc so your contingency plan is as thorough as possible.
Educate your employees about potential risks and the contingency plan itself.
Run regular training sessions and drills to make sure everyone is familiar with their responsibilities and prepared to act when the time comes. An informed and well-trained team is your strongest asset when navigating unexpected challenges.
Get a head-start with the ClickUp Company Process and Procedures Template to easily document and organize your contingency planning guide for the organization. This template will give you the bones of a solid plan to get employee buy-in and knowledge of what to specifically do if circumstances change.
Lastly, don’t let your contingency plan collect dust. Regularly review and revise it as needed to make sure it remains up-to-date and aligned with your current business environment.
Schedule periodic check-ins to assess potential risks, evaluate the effectiveness of your response strategies, and make any necessary adjustments. A contingency plan is a living document—keep it fresh and relevant to stay prepared for whatever comes your way. 🚀
Don’t make planning any more difficult than it has to—use the ClickUp Business Continuity Plan Template and rest assured you’ve included everything. Add reassessment plans to go back and edit contingency plans based on new threats or risk you could encounter and review each year.
In 2011 a devastating earthquake and tsunami hit Japan, causing widespread destruction and significantly impacting businesses across the country. Toyota, a global leader in the automotive industry, was no exception. Supply chains suffered massive disruptions due to damaged infrastructure and affected suppliers.
However, Toyota’s business contingency plan played a crucial role in minimizing the impact of the disaster on the company. They already discovered the possible risks associated with natural disasters and put measures in place to address them with a solid backup plan.
The company’s business continuity planning played a huge role in quickly bouncing back. Here are some of the best examples of their plan:
Toyota’s “plan B” included an emergency response process to shift production to other facilities. When the tsunami struck, Toyota quickly relocated some manufacturing operations to unaffected plants, both within Japan and overseas.
These types of proactive measures helped maintain production levels and ensured that the company could continue to meet customer demands during the crisis.
The event also affected many suppliers that Toyota relied on for parts and materials. To minimize the impact on supply chains, the company leveraged its extensive network of global suppliers, turning to alternative sources to procure the necessary components.
This diversification strategy allowed Toyota to maintain its production schedules and minimize late deliveries of customer vehicles.
In the aftermath of the crisis, Toyota swiftly mobilized its resources to support recovery efforts. They worked closely with affected suppliers to help them restore their operations, provided financial assistance, and shared their expertise in disaster recovery.
By getting ahead of “what ifs”, Toyota demonstrated the power of effective contingency planning in the event of a major disaster.
Remember, a good offense is the best defense. That’s why contingency planning pushes you to be proactive in managing risks . By identifying potential threats and addressing them before they escalate—and keeping your plan updated—you’ll always be ready to respond effectively. It’s like having a secret weapon in your back pocket.
Whether you use one of ClickUp’s templates or create something from scratch, a contingency plan is about so much more than just preparing for the unexpected. It’s about minimizing damage, ensuring business continuity, bouncing back quickly, building trust, and being proactive.
Use ClickUp as your central space for communication, planning, and organizing essential documents. Additionally, you can rely on Whiteboards to collaboratively organize your response plans.
When you put it all together with ClickUp, you’ve got a recipe for a resilient, agile, and successful organization that takes on anything life throws its way. Give ClickUp a try today for free !
Questions? Comments? Visit our Help Center for support.
Thanks for subscribing to our blog!
Please enter a valid email
How it works
Transform your enterprise with the scalable mindsets, skills, & behavior change that drive performance.
Explore how BetterUp connects to your core business systems.
We pair AI with the latest in human-centered coaching to drive powerful, lasting learning and behavior change.
Build leaders that accelerate team performance and engagement.
Unlock performance potential at scale with AI-powered curated growth journeys.
Build resilience, well-being and agility to drive performance across your entire enterprise.
Transform your business, starting with your sales leaders.
Unlock business impact from the top with executive coaching.
Foster a culture of inclusion and belonging.
Accelerate the performance and potential of your agencies and employees.
See how innovative organizations use BetterUp to build a thriving workforce.
Discover how BetterUp measurably impacts key business outcomes for organizations like yours.
A demo is the first step to transforming your business. Meet with us to develop a plan for attaining your goals.
Learn how 1:1 coaching works, who its for, and if it's right for you.
Accelerate your personal and professional growth with the expert guidance of a BetterUp Coach.
Types of Coaching
Navigate career transitions, accelerate your professional growth, and achieve your career goals with expert coaching.
Enhance your communication skills for better personal and professional relationships, with tailored coaching that focuses on your needs.
Find balance, resilience, and well-being in all areas of your life with holistic coaching designed to empower you.
Discover your perfect match : Take our 5-minute assessment and let us pair you with one of our top Coaches tailored just for you.
Research, expert insights, and resources to develop courageous leaders within your organization.
Best practices, research, and tools to fuel individual and business growth.
View on-demand BetterUp events and learn about upcoming live discussions.
The latest insights and ideas for building a high-performing workplace.
The online magazine that helps you understand tomorrow's workforce trends, today.
Innovative research featured in peer-reviewed journals, press, and more.
Founded in 2022 to deepen the understanding of the intersection of well-being, purpose, and performance
We're on a mission to help everyone live with clarity, purpose, and passion.
Join us and create impactful change.
Read the buzz about BetterUp.
Meet the leadership that's passionate about empowering your workforce.
For Business
For Individuals
Jump to section
Why is contingency planning important, 4 steps to develop a contingency plan.
Most days at work are business as usual — you hope. Unfortunately, there are also days where nothing seems to go right. Sometimes, these hiccups are just part of running an organization. And some days, they can be a major disruption in your work.
Because your clients and customers are relying on you to deliver as promised, it’s critical that you have a backup plan in place. There’s no way to prevent all mishaps from occurring, but you can minimize their impact with a little strategic planning .
Rather than waiting for the worst-case scenario to play out, companies — and individuals — can put together a contingency plan. This helps to ensure that normal business operations continue as smoothly as possible.
Learn what a business contingency plan is, why you should have one, and how to start planning in this article.
Contingency planning is a part of a business’ risk management strategy. It’s how companies foresee potential disruptions to the business.
Contingency planning is an action plan put in place to help individuals, teams, and organizations minimize disruption. In common terms, we think of this as “plan B.” Contingency plans are less about how to mitigate negative events and more about proactively developing problem-solving skills.
While traditionally, contingency planning have been an area of focus for managers and organizations, there are many benefits for individuals as well.
To understand contingency planning, it’s best to take a broad view. Sure, when companies have a crisis management plan in place, everyone sleeps a little better at night. It’s nice to know that you’ll know what to do if something happens.
But in life — as well as in business — the only real constant is change. As Tina Gupta, VP of Talent and Employee Experience at WarnerMedia puts it , “Change is not something to solve for.” Fear of change and uncertainty leads people to hide from it, interpreting every bit of rough air as a sign of an impending crash.
When you embrace a future-minded perspective , you no longer have to be afraid of uncertainty. Contingency planning becomes a strategy to be proactive instead of reactive . It’s an exercise in looking for ways to thrive instead of survive.
BetterUp calls this type of person a future-minded leader . Rather than running from potential threats or pretending everything is fine, they cultivate an agile mindset . These people combine optimism, pragmatism, and the ability to envision the future (or, what positive psychologists call prospection ).
Let’s look at how WarnerMedia has been able to embrace contingency planning as a tool to build a psychologically safe environment.
Before you can create a contingency plan, you need to identify the risks that may impact your business. The best way to do this is with the support of your team. Hold a brainstorming session where you can talk through recent experiences, upcoming initiatives, and common pitfalls.
This type of risk assessment can't protect you from being surprised. Tomorrow will hold unexpected events, many of which never happened before in your organization (months-long pandemic shutdowns anyone?) Instead think of this assessment as surfacing the things you can prepare for and opening up everyone's imagination to the range of possible obstacles and outcomes. This will prime the pump for awareness, a flexible mindset, and solution-seeking orientation.
Don’t make the mistake of limiting the meeting to just managers. Your entry-level employees and individual contributors will have a lot of insight as to what could happen — and how to handle it.
Companies often make strategic planning an annual event, but you should review your contingency plan more frequently. Risk assessment should ideally be a natural part of planning for every new initiative.
Here are 4 steps to develop a contingency plan for your team:
What are the risks? The first step in contingency planning is knowing which scenarios you’re preparing for. It’s impossible to predict everything, but chances are you can think of one (or ten) worst-case scenarios that would throw operations off.
Put these scenarios in order of likelihood. The most probable and important ones will form the backbone of your contingency plan.
In your hypothetical scenario, what would be the most likely course of action? Write that down, but be sure to ask: is it the best course of action? If your new plan is significantly different from what you’ve done before, you’ll want to talk it over with your leaders.
Get your team involved in this stage of the process. One of the benefits of planning in advance is that you have time to brainstorm responses. If the disruption has happened before, ask them what they did to resolve it and what they wish they had done differently.
Once you’ve created a viable plan, determine who the stakeholders are. Identify who needs to know as soon as plans change and who will be responsible for kicking plan B into gear. If anyone needs to authorize purchases, provide access to resources, or otherwise support the plan, make sure that they know as well.
If you can, do a practice run of your disaster recovery plan. The specifics will vary depending on the “disaster,” but running through the plan is a useful exercise. It will help you spot areas that you might not be able to predict in advance.
For example, when the coronavirus pandemic sent millions of workers into lockdown, companies that already had remote work policies in place were in the ideal position for the change. Companies that relied on brick-and-mortar workplaces had to quickly develop strategies to ensure remote team members had the technology and support they needed to work from home for an extended period of time.
In general, it’s a good idea to review your contingency plan on (at minimum) an annual basis. However, there may be other events that might trigger a review of your recovery strategies.
There are three main parts to your plan: the trigger (or unexpected event), the planned course of action, and the people involved. If any of these change, you’ll want to update your plan.
For example, moving to a new system, platform, or workflow would cause a change in both your Plan As and Plan Bs. If you hire for a new role that sits between functions, that may change the people involved.
Your business continuity plan isn’t just an exercise in preparedness. It’s an opportunity to help your teams learn how to become more agile and creative problem solvers.
Everyone, from a project management team developing a contingency plan for rolling out a new sales incentive, an IT team planning for a new system to go live, or a manager coaching an employee through creating a contingency plan for meeting work deadlines, needs to develop this skill. In a time of uncertainty and constant change, thinking through possible problems and alternatives in advance is part of life.
Gupta of WarnerMedia says that empowering her team through coaching has helped them "move from overwhelm to thriving through change." When they trust themselves, the company, and the plan, employees become more confident. They’re more willing to take risks and trust each other.
When things go awry, your plan won’t just minimize the potential impact. It will empower your team to thrive in uncertainty as they respond to whatever gets thrown their way.
Develop your leadership and strategic management skills with the help of an expert Coach.
With over 15 years of content experience, Allaya Cooks Campbell has written for outlets such as ScaryMommy, HRzone, and HuffPost. She holds a B.A. in Psychology and is a certified yoga instructor as well as a certified Integrative Wellness & Life Coach. Allaya is passionate about whole-person wellness, yoga, and mental health.
Contingent workforce management: what employers need to know, leaders are prioritizing well-being over leadership skills in the post-covid workplace, how to build a high performance team, according to patty mccord, an exclusive conversation with fred kofman, the secret to developing managers that help your business thrive, meet the future-minded leader: your organization’s answer to uncertainty, when the new normal is a no-show: why future-mindedness is the mindset organizations need now, from self-awareness to self-control: a powerful leadership technique, similar articles, struggling with control issues coaching can help, how to excel at life planning (a life planning template), 10 characteristics for becoming a successful entrepreneur, do more than survive — thrive in turbulent seasons, strategic planning: read this before it's that time again, how to use strategic foresight to stay ahead of the curve, 4 reasons why you can't afford to skip out on succession planning, stay connected with betterup, get our newsletter, event invites, plus product insights and research..
3100 E 5th Street, Suite 350 Austin, TX 78702
It is the question that haunts business continuity professionals throughout their careers. Of course, there are a million possibilities that might occur at any time. But creating a business contingency plan at least helps you to prepare for the unknown.
Here, we take a look at the basics of business contingency planning , as well as how to create a plan for your own organization.
A business contingency plan is a course of action that your organization would take if an unexpected event or situation occurs.
Sometimes a contingency can be positive—such as a surprise influx of money—but most often the term refers to a negative event that affects an organization’s reputation, financial health or ability to stay in business. Examples of a negative event include fire, flood, data breach and a major IT network failure.
Contingency plans are an important part of your overall business continuity strategy because they help ensure your organization is ready for anything. Many large businesses and government organizations create multiple sets of contingency plans so that a variety of potential threats are well-researched and their responses are fully practiced before a crisis hits.
Think of contingency planning as a proactive strategy, whereas crisis management—the other piece of the business continuity puzzle—is more of a reactive strategy. A contingency plan helps to ensure you are prepared for what may come; a crisis management plan empowers you to manage the response after the incident occurs.
How do i create a business contingency plan.
Creating a contingency plan requires a bit of research and planning. However, working ahead on each plan will be worth it in the long run.
To create a contingency plan for your organization, follow this five-step framework:
First, do a little research throughout your organization to identify and prioritize the resources that your organization cannot do without, such as employees, IT systems, and specific facilities and physical assets.
Next, identify the potential threats to these critical resources. Meet with employees, executives, IT and other key personnel to gain a holistic idea of the events that could impact your resources. If necessary, consider bringing in a consultant who specializes in identifying risk.
Ideally, you would then write out a contingency plan for each of the identified risks. However, it’s best to start with the highest-priority threats—usually those that are most likely to occur and would have the biggest impact. Then, over time you can work toward drafting plans for each lower-priority risk.
As you draft each plan, ask yourself what steps would have to be taken for the organization to resume normal operations. Consider things like communications, employee activity, staff responsibilities and timelines (what needs to happen when). Then, create a step-by-step plan for each risk.
Once each plan is completed and approved, ensure that every employee and stakeholder has easy access to it. For this important step, you might consider leveraging an issue and crisis management app , which provides contingency plans and related documents directly to each employee on his or her mobile device.This approach replaces the traditional hard-copy ring-bound folders and ensures that each employee has access to the most recent plan immediately should the worst happen.
Be sure to keep each plan updated as your organization goes through changes, such as hirings and firings and the adoption of new technologies. In addition, rehearse implementation with stakeholders on a regular basis to ensure that each team member knows their role.
What contingencies do you think are most likely to affect your organization? How are you currently preparing for them?
Start free trial
What is contingency planning, what is a contingency plan, contingency plan example, how to create a contingency plan, business contingency plans, project contingency plans.
Contingency plans are used by smart managers who are aware that there are always risks that can sideline any project or business. Without having a contingency plan in place, your organization won’t be well prepared for risk management .
The term contingency planning refers to the process of preparing a plan to respond to any risks or unexpected events that might affect an organization. Contingency planning starts with a thorough risk assessment to identify any risks and then develop a contingency plan to resolve them or at least mitigate their negative impact.
Contingency planning takes many shapes as it’s used for helping businesses and projects across industries. Even governments use contingency plans to prepare for disaster recovery or economic disruption, such as those caused by natural disasters.
A contingency plan is an action plan that’s meant to help organizations mitigate the negative effects of risks. In simple terms, a contingency plan is an action plan that organizations should execute when things don’t go as expected.
Get your free
Use this free Action Plan Template for Excel to manage your projects better.
Now that we’ve briefly defined what contingency planning is, let’s take a look at a contingency plan example involving a manufacturing project.
Let’s imagine a business that’s planning to manufacture a batch of products for an important client. Both parties have signed a contract that requires the manufacturer to deliver the products at a certain date or there may be negative consequences as stated on the purchase agreement. To avoid this, the business leaders of this manufacturing company start building a contingency plan.
To keep this project contingency plan example simple, let’s focus on three key risks this company should prepare for.
ProjectManager has everything you need to build contingency plans to ensure your organization can respond effectively to risks. Use multiple planning tools such as Gantt charts, kanban boards and project calendars to assign work to your team and collaborate in real time. Plus, dashboards and reports let you track progress, costs and timelines. Get started today for free.
Like a project plan , a contingency plan requires a great deal of research and brainstorming. And like any good plan, there are steps to take to make sure you’re doing it right.
To create an effective contingency plan you should first identify what are the key processes and resources that allow your organization to reach its business goals. This will help you understand what risks could be the most impactful to your organization. Research your company and list its crucial processes such as supply chain management or production planning as well as key resources, such as teams, tools, facilities, etc., then prioritize that list from most important to least important.
Now, identify all the risks that might affect your organization based on the processes and resources you’ve previously identified. Figure out where you’re vulnerable by brainstorming with employees, executives and stakeholders to get a full picture of what events could compromise your key business processes and resources; hire an outside consultant, if necessary. Once you’ve identified all the risks, you should use a risk log to track them later.
Once you’ve identified all the risks that might affect your processes and resources, you’ll need to establish the likelihood and level of impact for each of those risks by using a risk assessment matrix . This allows you to determine which risks should be prioritized.
Now, write a risk mitigation strategy for each risk that you identified in the above steps. Start with the risks that have a higher probability and higher impact, as those are the most critical to your business. As time permits you can create a plan for everything on your list.
Contingency plans should be simple and easy to understand for the different members of your audience, such as employees, executives and any other internal stakeholder. The main goal of a contingency plan is to ensure your team members know how to proceed if project risks occur so they can resume normal business operations.
When you’ve written the contingency plan and it’s been approved, the next step is to ensure everyone in the organization has a copy. A contingency plan, no matter how thorough, isn’t effective if it hasn’t been properly communicated .
A contingency plan isn’t chiseled in stone. It must be revisited, revised and maintained to reflect changes to the organization. As new employees, technologies and resources enter the picture, the contingency plan must be updated to handle them.
We’ve created an action plan template for Excel to help you as you go through the contingency planning process. With this template, you can list down tasks, resources, costs, due dates among other important details of your contingency plan.
A business contingency plan is an action plan that is used to respond to future events that might or might not affect a company in the future. In most cases, a contingency plan is devised to respond to a negative event that can tarnish a company’s reputation or even its business continuity. However, there are positive contingency plans, such as what to do if the organization receives an unexpected sum of money or other project resources .
The contingency plan is a proactive strategy, different from a risk response plan , which is more of a reaction to a risk event. A business contingency plan is set up to account for those disruptive events, so you’re prepared if and when they arrive.
While any organization is going to plan for its product or service to work successfully in the marketplace, that marketplace is anything but stable. That’s why every company needs a business contingency plan to be ready for both positive and negative risk management.
In project management, contingency planning is often part of risk management. Any project manager knows that a project plan is only an outline. Sometimes, unexpected changes and risks cause projects to extend beyond those lines. The more a manager can prepare for those risks, the more effective his project will be.
But risk management isn’t the same as contingency planning. Risk management is a project management knowledge area that consists of a set of tools and techniques that are used by project managers to create a risk management plan.
A risk management plan is a comprehensive document that covers everything about identifying, assessing, avoiding and mitigating risks.
On the other hand, a contingency plan is about developing risk management strategies to take when an actual issue occurs, similar to a risk response plan. Creating a contingency plan in project management can be as simple as asking, “What if…?” and then outlining the steps to your plan as you answer that question.
ProjectManager has the project planning and risk management tools you need to make a reliable contingency plan that can quickly be executed in a dire situation.
Use our task list feature to outline all the elements of a contingency plan. Since a contingency plan likely wouldn’t have any hard deadlines at first, this is a good way to list all the necessary tasks and resources. You can add comments and files to each task, so everyone will know what to do when the time comes.
Our dashboard gives you a bird’s eye view of all of the critical project metrics. It displays live data so you’re getting a real-time look at how your project is progressing. This live information can help you spot issues and resolve them to make sure that your contingency plan is a success. Which, given that it’s your plan B, is tantamount.
If you’re planning a project, include a contingency plan, and if you’re working on a contingency plan then have the right tools to get it done right. ProjectManager is online project management software that helps you create a shareable contingency plan, and then, if you need to, execute it, track its progress and make certain to resolve whatever problems it’s addressing. You can do this all in real time! What are you waiting for? Check out ProjectManager with this free 30-day trial today!
Start planning your projects.
Learn about business contingency plans and why it makes sense to create one now.
We have probably all been in situations where things have not gone as expected. Although no one wants carefully laid plans to go awry, having a Plan B ensures that you’ll be able to weather most unforeseen events. Being prepared for alternative action is especially crucial in a business context where the unexpected can happen at any time.
A contingency plan is a clearly defined course of action that can help any organization deal with potential business risks, ensure business continuity, and then resume normal business operations as quickly as possible.
An unfavorable event is generally unlikely to take place. However, as a business owner, having a contingency plan for different scenarios can give you peace of mind that an emergency response is set in place if things do go wrong. With this kind of backup plan, disaster recovery will be a much smoother process, and normal operations can quickly resume.
For example, no one can accurately predict when natural disasters will strike or when global events like the Coronavirus pandemic are going to hit. In the case of the latter, nearly every business faced hardship, regardless of its size or industry, but companies that had contingency plans were able to get back on their feet sooner.
Other than providing guidance during external unexpected events, a contingency plan should also extend to possible internal events, such as data breaches, staffing shortages, software downtime, or declining business relationships.
A contingency plan doesn’t just have to cover a negative event. Ideally, you should also have an action plan in place for growth or improvement situations—for example, if there is a sudden surge in customer requests or you identify a special market opportunity.
Business continuity plan.
A business continuity plan is a temporary solution that ensures your business is able to continue functioning even after operations have been disrupted. For example, if you are suddenly unable to access your office space, a business continuity plan would be to invest in software that would allow your employees to work from home until new premises can be secured.
Alternatively, a contingency plan triggers a course of action in response to a specific incident. For example, a contingency plan for the loss of a huge client would be different from one dealing with an information systems crash.
While a contingency plan is a proactive strategy, a disaster recovery plan is a reactive one and should be part of any contingency policy to return your company operations back to normal. It can include recovery strategies, such as continued data access and IT infrastructure, so your company operates near the level it did before the disaster took place.
Disaster recovery and business continuity planning are both narrower in scope than a contingency plan. It deals mainly with operational matters in your organization so that you can recover from a disaster as quickly as possible.
Like disaster recovery, a crisis management plan is more focused on real-time response following a crisis, compared to the preventive planning needed for a contingency plan. A quick note on how to differentiate disasters from crises—a disaster comes about suddenly, whereas a crisis develops over time (be it quickly or slowly).
It is impossible to be prepared for every eventuality despite your best attempts to make the most thorough recovery strategies. The events that occur might not fit neatly into your contingency plan. In these situations, the only way out is to swiftly modify the contingency plan.
When companies need to think on their feet and adapt to unexpected scenarios, this is where crisis management—the overarching management of emergencies—comes into play.
Risks are always present in the business world. A risk management plan is similar to a contingency plan because it is also proactive in nature. However, with risk management, you have an action plan to prevent potential crises from taking place, while also reducing the impact of these crises should they happen.
A contingency plan only kicks in either once a certain negative event becomes inevitable or there are enough warning signs to trigger a contingency response.
Not budgeting for your business contingency plan.
A contingency plan has to include a contingency fund, which sets aside a certain amount of resources (e.g., money, people, time) to cover unanticipated costs. It’s a good idea to decide this amount with your team or other stakeholders beforehand to prevent future disputes.
Resist the temptation to cut these funds even in times of a budget crunch. If something does go wrong, you will need to explain to management what happened to your contingency plan.
Although contingency planning sounds like a good idea, not everyone will agree that it’s necessary. Before you start doing anything, find out how open-minded the stakeholders at your company are. If you cannot identify enough executives who think it’s important, don’t waste your time and effort to create one.
Contingency plans need to be updated regularly to account for new risks, changes in government policies, and shake-ups in organizational structure. In short, they need to remain current and evergreen. Schedule reminders a couple of times each year to review the existing plan and make changes if necessary.
Step 1: create a contingency planning policy statement.
A contingency plan policy statement is a formal document that outlines the contingency objectives for your organization, such as getting back to normal operations by a certain time. A policy statement also expresses the authority and gives the guidance necessary for stakeholders to create a contingency plan.
Essentially, this should answer the questions “what is contingency planning?” “how should I go about doing this?” and “what can stakeholders expect from a contingency plan?”
A business impact analysis (BIA) is used to determine the potential impact, both operational and financial, of a disruptive event in your organization. By doing so, you will be able to recognize the systems, components, and processes that are vital to your business functions, and therefore identify your recovery priorities in the event of an emergency.
Every organization has its unique set of potential risks, which can be identified with a risk assessment. Having implemented a BIA, you will now know what your business-critical operations are. To get even more ideas, schedule a brainstorming session with your executive team and/or other stakeholders.
After this, you then need to identify the threats that could harm each of these operations—for example, a technical glitch or a change in business regulations. Once all this data has been collected, put it in a risk register—a risk chart that enables you to track your risks and any information you need to know about them.
Once you have all your potential risks, it’s time to evaluate how they might impact your organization. Ask yourself the following key questions:
One way to rank risks is to use a qualitative risk assessment , which orders each risk according to its probability of taking place as well as its potential impact. Another common method is the quantitative risk assessment , which estimates how much each risk might cost your business and ranks the results from most to least costly.
You’ll now start to create a contingency plan for the highest priority risks to your organization, namely those that are most likely to occur and cause the most damage. Outline the actual actions needed to confront a disaster and include preventive controls that can reduce the effects of disruptions.
An example of a modern, detrimental event for most companies would be an information systems breach. Preventive controls for this situation would be to invest in a good-quality antivirus software, make sure your software is regularly updated, create strong passwords, and have files backed up on-premises.
As for the actual plan, these contingency strategies and procedures are usually tailored to the system’s security impact level and recovery requirements.
After creating a first draft of your contingency plan, it’s time to get stakeholder approval. Given that contingency plans usually involve employees and management across your company, it will be extremely difficult to implement them without adequate support. Getting approval well in advance also means that plans can be put into action right after an incident occurs.
Contingency plans are usually department-wide or company-wide. By putting them in a shared public folder with a clear document name, you are ensuring that everyone will have easy access to them in case of an emergency.
Having laid all the groundwork, you can move on to the execution stage. It’s essential that the parties who have roles in your contingency plan know what their responsibilities are in each risk scenario. Once everyone has been appropriately trained, each of them will be prepared to act quickly in the event of an emergency.
Training should also be given to new employees so they know what contingency planning is, what it entails, and what they might have to prepare to do in the future.
In the event of a real disaster, would your contingency plans be effective? There is only one way to find out—and that is through plan testing. Set aside time to run through the procedures for each contingency plan as if each emergency scenario were really taking place.
Not only will this validate the recovery capabilities of each plan, but it will also show if there are any deficiencies or gaps, which can then be improved upon.
Smart managers know that it is not enough to just create a contingency plan. Plan maintenance is more difficult, and it takes more effort—but that’s what makes it all the more critical. Risk management is an ongoing process, and you need to keep your plan up-to-date when risks or business requirements change.
Comprehensive contingency planning will make sure that you are prepared to deal with all the risks that come with running a business. Be it natural disasters, workplace accidents, financial instability, malware—these are only the tip of the iceberg of things that can go wrong. But, with a tested contingency plan, you can effectively prepare for whatever may come your way.
Limited Time Offer:
Save Up to 25% on LivePlan today
0 results have been found for “”
Return to blog home
Posted may 4, 2022 by sabrina parsons.
Any business that survived the pandemic had to adjust, readjust, and rethink their business as they dealt with shutdowns, supply chain issues, and ever-changing customer behavior. At the time, it could be seen as crisis or recovery planning . However, intentionally or not, these businesses were proactively creating contingency plans.
A business contingency plan is an established strategy or backup plan designed to help organizations respond to possible future events. This contingency planning process encourages you to consider business and financial strategies for potential risks well in advance. It’s basically a lean business plan that takes into account unexpected scenarios that could affect your business.
Doing so ensures that you aren’t caught off guard. Instead, when a negative event occurs, you can jump right into successfully navigating your business. A contingency plan can even address larger potential issues such as a natural disaster, a global pandemic, or a major security breach.
Your contingency plan will want to address and cover:
Financial “what if” scenarios are based on the contingency you are planning for. The important part is to include your projected Profit and Loss statements as well as your Cash Flow Forecast. Adjust these financial statements around a potential issue to better understand what course of action you’ll need to take.
Are there increased costs of goods and services or do you need to change your pricing? Should you add a fuel surcharge if the contingency involves higher gas prices?
Understanding the financial effects is the first step. Next, you’ll need to address how you will adjust your business and marketing strategy to navigate the contingency, you are planning for. This is when you go from risk management to creating a plan that helps your business thrive rather than recover.
What changes will you need to make to your staffing, advertising, and marketing budgets? Will you need to change how you sell, market, and support your products and services to address the adverse events?
By putting together a contingency plan and addressing risks to your business, you will be prepared and able to best address those risks when and if they happen. The last few years have taught all small business owners that we have no idea what is ahead. That the best possible way to plan for the future is to be ready for anything.
A contingency plan for your business will help you step through the what-if scenarios that you might encounter. To start putting together solid plans that will help you overcome risks, fast-track disaster recovery, and even ensure there’s business continuity in place.
What if gas prices double, and your run a delivery business? A contingency plan could help you model the financial scenario, make sure you have the right access to credit lines to pay for the increased costs, and plan for the right gas surcharge to add to your customer deliveries.
Using ai and step-by-step instructions.
Secure funding
Validate ideas
Build a strategy
Writing a contingency plan doesn’t have to be a huge or stressful ordeal. All you are doing is taking your lean business plan, and making some adjustments to the strategy and the strategic forecast to plan for uncertainty. Here’s a step-by-step guide to write your own contingency plan.
In the past few years, all business owners have experienced risks they never saw coming. Trying to account for everything can be overwhelming and time-consuming. Rather than anticipating anything that could happen to your business, focus on the next few years.
Start with a comprehensive list, putting everything down that could possibly happen to your business in the next 12-24 months. Loss of an employee, a dip in sales, equipment failure, rising shipping costs, insurance increases, etc. Depending on your business, it may also be beneficial to consider larger unforeseen risks such as natural disasters, cyber-attacks, and economic downturns.
We can all look back at the beginning of the pandemic and learn from the events. Use that knowledge to think about potential future risks and build your list.
Now that you have all those frightening potentials listed, it’s time to prioritize. You need to think about your key risks. The ones that are most likely to happen or will cause the greatest hardship to your business. Realistically you should prioritize no more than 3-5 key risks.
Remember, you can always use these initial contingency plans to help you explore additional risks. More than likely, several risks will have similar effects on your business functions. It’s much easier to adapt your contingency plans once you have them rather than starting fresh every single time.
Now that you’ve done the prep work, it’s time to jump into developing your plan. Take your prioritized list and focus on building contingency plans that outline how you and your business will tackle each risk. Here is what you should include in your contingency plan:
To truly understand how a specific risk impacts your business operations, you’ll need a full financial forecast . This will account for what the risk will do to your revenue, expenses, or both. Having a clear picture of your potential financial situation will help you answer questions such as:
Don’t worry about creating these forecasts from scratch. Instead, start with your current financial forecasts, make a copy, and adjust projections based on what you expect to happen. Be sure to take note of what adjustments you make. This will make it far easier to update your forecast scenarios whenever you bring in more recent real-world performance data for your business.
Looking for a better solution? Learn how you can save more time and ensure greater accuracy when adjusting to actual performance using LivePlan .
With your forecasts in place, you can begin to define the actions you will take. Keep things simple and easy to follow by creating a one-page strategic plan for each risk. In it, you’ll address how the effects of each risk will impact your operations, sales, marketing, milestones, and even funding needs. This will help you answer questions such as:
Document your 12-24 month road map and the key changes you need to implement to keep your business healthy. Keep it lean and actionable to ensure that you and your team will actually be able to use it when the time comes. The LivePlan Pitch page is a perfect place to outline your one-page strategy.
You’ve considered the risks. You have contingency plans in place that include financial forecast scenarios and a one-page action plan. It’s now time to connect your contingency plans to your overall business strategy and business plan.
Ideally, you should have a simple, lean business plan that is helping guide your business over the next 12-36 months. If not, take 30-minutes to develop one based on your current expectations for your business. This will make it far easier to update and use when facing the risks you’ve identified.
Take this business contingency plan example for instance. If your unexpected event is about a financial risk (such as a dip in sales), connect that contingency plan with your financial plan as a potential fork in the road. You can easily do this same exercise with the two to three more contingency plans you have already built out.
The end goal is to make this quick and painless so that you can spend less time planning and more time acting when a crisis you’ve planned for occurs.
Think of it like attachments for a tractor. Where you have all of the right buckets and tools to get your yard in tip-top shape. You’re prepared to jump right in and take on everything from mowing and digging to laying down new gravel. All you need to do is add the right attachments ahead of time. That’s exactly how you want your contingency plans to function with your current plan.
Once you have integrated the contingency plans into your overall business plan, it’s time to get your team on board. You want to be sure that they understand the ins and outs of your business plan, and how each contingency should be executed when the time comes.
So how do you get your team on board? Try these three simple steps:
You can check out our guide on how to conduct a monthly plan review meeting for a more thorough explanation of how to set up this process.
The hard work is done. You have thought about potential hurdles your business might face and you have a plan. Your team is engaged and you now have a regular review schedule in place to keep your business on track.
All you have to do now is implement your lean business plan, watch for obstacles, and be ready to use your contingency plans if needed. Don’t worry, your regular review meetings will help you track your actual results against your plan and will give you an opportunity to revise your plan if need be. Check out how LivePlan can help simplify this process and help you make better business decisions in any scenario.
Posted in management, join over 1 million entrepreneurs who found success with liveplan, like this content sign up to receive more.
Subscribe for tips and guidance to help you grow a better, smarter business.
Exciting business insights and growth strategies will be coming your way each month.
We care about your privacy. See our privacy policy .
Reading time: about 3 min
Natural disasters, data hacking, theft—your organization has likely prepared for major catastrophes.
Less significant events can also be majorly disruptive—say your biggest customer suddenly switching to a competitor or your entire sales staff getting food poisoning at their annual retreat.
Many circumstances have the potential to disrupt, or worse, shut down your business. A business contingency plan can save the day. Follow the steps below to develop a business contingency plan that will help you stay prepared for the worst.
A contingency plan is a roadmap created by management to help an organization respond to an event that may or may not happen in the future—whether it’s a large-scale event like a natural disaster or a small-scale roadblock like employee theft.
The purpose of a business contingency plan is to maintain business continuity during and after a disruptive event. A contingency plan can also help organizations recover from disasters, manage risk, avoid negative publicity, and handle employee injuries.
By developing a contingency plan, your business can react faster to unexpected events. The faster your organization is able to get back up and running, the less impact you'll see on profits and revenue.
There are many factors to consider when building a contingency plan. These four steps are a good place to start preparing for the unexpected.
Before you can prepare for a disaster, you need to understand what types of disasters you’re preparing for. Think about all the possible risks to your organization, including natural disasters, sudden changes to revenue or personnel, or security threats.
Make sure you spend your time and resources preparing for events that have a high chance of occurring as you write and develop your contingency plan. For example, you may have listed earthquakes as a possible risk. However, if your area doesn't experience many earthquakes, you wouldn’t want to spend all your time preparing for this event. If your area is prone to flooding, you should spend more of your resources preparing for floods.
To determine which risks are more likely to occur, use a risk impact scale . This will help you to estimate the likelihood that an event will occur and determine where to focus your efforts.
Once you’ve created a prioritized list, it’s time to put together a plan to mitigate those risks. As you write a contingency plan, it should include visuals or a step-by-step guide that outlines what to do once the event has happened and how to keep your business running. Include a list of everyone, both inside and outside of the organization, who needs to be contacted should the event occur, along with up-to-date contact information.
You can also create a list of ways to minimize the risk of these events now and start acting on it.
Maintenance of your contingency plan is arguably the most important part of the process because it’s where the work happens to ensure you’re always ready.
Review your plan frequently. Personnel, operational, and technological changes can make the plan inefficient, which means you may need to make some changes.
You’ll want to communicate the plan to everyone who could potentially be affected and clearly define what everyone's roles and responsibilities will be during a time of crisis.
To help you prepare for the unexpected, get started with these business contingency plan examples below.
Ready to get started? Business contingency plans help you prepare your organization to handle anything unexpected. Give your employees a realistic plan for how they should handle any problem that arises.
Learn the 5 steps to an effective risk management process.
Lucidchart, a cloud-based intelligent diagramming application, is a core component of Lucid Software's Visual Collaboration Suite. This intuitive, cloud-based solution empowers teams to collaborate in real-time to build flowcharts, mockups, UML diagrams, customer journey maps, and more. Lucidchart propels teams forward to build the future faster. Lucid is proud to serve top businesses around the world, including customers such as Google, GE, and NBC Universal, and 99% of the Fortune 500. Lucid partners with industry leaders, including Google, Atlassian, and Microsoft. Since its founding, Lucid has received numerous awards for its products, business, and workplace culture. For more information, visit lucidchart.com.
Enterprise risk management 101.
62% of organizations report experiencing a critical risk event within the past three years. Make sure that your business is adequately prepared with enterprise risk management (ERM). Learn the key benefits and attributes of ERM.
Identify and prepare for potential risks in your workplace. This article explains what the risk assessment process is and how you can start your own in five simple steps (including free templates!).
or continue with
By registering, you agree to our Terms of Service and you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Privacy Policy .
Small Business Contingency Plans Explained
vitapix / Getty Images
A business contingency plan is a course of action that will be taken if an unexpected event occurs that could disrupt the business. It's a backup plan that ensures the business can continue to operate despite an adverse event.
A business contingency plan is a “plan B” or blueprint for how to keep your business running in the event of a natural disaster, major technical issue, or other unforeseen disruption. A contingency plan identifies potential risks to your business and outlines steps your management team and employees can take if confronted with one of those risks. It helps protect the health and safety of your workers after an event has occurred, while also minimizing business interruptions that can result in financial losses. A well-thought-out plan can mean the difference between staying in business and shutting down.
Every business should have a contingency plan so it can resume its operations as soon as possible after a disruptive event occurs.
A plan will save you time and money since you've already decided what resources you need and actions to take to keep your business going. It can also alleviate some of the stress you're likely to feel when disaster strikes.
Rather than fretting about what you should do, you can simply follow the steps you've laid out ahead of time.
The first step in creating a contingency plan is to determine what risks are most likely to impact your business and the functions they will impact. Think about how your business normally operates and the types of events that could disrupt its major activities. Your risks depend on the nature of your business and your geographical location. For instance, hurricanes and earthquakes are risks in some areas but not others. Here are examples of events that could cause disruptions:
Some of these events could also have legal implications. For example, all 50 states, along with D.C. and U.S. territories, have laws requiring businesses to notify individuals whose personally identifiable information has been stolen or released in a data breach.
The next step is to conduct a business impact analysis so you can predict the potential outcomes of a disruption of one of your business functions or processes. An analysis can help you estimate the operational and financial impacts of a disruption. It can also help you gather the information you will need to develop recovery strategies. Here are examples of the potential operational and financial impact from the disruption of business functions and processes:
When estimating the impact of events, be sure to consider timing and duration.
A hurricane, structure fire, or data breach may have a greater effect on your income or costs if it occurs during your busy season than when business is normally slow. Likewise, a disruption that lasts for a day will have less impact than one that extends for a week or a month.
You can use the results of your impact analysis to rank your risks in order of priority. Risks with the greatest potential impact should be listed first.
One of the easiest ways to write a contingency plan is to use a template, which is provided by several state and local websites including, for example, the one for Cambridge, Massachusetts .
Once you've analyzed your risks and estimated their impacts, you can begin writing your contingency plan. You'll need a plan for each of the risks you've identified. For example, suppose your manufacturing business is highly dependent on a grinding machine. If the machine became inoperable due to physical damage or a malfunction, your business might have to shut down temporarily. You draft a contingency plan outlining steps you will follow if your machine becomes unusable. Your plan, in turn, might include contact information for two companies that rent machines similar to yours.
When writing your contingency plan, be sure to identify specific people who will need to take action. For instance, suppose your firm employs a highly-skilled salesperson named Susan, who generates 50% of your firm's sales. If Susan left your firm or was unable to work for an extended period, your sales would plummet. You know a retired salesperson (Jim) who could step in for Susan temporarily. However, before you include Jim in your plan, you should explain the roles and responsibilities you'd expect him to fulfill and obtain his consent.
Once you've completed your contingency plan, be sure to share it with your managers and staff who will be responsible for implementing it. Ask them for their feedback, as they may think of a potential risk or impact you didn't consider.
Here's an example of how a company might use a contingency plan.
Tom owns Tasty Treats, a manufacturer of frozen prepared meals. The firm generates 60% of its revenue from sales of frozen pizza, all of which is made at a central location. Tom worries that his business could be severely impacted if a catastrophe occurs at the pizza manufacturing facility and he's forced to shut it down. Tom thinks his biggest risks are fire, windstorm, equipment breakdown, and an extended power outage, and that all have a high probability of occurring. He drafts a detailed contingency plan. Here are the highlights.
Fire | Lost sales, lost customers, increased expenses | Install sprinkler system. Identify temporary alternate locations. | Report incident to insurer. If site isn't usable within 3 days, move to alternate location. |
Windstorm | Lost sales, lost customers, increased expenses | Make building more wind resistant. Identify temporary alternate locations. | Report incident to insurer. If site isn't usable within 3 days, move to alternate location. |
Equipment Breakdown | Lost sales, lost customers, increased expenses | Buy . Identify resources to repair, replace or rent equipment. | Immediately contact repair shop. Rent equipment if repairs will take longer than 3 days. |
Power Outage | Lost sales, lost customers | Buy . Buy generator. | Operate with generator if outage lasts longer than 24 hours. |
Ready.gov. " Business Impact Analysis ." Accessed Jan. 28, 2021.
National Conference of State Legislatures. " Security Breach Notification Laws ." Accessed Jan. 28, 2021.
The vast majority of failed projects and bankrupt companies had a plan and followed it. So why do these projects and companies end up failing?
Unexpected things happen that companies don’t plan for, and many fail to adapt in time.
The key: having a sound contingency plan. A contingency plan is all about expecting the unexpected and preparing to deal with worst-case scenarios ahead of time. This article will cover why you need a contingency plan, and walk you through step-by-step instructions for creating one. We’ll also provide a contingency planning template you can implement and use on monday.com immediately.
A contingency plan is a predefined set of actions that you will implement in response to specific future events that put your project or business at risk.
A simple example of a contingency plan is to back up all your website data. That way, if your website gets hacked, it will be easy to restore the data after regaining access and changing passwords.
Without that backup, the team might have to recreate the entire website from memory or build a website from scratch . That’s a significant expense and can mean several extra days (or weeks!) of downtime.
A contingency plan is about managing and lowering risk and setting yourself up for speedy disaster recovery.
There are two types of contingencies that you should plan for: budget contingency & schedule contingency.
Here are a few examples of how contingency planning could help save the day, no matter what happens:
Imagine that a key team member unexpectedly leaves the project. If you were contingency planning for this scenario, you might outline the following steps you could follow if you lost a key project team member:
How about if a natural disaster disrupted operations at your primary office location? Could your business cope? With a continuity plan in place, you’ll turn things around quickly:
Do all your logistics depend on a few key suppliers? Then you should have a supply chain contingency plan in place, in case of unexpected production or shipping delays.
Murphy’s Law specifies that anything that can go wrong will go wrong. And any experienced project planner knows how true that is! Contingency planning can make or break your business:
Contingency planning helps to identify potential risks and get ahead of them with a proactive plan. That way, even when things go wrong, you can minimize the disruption to operations and reduce your financial losses.
Having a contingency plan in place enables you to respond to the unforeseen more effectively, adapt to changing conditions, and recover from setbacks more efficiently.
In many industries, contingency planning is mandated by regulatory requirements, so you’ll need these plans in place to avoid penalties and maintain good legal standing.
Customers trust businesses that handle disruptions effectively. The ability to respond quickly and effectively when things go wrong will help build your reputation for great customer service.
Looking for a tool to make contingency planning easier? With monday.com, you can store all your contingency plans in a central location, communicate changes with stakeholders, and create automated workflows in response to unexpected events.
Your contingency plan should include the following components:
Begin by making a thorough identification of potential risks that could realistically occur. Depending on what kind of contingency plan you’re putting together, these could be all the risks that could impact your business, or the risks that could delay or disrupt a specific project or product.
For example, in terms of business-level contingency planning, you could list out:
Your plan should then outline various responses that you could choose between, for each risk you’ve identified. These might be:
For each risk and response option, you should then add in a plan of action, including:
You’ll also want to make sure that you have a plan in place to communicate effectively with all stakeholders, including:
Decide in advance when you’ll activate a specific contingency response. For instance, you might have a particular threshold beyond which you’ll move to a contingency plan — such as the severity level of a natural disaster. You should also define who has the authority to make these decisions, and how the decision will be made (by committee or by chain of command, for instance.)
To keep your plan up to date, you should schedule regular tests and reviews. For instance, for a natural disaster contingency plan, you might want to run a drill once a year, to practice your response procedures and make sure that everything works as it should.
Let’s cover the basic contingency planning process and detail how to get yours up and running.
What processes are essential to your business and safely delivering your product or service to customers?
If you’re a manufacturing company that ships directly to consumers, a simplified process list might look something like this:
Looking at this list, you can see how vulnerable it is to natural disasters or even minor human errors.
Create an overview of every crucial process in your organization.
Once the process list is created, consider what might disrupt business continuity.
What can go wrong with each of these critical processes?
Let’s look at an example of what could go wrong with “last-mile delivery” …
And that’s only a preliminary list. Once you start thinking about it, you’ll realize how many things you rely on to avoid going wrong, even for fundamental processes.
Every business process is vulnerable to some sort of emergency or human error and requires a solid risk management process .
Once the risks are identified, it’s essential to determine how they could impact your business.
Are they likely to happen? How large will the impact on your business if they do occur?
Most companies use “qualitative risk assessment” to do this.
PMI uses the following risk exposure assessment table — also called the probability impact matrix — to evaluate … the probability and impact of potential risks.
( Image Source )
First, rate the severity of the impact on a scale from 1–100. Then, multiply with a percentage based on how likely it is to occur.
The quantitative risk assessment approach is less common — but more practical — to assess the potential cost of each risk.
How much would each risk potentially cost your business? To get a better overview, add these 4 columns to the risk register template :
This means you can make an educated decision when budgeting contingency reserves into project plans and yearly budgets.
During the risk analysis , estimate the potential costs of the adverse event.
EXAMPLE: if your online store goes down, multiply the average online sales revenue per hour with expected downtime. Make one pessimistic and one realistic estimate.
Your hosting service may also have a flat fee for restoring sites, which would be your response cost. If these costs are unreasonably high and the event is likely, estimate the costs of a mitigation effort. In this case, it could be a firewall and extra procedures, like 2-factor authentication, an important security system , for all employees.
Budget in those costs. An accurate budget is the first part of emergency response and prevention. Without enough cash, your team won’t be able to put any response plans into action.
Create a response plan for events by exploring the following questions:
The specifics depend on your company’s unique processes and situation.
A contingency plan only works if it’s used when things go wrong—and that means that everyone in your organization knows to reach for the plan in times of trouble. To make sure that happens:
If you want your contingency plans to protect your business, you have to keep them up to date. That means you’ll need to schedule regular reviews of the plan to check that it’s still relevant and aligned with your changing business.
Remember to communicate updates or revisions to all relevant stakeholders, and provide opportunities for additional training if needed.
Having your business contingency plan on paper is an excellent place to start. But it won’t translate to how your entire company will tackle a crisis.
That’s where monday.com comes in. Our flexible digital workspace gives you everything necessary to ensure everyone follows the contingency plan when they need to.
Make sure that no employee is left clueless during a crisis. Our contingency plan template has everything you need to start the planning process.
With our pre-built template, you can feel confident you’re following best practice contingency planning, so your business will run smoothly even in the case of unexpected events.
With monday.com’s powerful integrations and automations, you can respond to unfavorable events more quickly.
For example, you can immediately create and assign a work item whenever a customer submits a bug report.
This approach helps avoid another potential problem: customer service failing to report bug reports to your development team.
The best time to start acting is before a catastrophic event that puts your entire project or business at risk.
To do that, your management team needs a clear understanding of the project’s status at all times.
Use the 30,000-foot view every manager needs to avoid predictable project delays and failures and check that project controls are working properly.
When starting a project or business, most people plan according to the status quo. Unfortunately, that’s a best-case scenario and not helpful in the real world.
A contingency plan helps you prepare for worst-case scenarios and keep your project afloat, should anything go wrong.
Send this article to someone who’d like it.
40 detailed contingency plan examples (& free templates).
Good strategies always involve a contingency plan in case the original plan backfires. In some cases, the original plan may not be as successful as you expect which is why you need a contingency plan example to achieve the same goal . We have heard the term “Plan B” before and this in its simplest way, is a contingency plan.
Table of Contents
The steps taken by an organization when an unexpected situation or event occurs is a contingency plan. A contingency plan example may be positive like when there’s an unexpected surplus in the cash flow. But more often than not, the contingency planning process mostly refers to negative events.
The events which might have a bearing on the organization’s financial health, reputation or on its ability to continue with business operations. Such events may include natural disasters, fire, network failure, and a data breach, to name a few.
Having a contingency plan template helps you make sure that there’s always a continuity in the business. Most of the bigger business organizations have sets of business contingency plan templates for various potential threats. These undergo extensive research and the resulting appropriate responses get subjected to full practice even before the crisis occurs.
You can consider a contingency plan as a proactive approach as compared to crisis management, which is more of a reactive approach. Having a contingency plan ensures that you’re always prepared for any eventuality. Conversely, a plan for crisis management enables you to control the response after the eventuality occurs.
Also, keep in mind that the design of a contingency plan template is only for risks that can you can identify and not for unknown or unidentified risks. This is for the simple reason that you cannot make a plan if you don’t know the risk.
It’s also worth noting that contingency plans don’t only exist in anticipation should things go wrong but you can also create one to make the most of strategic opportunities.
For instance, you have come to know of a new type of software for training that’s about to get released soon. Should this occur during the project, you can create a contingency plan on how to include this into the training stage of your project .
As mentioned earlier, a contingency plan example responds to a negative event that might affect or tarnish the reputation of an organization or its financial standing. In business, however, a business contingency plan template isn’t always negative. There are cases of positive contingency plans too.
Also, keep in mind that the contingency planning process is a proactive strategy, unlike crisis management which is a reaction to something that has happened. A contingency plan accounts for any disruptive events to ensure that the company is always prepared if and when such events should occur.
Contingency plans are usually part of the risk management department and project managers should know that the plan is simply an outline. However, there are times when the project may extend beyond this. This means that the manager can be more prepared to make changes in the plan if he deems it would be more effective.
Risk management isn’t the same as the contingency planning process. Risk management is more about establishing, assessing, mitigating, avoiding, sharing, transferring, and accepting risks, whereas a contingency plan focuses on developing steps for when a risk occurs. But they share a common aspect. They both describe the steps to take in such an occurrence.
In its simplest form, a contingency plan definition is what you should do when an unexpected event takes place. Simpler still is “What if….?”, then creating an outline of the steps that answer this question.
Project management always involves several entry points for risks that you have to consider for a contingency plan example. Here are some risk factors that you should take into account for a contingency plan template:
Here are the basic steps in the contingency planning process:
You need a lot of planning and research when creating a contingency plan example. But planning ahead, with each plan makes things easier for you. When creating one for your company, follow these steps:
Managers will always get confronted with challenges that they should consider before and while creating contingency plans. These challenges include:
When audiences think of Back to the Future, they remember Michael J. Fox’s performance. Yet, Fox – and his iconic “life preserver” vest– wasn’t the first choice for Marty McFly.
Universal Studios actually filmed another actor as the main character for several weeks. When that didn’t feel right they switched to Plan B: Fox. The rest is history.
Having a Plan B, otherwise known as a contingency plan, makes continuity possible. Whether it’s for a movie cast or a natural disaster, having a contingency plan in your back pocket allows for quick shifts and flexibility when potential setbacks or issues arise.
A business contingency plan, or Plan B, is a backup plan you can use if there’s a disruption in your company’s operations. Because of COVID-19, our minds tend to jump to worldwide disasters, but Joe Spector, Founder and CEO of Dutch , warns that more common risks are issues like “data breaches, loss of staff or customers, or declining business relationships.”
And it’s because these issues are so common that they are often overlooked as needing a contingency plan. But disruptions, transitions, and adaptability take time and money, and having a plan in place will help mitigate any potential upsets so your business can continue to run as smoothly as possible.
To ensure your company is ready for the unexpected, your leadership must adopt a strategic contingency planning process. It makes sense to have backup plans, but did you know that only 12% of business leaders considered their companies prepared for 2020? Because pandemics, natural disasters, and data breaches aren’t predictable, it’s critical to have backup plans in case any major disruption occurs.
Leaders are in unique positions to challenge traditional approaches and implement tools and practices that take a modern look at risk assessment and risk management. Mark Shinkman, Vice President of Gartner’s Risk and Audit Division, attributes the absence of COVID-19 contingency plans to antiquated methods. He explains, “This lack of confidence shows that many organizations approach risk management in an outdated and ineffective manner.”
These outdated and ineffective practices involve department leaders assessing risks and creating contingency plans unique to their teams. However, this siloed approach fails to look at departmental risks that could impact the company as a whole. As a result, companies are ill-prepared to address crises that spread into other departments.
Traditional contingency planning favors department-level risk management, which can negatively impact the company.
Most risks can impact your entire organization. If your departments work together, you can more easily understand these risks and develop a proactive plan. However, the traditional, siloed model will leave teams scrambling.
For example, unexpected turnover, furlough, and leave all affect staffing levels, which in turn influence a department’s ability to deliver on goals. If you don’t have a contingency or succession plan in place, other departments besides your People team may be affected.
This particular siloed planning process could result in:
Looking at risks from a holistic view eliminates the traditional risk management tunnel vision. As a leader, you can make this happen. Encourage your departments to collaborate with others in the company so they can see the overlap in crises. With this high-level view, your departments will be better equipped to keep your company running in the event of a crisis.
To create a successful, aligned contingency plan, it’s important to analyze your potential risks, plan responses, and manage recovery efforts when crises occur.
Contingency planning starts by acknowledging the risks that your company faces. After all, you can’t create a backup plan if you don’t know what you’re trying to overcome.
Invite department heads, team leads, and/or employees to anonymously participate in a risk assessment. Have respondents identify risks they believe are important and encourage participants to include both internal and external sources. Next, have them rate those risks on their likelihood and severity. Include a rating scale of one to 10, with one being low likelihood/low impact and 10 being high likelihood/high impact. It may be important to provide examples of each ranking to better calibrate results.
Once responses are in, gather leadership and additional department heads or team leads to review the responses and ratings. Use a risk assessment matrix or scatter plot to visualize the severity of each risk.
These visualizations can help your team identify urgent risks and determine an appropriate course of action.
Prioritize your results by reviewing the following:
As you move forward with creating your contingency plan, consider how a particular course of action will target your crises and impact your workforce and company.
Acknowledging the trickle-down effect these risks—and your response to them—will have across your company, while being transparent in your collaboration practices, empowers your leaders to figure out how to respond on the department level. Furthermore, collaborating on crisis responses also provides your department leaders with an opportunity to voice concerns and share how each crisis would impact their teams.
For a business contingency plan example, let’s say that a few of your team members live in tornado country. It’s very possible that a natural disaster could affect them and their workflow, resulting in disrupted communication between team members and customers.
The customizable business plan template below can guide your team through problem solving your potential scenarios and responses.
Download your editable contingency plan template here .
After collaborating with teammates and assessing potential risks, it’s now time to solidify your contingency plans.
As you compile your plans, make sure to include the steps your teams took to assess the risk, the various scenarios you drafted (even ones you may not have selected), and recommendations for how often leadership should review the plan.
You can go into as much detail as your team feels is necessary. Some companies might draw up a minimalist table view to make triggers and actions visible, while other companies may rely on thorough documentation to capture all aspects of their contingency plan.
How much detail you put into a guide will also depend on the factors in play. A data breach, for example, would involve specific team members and stakeholders with specific recovery strategies outlined. But a natural disaster that takes out the main office would involve a number of stakeholders and a broader plan to manage resources. Your approach will ultimately reflect the needs of your company and the complexity of the risk.
An additional (but equally important) component of your contingency planning guide is communicating it to and training your employees through mock simulations. Spector advises that your people should not only know their specific roles and responsibilities when the plan goes into effect, but also if and when adjustments are made “in accordance to changes in organizational processes and technologies.”
It’s important to revisit and refresh your contingency plans not only when processes and technologies change, like Spector mentioned, but also when positions are backfilled and roles and responsibilities shift.
You may also find that your team struggles to enact the plan. Shinkman warns that some people “tend to deal with emerging risks by just assuming they will go away and instead focus their attention on what is most important today.” But when those seemingly small problems aren’t addressed, they can quickly become larger, more serious issues down the road.
To successfully revisit your plans, cycle back through the above steps with your team to identify the best course of action. If you need to reassess a threat that wasn’t high risk before but has since become urgent, enlist your leadership team to talk through where the risk falls now. Then, proceed to create a new contingency plan or revise your existing one.
Although you don’t want to be fear-driven, remember that disruptions can happen at any time. It’s therefore important to have a plan – any plan – in place.
You might opt for a stable enough plan that’s ready to go at a moment’s notice. You may choose to invest more time in making your contingency plan iron-clad. That’s the beauty of revisiting and refreshing your plans: risks and responses constantly change, and you have the ability to shift and further solidify your reactions.
One part of contingency planning is having a solid headcount planning strategy. Ready to ease its complexity?
Make one good decision that leads to a lot of others. Talk to ChartHop today.
Subscribe to our newsletter and stay updated.
Top insights from our experts to your inbox.
Sign up for a free demo today.
Cyber Insight
Updated on: June 17, 2023
I’ve seen it all. The constant threats and ever-changing landscape make it imperative that every business has a contingency plan in place. Unfortunately, many businesses make the mistake of thinking a contingency plan is just a backup plan. But in reality, it’s so much more than that.
A contingency plan is a comprehensive strategy that includes backup plans, procedures, and protocols designed to minimize disruption and ensure continuity of critical business processes in the event of a crisis.
But what are the crucial components of a contingency plan that businesses often forget? In this article, I’ll share the four essential components that every contingency plan must include in order to be effective. From risk assessment to communication protocols, these components will ensure that your business can weather any storm. So let’s get started.
In conclusion, it is essential for every organization to have a contingency plan in place to combat any unforeseen event and minimize their impact. The four main components of a contingency plan, the Business Impact Analysis, the Incident Response Plan, the Disaster Recovery Plan, and the Business Continuity Plan, work together to ensure that an organization can respond and recover from any disruptive event effectively.
???? Pro Tips:
1. Identify potential risks and threats: To create an effective contingency plan, it is necessary to identify and assess potential risks and threats that can severely affect your business operations. These could include natural disasters, cyber-attacks, employee strikes, or pandemics.
2. Develop a response strategy: Once you have identified the potential risks, you need to create a response strategy for each scenario. This should include clear instructions for your staff, plans for evacuation or sheltering in place, and procedures for the recovery of critical IT systems or data.
3. Establish communication channels: Communication is essential during a crisis. You need to establish clear lines of communication with your staff, customers, suppliers, and emergency services. Test these channels regularly to ensure they are reliable and effective.
4. Assign roles and responsibilities: Every member of your team should have a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities during an emergency. This should include designated leaders for each response team, trained first responders, and staff responsible for IT recovery.
5. Review and revise the plan regularly: A contingency plan is not a one-time effort. Regular reviews and revisions will ensure your plan remains relevant and effective, taking into account any changes in your business operations, staffing, or infrastructure. Test your plan regularly to identify areas for improvement and update it accordingly.
Contingency planning is a crucial aspect of business operations, particularly when it comes to mitigating and responding to potential disasters and other major events. A contingency plan refers to the process of creating and implementing a set of procedures and protocols that are designed to help businesses respond to major emergencies in a prompt and effective manner. In order to create an effective contingency plan, it is essential to include four major components: the Business Impact Analysis, the Incident Response Plan, the Disaster Recovery Plan, and the Business Continuity Plan.
The Business Impact Analysis is a critical component of any contingency plan. This element involves assessing the potential impact of a disaster or other major emergency on the business. The analysis should include a comprehensive review of all critical systems, processes, and personnel that are essential to the operation of the business. This analysis should also consider the financial impact of a disaster and identify the potential risks associated with different types of disasters.
Once the Business Impact Analysis has been completed, businesses can use this information to prioritize their response efforts, and allocate resources accordingly. This is a key step in developing an effective contingency plan, as it ensures that businesses are able to respond to the most critical elements of a disaster in an efficient and effective manner.
Key Points:
The Incident Response Plan is another critical element of a contingency plan. This component involves developing a set of procedures and protocols for responding to a disaster or other major emergency. The Incident Response Plan should include a detailed list of emergency contacts, as well as a step-by-step guide to the actions that need to be taken in the event of a disaster.
In addition, the Incident Response Plan should also include a set of guidelines for communicating with stakeholders, such as employees, customers, and vendors. This communication plan should include a clear and concise message that reassures stakeholders that the business is taking appropriate action and provides information on what to expect in terms of continuity of operations.
The Disaster Recovery Plan is another essential component of a contingency plan. This element involves creating and implementing a set of procedures that are designed to restore critical business functions after a disaster or other major emergency. The Disaster Recovery Plan should include a comprehensive list of critical systems and processes, as well as a backup plan to ensure that these systems and processes can be quickly and effectively restored.
In addition, the Disaster Recovery Plan should also include an assessment of any potential vulnerabilities that may exist within the business’ IT infrastructure, such as security breaches and other cyber attacks. This assessment should include a plan for mitigating these risks and ensuring ongoing security for critical systems and data.
The Business Continuity Plan is the final component of a contingency plan and is perhaps the most critical. This element involves creating and implementing a set of procedures and protocols that are designed to ensure ongoing operations and minimize downtime in the event of a disaster or other major emergency. The Business Continuity Plan should include detailed procedures for backup systems, as well as a plan for managing key personnel and other resources.
In case of a large-scale disaster, it is essential to ensure that all critical business functions can continue to operate, even if the main office or facility is inaccessible. The Business Continuity Plan should also include a detailed communication plan to ensure that all stakeholders are kept informed of the situation and any changes to the plan as it is implemented.
In conclusion, creating an effective contingency plan is an essential aspect of business operations. By including the four major components of the Business Impact Analysis, the Incident Response Plan, the Disaster Recovery Plan, and the Business Continuity Plan, businesses can ensure that they are prepared to respond to a wide range of potential emergencies. With careful planning and preparation, businesses can greatly reduce the impact of disasters and other major events, ensuring that they are able to continue operating and providing essential services to customers and clients.
What are the three approaches to security in cyber security: explained.
What is security solution and why it matters: ultimate guide.
Is a masters in cybersecurity worth the investment.
PH +1 000 000 0000
24 M Drive East Hampton, NY 11937
© 2024 INFO
You might be using an unsupported or outdated browser. To get the best possible experience please use the latest version of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or Microsoft Edge to view this website. |
Updated: Jun 12, 2024, 11:45am
What is a project management plan, 6 parts of a project management plan, before you create a plan, how to create a project management plan in 7 steps, bottom line, frequently asked questions (faqs).
A project management plan offers a blueprint to stakeholders and end-users surrounding the execution of an upcoming project. While it takes time to put it together, the process is worth it. It helps to reduce risks, create buy-in, gather your team’s expertise, align communication and ensure resource availability. This guide outlines what a project management plan is and its benefits, and then offers an easy step-by-step guide on how to create one.
A project management plan is a set of documents that outline the how, when and what-ifs of a project’s execution. It overviews the project’s value proposition, execution steps, resources, communication tools and protocols, risks, stakeholders (and their roles) and the deliverables involved in a project’s completion. Its documents include an executive summary, Gantt and team charts, risk assessment and communication- and resource-management subplans.
A project management plan serves as a blueprint or roadmap to the ultimate success of your project. It does so by aligning talent, buy-in, manpower, resources, risk management and high-quality communication around your plan. It also ensures everyone knows their responsibilities, which tasks are involved and when deadlines are so the project stays on track for quality on-time completion.
Here is a closer look at project management plan use cases:
Featured Partners
From $8 monthly per user
Zoom, LinkedIn, Adobe, Salesforce and more
On monday.com's Website
Yes, for one user and two editors
$9 per user per month
Google Drive, Slack, Tableau, Miro, Zapier and more
On Smartsheet's Website
Yes, for unlimited members
$7 per month
Slack, Microsoft Outlook, HubSpot, Salesforce, Timely, Google Drive and more
On ClickUp's Website
A project management plan should include an executive summary, timeline or Gantt chart, resource management subplan, risk assessment, communication subplan and team chart. Here is an overview of each of these parts:
Before you begin writing your plan, take a few minutes to prepare. Doing so may involve defining what is at stake should the project not go well, identifying the milestones needed for successful completion, selecting key talent to complete your project, selecting and signing up for the tools that will make the plan creation process easy and efficient and defining the end beneficiary of your project. Below is a closer look at each of these preparation steps.
Defining what would happen if the project were not completed successfully can guide you later as you motivate your execution team and formulate your plan’s and your project’s value proposition. This perspective tells all stakeholders how important their roles are.
One way to ensure you select the proper team members for plan creation and execution is to define the milestones for which they will be responsible. Once you have identified the milestones, you can identify the needed expertise and then the talent that holds that expertise.
As you write your plan, it is essential to gather expertise from the team members who will execute it. Doing so could mean the success or failure of your project. Identifying these stakeholders now means you can get them involved sooner for higher collective knowledge during the planning process.
When planning your project, you will need to use charts, graphics and reports to record the necessary information. Graphic design tools like Canva and project management software like monday.com or Wrike can help.
Nothing can set you up for success in project completion like understanding what the end-user or project beneficiary needs in the final deliverable. Understanding this requires an understanding of that end-user or beneficiary. Take some time to listen to their needs, wants and hopes surrounding your project before beginning to plan a project that will impact and, hopefully, delight them ultimately.
To create a project management plan, first put together a high overview of the basics of your project, including the project’s scope, schedule and budget. Next, build on those basics to write an executive summary. Then, add a project timeline, risk assessment, stakeholder chart, communication plan and resource management plan to your executive summary. Lastly, gather and incorporate stakeholders’ insights to perfect and create buy-in for your plan.
Your project’s baselines should first focus on the project’s scope, then the project’s schedule and, finally, its budget. The result should be a high overview that will inform the rest of your planning process. To complete this step, answer the following questions:
An executive summary should include a definition of your project, your project’s value proposition, including the problem your project addresses and its solution, milestones and their deliverables, scope limits―and the consequences for changing these limits―goals and financial breakdown. Use the answers to the questions posed in step one to put together your executive summary.
As the face of your project before stakeholders, your executive summary should be visually appealing and succinct. Columns and visuals should break it up to make it easy to read quickly. One great tool for creating an attractive and succinct summary is a Canva executive summary template. You can customize a template to match your brand and add your content, then either download your executive summary or share it in link form.
To begin, sign up for Canva for free, then use the search box titled “What will you design?” for “executive summary” and press “enter.” Click the appropriate template for your purposes and brand, then use the tools on the left-hand side of the enlarged template to customize its colors, text and images. Add pages by clicking the plus sign at the top right-hand corner of the template and proceed to add text and customizations to complete your summary.
The best way to plot your project’s timeline is with a Gantt chart. A Gantt chart is a visual representation of what activities you plan to begin and complete and when. These activities are usually small chunks or milestones of your completed project. They also formulate the scope of your project, helping to reduce scope creep later on. Gantt charts are often the easiest to use to plot your timeline.
It is important to note expected dependencies on your Gantt chart. A dependency happens when one activity on a timeline must be completed before team members can go on to the next one. For example, a prototype needs to be completed before a focus group analysis of the prototype can take place. Thus, these two activities are dependent. Also note independent activities that can be completed even as other activities are underway, thereby saving time.
Pro tip: An easy way to note dependencies and independent activities is via color-coding. Arrows drawn on your Gantt chart can also help to pinpoint dependencies.
While Canva does offer Gantt charts to plot your project’s timeline, there are also platforms that specialize in producing Gantt chart software . Not only can this software help you put together your Gantt chart, but it can then help you stay on track with its timeline and avoid scope creep once your project begins via task descriptions and automations. If paying for such a service isn’t in your project’s budget, you can also create a Gantt chart in Excel or Google Sheets.
Gantt chart from monday.com
With your project activities recorded on your timeline, define who will be responsible for each activity. Your plan serves as a guiding star to all stakeholders involved in your project, so it’s best to record responsible parties in an intuitive chart. Create a project team chart to show who will be involved in completing the project and for which activities each is responsible. For collaboration ease, also note who each person is accountable to and their contact information.
Canva offers organizational or team chart templates you can use to customize for the needs of your project. Search “organizational chart” using the search bar in your Canva account. Click the chart that best suits your project and brand needs. Then, use the design menu to upload pictures of your team members, customize colors and replace template text to offer the data your stakeholders need for easy collaboration during the life of your project.
An example of a Canva organizational chart template to be adapted to create a project team chart.
Your risk assessment should begin with a list of obstacles that could impact your team’s ability to complete the project on time negatively at all and with the desired quality. It should then create a plan for each risk by addressing what might trigger the risk, steps that lend to risk prevention and how to mitigate a risk should it happen. Finally, it should assign stakeholders to manage risk triggers, prevention and mitigation. Some teams use a SWOT analysis to help identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in this stage.
To dive into each risk, answer the following questions:
As you assigned responsible parties for each project activity, you likely selected people who had expertise in the areas in which their assigned activities fall. For example, if you assigned the graphic design of a marketing project to a team member, that person is likely a graphic designer. Their expertise is invaluable in assessing graphic design risks and their prevention and mitigation steps. Lean on your team for this expertise, and then implement their suggestions.
Two key subplans you should include in your project management plan are a resource and communications management plan. Your resource sub plan should list what resources are needed to complete your project and their availability. Your communications plan should include how your team will communicate one-on-one and team-wide.
A resource subplan can be completed in project management software. You can create columns for estimated expenses and other needed resources broken down by milestones, such as raw products and talent. Other customizable resource reports are available within the software and automatically kept up to date. Wrike, for example, offers customizable reports where you can track resource availability and export reports to include in your plan.
An example of Wrike’s customizable resource reports
While it may seem inconsequential compared to your risk assessment and resource plan, poor communication is the primary reason most projects experience scope gaps and project failure, according to a PMI study . Poor communication can, therefore, derail all your other planning efforts.
As such, your communications management plan should be detailed and address what, when and how information will be shared during your project. Details should focus on what needs to be communicated and at what intervals during the project execution, stakeholders’ communication preferences, a communication schedule for virtual meetings or phone calls that occur at planned intervals, who will review tasks, to whom task completions should be reported and what platforms or tools should be used for communication purposes.
Pro tip: For best results, look at the communication tools available in your project management software. Alternatively, consider what communication-tool integrations it offers. For example, most project management software offer integrations with Slack. Using available tools within your software will allow ease of collaboration and the communication visibility your team needs to stay on the same page and on track.
The team you have chosen to own the activities on your project timeline are uniquely capable of doing so. As such, they are likely to have recommendations you might not think about to make your project more successful. Moreover, if their insights are incorporated into the plan, they are more likely to enthusiastically follow it. So, get your team together and go over the details of your plan. Learn from them and incorporate their insights.
In addition, present your plan to the end-user or client for whom you are executing the project. Make sure they agree to the project scope and its deliverables. Make their preferred changes now so you don’t have to make them later. Discuss what will happen if they change their minds later―extra fees, for example―so that scope creep does not impact your project’s successful execution, on-time completion or quality final deliverable negatively.
Creating a project management plan is the first critical step to ensuring a quality project execution and completion. Without it, you risk project derailment, a blown budget, an unrealized value proposition and a potentially frustrated end-user. With it, you enjoy buy-in, resource availability, budget adherence, a quality and expertly-driven final deliverable and a delighted end-user. We hope this guide sets you on a trajectory to enjoy all of these benefits.
At minimum, a project management plan includes an executive summary, timeline or Gantt chart , stakeholder or team chart, risk assessment, communications subplan and resource subplan.
To write a project management plan, begin by identifying your project baselines, then write an executive summary, create your timeline and team charts, perform and write a risk assessment and write your communications and resource subplans. Finally, present your plan to all involved stakeholders to gather and incorporate their insights, suggestions and feedback, and then finalize agreement around your plan.
A project management plan lays out the details and steps necessary to reduce confusion, create confidence and prevent obstacles and risks during project execution. It does so by providing a clear outline and value proposition of the project, assigning essential roles, outlining milestones and the final deliverable, identifying and taking steps to prevent risks, ensuring clear communication guidelines and ensuring the availability of essential resources.
A project management methodology is a set of principles, values and processes that determine how a team will complete a project. It dictates factors such as the methods of communication within and outside of the project team—as well as the level of planning, design and documentation—timelines and modes of assessment.
With over a decade of experience as a small business technology consultant, Alana breaks down technical concepts to help small businesses take advantage of the tools available to them to create internal efficiencies and compete in their markets. Her work has been featured by business brands such as Adobe, WorkFusion, AT&T, SEMRush, Fit Small Business, USA Today Blueprint, Content Marketing Institute, Towards Data Science and Business2Community.
Cassie is a deputy editor collaborating with teams around the world while living in the beautiful hills of Kentucky. Focusing on bringing growth to small businesses, she is passionate about economic development and has held positions on the boards of directors of two non-profit organizations seeking to revitalize her former railroad town. Prior to joining the team at Forbes Advisor, Cassie was a content operations manager and copywriting manager.
Whitehall officials and Ofwat, the water regulator, have begun assessing the scope for a special administration of the UK’s biggest water company, Sky News learns.
City editor @MarkKleinmanSky
Wednesday 28 June 2023 10:30, UK
The government has begun drawing up contingency plans for the collapse of Thames Water amid growing doubts in Whitehall about the ability of Britain’s biggest water company to service its £14bn debt-pile.
Sky News has learnt that ministers and Ofwat, the industry regulator, have started to hold discussions about the possibility of placing Thames Water into a special administration regime (SAR) that would effectively take the company into temporary public ownership.
Such an insolvency process was used by the government when the energy supplier Bulb collapsed in 2021 , sparking concerns that it could cost taxpayers billions of pounds.
Ultimately, the Bulb administration is likely to have cost the public purse a far smaller sum, but water industry ownership restrictions which prevent consolidation mean this figure could be dwarfed if Thames Water was to fail.
The talks within Whitehall, which involve the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), Ofwat and the Treasury, remain at a preliminary stage and relate at the moment only to contingency plans which may not need to be activated.
Read more: From privatisation to profits: How providing clean water became a murky business
Thames Water serves 15 million customers across London and the southeast of England, and has come under intense pressure in recent years because of its poor record on leaks, sewage contamination, executive pay and shareholder dividends.
On Tuesday, Sarah Bentley, its chief executive for the last three years, resigned with immediate effect , saying: "The foundations of the turnaround that we have laid position the company for future success to improve service for customers and environmental performance."
In March, however, Sky News revealed that Thames Water was facing crunch talks over its finances and had hired Rothschild, the investment bank, and the law firm Slaughter & May, to explore financing options for the company.
The Daily Telegraph reported on Tuesday night that Thames Water was still trying to raise £1bn from shareholders and that AlixPartners had been drafted in to advise on the company's operational turnaround plans.
One industry source said that regulators had also sought advice from restructuring experts in recent weeks, although their identity was unclear.
Taking Thames Water into temporary public ownership would inevitably fuel calls from critics of the privatised water industry to renationalise all of the country's major water companies.
Thames Water is owned by a consortium of pension funds and sovereign wealth funds, many of which are understood to be sceptical about delivering additional funding.
Its largest shareholder is Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (Omers), a vast Canadian pension fund, which holds a stake of nearly 32%, according to Thames Water's website.
Others include China Investment Corporation, the country's sovereign wealth fund; the Universities Superannuation Scheme, the UK's biggest private pension fund; and Infinity Investments, a subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.
Hermes, which manages the BT Group pension scheme, is also a shareholder.
Thames Water employs about 7,000 people, and serves nearly a quarter of Britain's population.
Read more from Sky News: Hundreds of Boots stores to close British actor confirmed dead after remains identified
Ms Bentley's exit, which came soon after a row about her declaration that she had surrendered a controversial annual bonus, also reflects deeper divisions about how to address the mounting crisis at the company.
Earlier this year, she said she was "heartbroken" about the company's historical failings, blaming "decades of underinvestment".
Alastair Cochran and Cathryn Ross have been named joint interim chief executives as a search for Ms Bentley's replacement is conducted.
Thames Water has been fined numerous times, and is facing a deluge of regulatory probes.
In 2021, it was hit with a £4m penalty for allowing untreated sewage to escape into a river and park, while in August 2021, it was ordered to pay £11m for overcharging thousands of customers .
The range of financing options available to Thames Water's board - whose chairman, the former SSE chief Ian Marchant, is also due to step down imminently - appears to be limited.
Nearly £1.4bn of the company's bonds mature by the end of next year, with Ofwat price controls meaning water companies have little scope to generate additional income.
Be the first to get Breaking News
Install the Sky News app for free
In an investor update published last September, Ms Bentley said that "the difficult external environment has increased the challenge of our turnaround".
A year ago, the company said it had agreed with shareholders the injection of £500m of new equity funding, with a further £1bn expected to be delivered by the end of next year.
The additional shareholder funding formed part of a £2bn expenditure increase, taking its total spending during the current five-year regulatory period to £11.6bn.
In its September announcement, Thames Water said shareholders had "further evidenced their support for [Thames Water] and its business plan through an Equity Support Letter where the shareholders have committed to hold investment committee meetings (for their respective institutions) as a path to obtaining approval (in the discretion of the investment committee) for funding their pro rata share of conditional commitments in respect of the further £1bn of additional equity which is assumed in TWUL's business plan".
"Whilst this is not a legal commitment to fund…the [Thames Water] board believes it is reasonable to incorporate this additional £1bn of equity funding in its assessment."
The company has not paid a dividend to its owners for the last six years.
Thames Water is not the only major water company to face questions about its financial resilience and operational track record.
Ofwat has also been in talks with others, including Southern Water and Yorkshire Water, in recent years about strengthening balance sheets amid performance issues.
The financial collapse of Britain's biggest water company, and its implications for the model of water ownership, would inevitably become a major political debating point in the run-up to the next general election.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Some critics of privatisation have demanded that the government consider mutual ownership structures, which would prohibit returns to shareholders and guarantee that profits would be reinvested in improving the sector's dire performance, while upgrading water infrastructure assets.
In total, tens of billions of pounds have been handed to shareholders in water utilities across Britain since privatisation, stoking public and political anger given the industry's frequent mishaps.
DEFRA, Ofwat and Thames Water were all contacted for comment on Tuesday evening.
Smoke rises from an Israeli strike against a Hezbollah target on June 25, in Khiam, Lebanon. Hezbollah and the Israeli Defense Forces have been trading cross-border fire since the Oct. 7 attacks, with the conflict escalating in May when the group launched a missile-carrying drone against Israel for the first time. Chris McGrath/Getty Images
Ottawa is preparing contingency plans to evacuate citizens from Lebanon if a full-scale war breaks out between Israel and Hezbollah, and has advised Canadians to leave the country because of its increasing volatility.
Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly on Tuesday warned that the situation could worsen if the armed conflict intensifies.
“The security situation in Lebanon is becoming increasingly volatile and unpredictable due to sustained and escalating violence between Hezbollah and Israel and could deteriorate further without warning,” Ms. Joly said in a statement.
She said Canadians should not travel to Lebanon and “for Canadians currently in Lebanon , it’s time to leave, while commercial flights remain available.”
A war between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group could be “a catastrophe that goes far beyond the border, and frankly, beyond imagination,” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres warned last week, amid rising rhetoric and fears of further conflict.
Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel shortly after its regional ally Hamas attacked Israel last October. Since then, Hezbollah and Israel have exchanged near-daily cross-border strikes, escalating gradually. Last week, the Israeli army said it has “approved and validated” plans for an offensive in Lebanon, although the decision to launch such an operation would have to come from the country’s political leadership.
The Department of National Defence said Tuesday that the Canadian Armed Forces are working with the Canadian embassy in Lebanon on preparations for eventualities.
“In support of Global Affairs Canada, CAF personnel are currently assisting the Canadian embassy in Lebanon with contingency planning,” said Cheryl Forrest, a defence department spokeswoman, in a statement.
“The situation in Lebanon is volatile and unpredictable due to ongoing events in Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip and sustained and escalating violence between Hezbollah and Israel. There are violent clashes along the border with Israel, including daily rocket and missile fire as well as air strikes.”
The statement added the CAF is in continual contact with Canadian government partners, “as well as with allies and like-minded nations, monitoring the global landscape to maintain awareness of upcoming threats that may result in requests to support Canadians and Canadian interests.”
In 2006, Canada evacuated thousands of its citizens from Lebanon after war broke out between Israel and Hezbollah. Israel launched air attacks and ground incursions into Lebanese territory after Hezbollah had conducted a raid into Israel killing several Israeli soldiers and capturing two.
Canadians were evacuated by sea to holding centres in Cyprus and Turkey, and from there by air to Canada. There were 34 departures by ship from the port of Beirut and another from the port of Tyre. Evacuees were flown to Canada on 61 chartered flights, with an additional four flights on aircraft belonging to the defence department.
The costly evacuation prompted criticism at the time, with some claiming that many of the evacuees had citizenship but tenuous ties to Canada, which led to some being referred to as “Canadians of convenience.”
In 2013, contingency plans to evacuate tens of thousands of Canadian citizens living in Lebanon were drawn up by the federal government, as fears grew of a looming war between Hezbollah and Israel. At the time, Ottawa issued increasingly strong warnings against travel to Lebanon, and urged those already there to leave while commercial travel was available.
Israeli media reported Tuesday that Ms. Joly held a conversation with its Foreign Minister, Israel Katz, and that preparations for a possible future evacuation of Canadians from Lebanon were discussed. Ms. Joly’s office was unavailable for comment.
With a report from Associated Press
Report an editorial error
Report a technical issue
Editorial code of conduct
Authors and topics you follow will be added to your personal news feed in Following .
Everything that you need to know to start your own business. From business ideas to researching the competition.
Practical and real-world advice on how to run your business — from managing employees to keeping the books
Our best expert advice on how to grow your business — from attracting new customers to keeping existing customers happy and having the capital to do it.
Entrepreneurs and industry leaders share their best advice on how to take your company to the next level.
Looking for your local chamber?
Start » strategy, big event, small budget how to host an affordable small business event.
From identifying your target audience to providing value to attendees throughout the year, here are some tips for planning and hosting a professional event.
Whether it’s a grand opening, a customer appreciation celebration, or a networking luncheon, hosting a professional event can help small businesses connect with current and prospective customers while boosting brand awareness.
While planning a corporate event requires significant time, coordination, and resources, it’s more than possible to pull it off without breaking the bank. Here’s what small businesses need to know about planning and managing an event.
Professional events tend to have a strong return on investment: According to an UpCity survey , nearly three-quarters of SMBs reported that, for every $1 spent in event marketing, they saw an ROI of $20 or more.
One of the most compelling reasons to host a professional event is the potential to build connections. In addition to strengthening relationships with existing customers , you can also meet prospective clients and partners, which can lead to future business opportunities.
“You can make more connections in one or two days at a live event than you can in a month, or even a year, in any other format,” said Vincent Velasquez, CEO and Co-Founder of event production companies Hurricane Productions and MediaCutlet .
Hosting a professional event can also increase brand awareness and recognition, particularly within your local community or industry. Depending on your business, you may even be able to sell your products or services directly during the event for an additional revenue stream.
[Read more: 10 Popular Swag Items to Give Out at Your Next Company Event ]
While professional events are well worth the investment for many small businesses, they also require careful forethought. Velasquez recommended identifying your audience early in the planning process to streamline the logistics throughout.
“If you can clearly define ‘who attends,’ then it crystallizes marketing, sponsorship opportunities, and … the different teams it takes to produce an event toward one goal,” he told CO—.
You can make more connections in one or two days at a live event than you can in a month, or even a year, in any other format.
Vincent Velasquez, CEO and Co-Founder of Hurricane Productions and MediaCutlet
Other considerations for early event planning include:
[Read more: How to Host a Hybrid Event ]
These best practices can help you and your audience get the most out of your business event:
A strong event promotion strategy is crucial to attracting attendees, which may include current customers, qualified leads, and those with similar profiles to your brand’s target audience. Social media and email marketing campaigns, along with event listings and web pages optimized for SEO, can be both impactful and cost-effective for businesses on a budget. If you’ve landed an event partner or sponsor, cross-promoting with them can also expand your audience significantly.
Bad weather, transportation challenges, and other unexpected events can disrupt your event if not accounted for. Creating a contingency plan for potential risks and worst-case scenarios, and conveying that plan to your team, can ensure your event runs smoothly — even when life doesn’t.
The value you give attendees doesn’t have to (and shouldn’t) end when everyone goes home. Velasquez encouraged small business owners to view their event as the culmination of the products or services they offer year-round and extend that value accordingly.
“If you have a newsletter, publication, digital product, or service that can give people more value throughout the year, that is how you maximize everyone’s investment, including your own,” he said.
CO— aims to bring you inspiration from leading respected experts. However, before making any business decision, you should consult a professional who can advise you based on your individual situation.
Applications are open for the CO—100! Now is your chance to join an exclusive group of outstanding small businesses. Share your story with us — apply today .
CO—is committed to helping you start, run and grow your small business. Learn more about the benefits of small business membership in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, here .
The CO—100 is an exclusive list of the 100 best and brightest small and mid-sized businesses in America. Enter today to share your story and get recognized.
Is your small business one of the best in America? Apply for our premier awards program for small businesses, the CO—100, today to get recognized and rewarded. One hundred businesses will be honored and one business will be awarded $25,000.
How to build a b2b relationship with a large company, 6 tips for becoming a supplier to a big businesses, how to develop a qa process for your business.
By continuing on our website, you agree to our use of cookies for statistical and personalisation purposes. Know More
Designed for business owners, CO— is a site that connects like minds and delivers actionable insights for next-level growth.
U.S. Chamber of Commerce 1615 H Street, NW Washington, DC 20062
Looking for local chamber, stay in touch.
Agency heads say row over security of bytedance-owned app has already hit brands’ confidence in the platform.
Agencies representing TikTok’s biggest advertisers are drawing up contingency plans as the US prepares to ban the popular video app, including seeking break clauses in their marketing contracts.
ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent, has been given until January to either divest its US business or face a ban on the app by US lawmakers, who are concerned about security because of its links to China.
The social media platform, with more than one billion global users, has become a key part of the marketing strategies for many brands given its huge popularity, particularly with younger audiences who are less likely to engage with traditional advertising such as TV.
TikTok generated $16 billion (€15 billion) in sales in the US last year, predominantly from advertising, people with knowledge of its finances have told the Financial Times.
However, multiple advertising bosses say their teams are now drawing up alternative plans for next year should TikTok be removed from the US, one of the world’s most important advertising markets.
One advertising executive said the ban threat was already having a chilling effect on spending by some brands. The person said they had quizzed company executives about what would happen if the US blocked the site.
[ TikTok could face fines over political ads during local and European elections ]
“They didn’t have a good answer on how they sell ads in the US right now,” the ad boss said. “How does anyone believe that they’re going to be able to do what they’re doing in six months’ time?”
He added that the agency was drawing up contingency plans, including a “kill clause” to escape any financial commitments in the event of a ban. Brands and their agencies typically sign contracts committing to spend a certain amount on advertising in advance to secure prominent slots or volume discounts from media platforms.
“You have to keep a little distance,” the person said. “You’re not at a loss for places to promote. It just so happens that TikTok is the biggest one at the moment.”
Another agency chief said the threatened ban was already disrupting clients’ plans. Other social media platforms would likely benefit as a result, they added.
“We have contingency plans at a high level if something were to happen,” they said. “Those audiences will go somewhere, and our investment will follow them.”
Shou Zi Chew, the Singaporean chief executive officer of TikTok, was among the company’s executives to attend the Cannes Lions week-long advertising festival last week. He did not appear publicly, however, instead attending private meetings with ad bosses about the platform.
[ TikTok video revealing access to medical records spurs inquiry into HSE data breaches ]
In a report this month, GroupM said that “if a ban is triggered, we would expect ad revenue to move to other social-video platforms such as Meta’s Reels and YouTube’s Shorts, as well as other digital media owners, and the creators and influencers currently active on those platforms”.
A third advertising boss said that even if the US took no action, the negative publicity had already hit TikTok’s standing with some marketers.
“More brands are starting to think about [where the data goes] in terms of the investment, the return that they’re getting,” they said. “I am seeing more of a groundswell into the societal impact of the platform.”
ByteDance is fighting the threat of a TikTok ban, arguing that it violates free speech rights and claiming it would be impossible to split the app from the wider group. The Chinese government has said it would not support a sale. About 170 million Americans use the app.
In a statement TikTok said: “We continue to see strong growth in our advertising business as brands understand that TikTok drives results and can have a transformational impact on business growth, no matter the size.” – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2024
Women are filling ever more jobs - and the trend looks set to grow, google plans major data centre expansion in dublin, currys sees more profit growth as ai gadgets arrive, halfords expects dip in demand for cycling and tyres, garda’s home attacked while wife and children present as he took hi-spec car to donegal rally, defence forces chiefs hope to expel convicted soldier cathal crotty by early next week, new teachers to receive €2,000 incentive to stay year in irish classrooms, defence forces morale on the floor as commentary over cathal crotty case seen as unfair, teenager dies after bus and electric scooter collide in waterford city, latest stories, to fix england, gareth southgate needs to make bold move and drop jude bellingham, biden v trump presidential debate: where to watch and what to expect.
Alex Jones speaks to the media after arriving at the federal courthouse for a hearing in front of a bankruptcy judge, June 14, 2024, in Houston. A U.S. bankruptcy court trustee is planning to shut down Jones’ Infowars media platform and liquidate its assets to help pay the $1.5 billion in lawsuit judgments Jones owes for repeatedly calling the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting a hoax. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, file)
FILE - The lawyers representing the families of the victims of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary speak to the media in Waterbury, Conn, Oct. 12, 2022. A U.S. bankruptcy court trustee is planning to shut down conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ Infowars media platform and liquidate its assets to help pay the $1.5 billion in lawsuit judgments Jones owes for repeatedly calling the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting a hoax. (AP Photo/Bryan Woolston, File)
A U.S. bankruptcy court trustee is planning to shut down conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ Infowars media platform and liquidate its assets to help pay the $1.5 billion in lawsuit judgments Jones owes for repeatedly calling the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting a hoax.
In an “emergency” motion filed Sunday in Houston, trustee Christopher Murray indicated publicly for the first time that he intends to “conduct an orderly wind-down” of the operations of Infowars’ parent company and “liquidate its inventory.” Murray, who was appointed by a federal judge to oversee the assets in Jones’ personal bankruptcy case, did not give a timetable for the liquidation.
Jones has been saying on his web and radio shows that he expects Infowars to operate for a few more months before it is shut down because of the bankruptcy. But he has vowed to continue his bombastic broadcasts in some other fashion, possibly on social media. He also had talked about someone else buying the company and allowing him to continue his shows as an employee.
Murray also asked U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez to put an immediate hold on the Sandy Hook families’ efforts to collect the massive amount Jones owes them. Murray said those efforts would interfere with his plans to close the parent company, Free Speech Systems in Austin, Texas, and sell off its assets — with much of the proceeds going to the families.
On Friday, lawyers for the parents of one of the 20 children killed in the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, asked a state judge in Texas to order Free Speech Systems, or FSS, to turn over to the families certain assets, including money in bank accounts, and garnish its accounts. Judge Maya Guerra Gamble approved the request, court records show, prompting Murray’s emergency motion.
The parents, Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, whose 6-year-old son, Jesse Lewis, was killed in the shooting, won a $50 million verdict in Texas over Jones’ lies about the shooting being a hoax staged by crisis actors with the goal of increasing gun control. In a separate Connecticut lawsuit, Jones was ordered to pay other Sandy Hook families more than $1.4 billion for defamation and emotional distress.
Referring to the families’ collection efforts, Murray said in the Sunday court filing that “The specter of a pell-mell seizure of FSS’s assets, including its cash, threatens to throw the business into chaos, potentially stopping it in its tracks, to the detriment” of his duties in Jones’ personal bankruptcy case.
“The Trustee seeks this Court’s intervention to prevent a value-destructive money grab and allow an orderly process to take its course,” Murray said.
Murray also asked the judge to clarify his authority over Jones’ bank accounts. As part of Jones’ personal bankruptcy case, his ownership rights of FSS were turned over to Murray. Jones has been continuing his daily broadcasts in the meantime.
It was not immediately clear when the bankruptcy judge would address Murray’s motion.
Bankruptcy lawyers for Jones, Heslin and Lewis did not immediately return messages seeking comment Monday.
Christopher Mattei, a lawyer for the Sandy Hook families in the Connecticut lawsuit, said they supported the trustee’s new motion. He also said the families were disappointed with the motion filed Friday in the Texas court by Heslin and Lewis, which he said would “undercut” an equitable distribution of Jones’ assets to all the families.
“This is precisely the unfortunate situation that the Connecticut (lawsuit) families hoped to avoid,” Mattei said.
The families in both lawsuits, who have not received anything from Jones yet, appear likely to get only a fraction of what Jones owes them.
Jones has about $9 million in personal assets, according to the most recent financial filings in court. Free Speech Systems has about $6 million in cash on hand and about $1.2 million worth of inventory, according to recent court testimony.
On June 14, Lopez, the bankruptcy judge, approved converting Jones’ personal bankruptcy case from a reorganization to a liquidation , which Jones requested. Lopez also dismissed the reorganization bankruptcy case of FSS, after lawyers for Jones and the Sandy Hook families could not agree on a final bankruptcy plan.
The bankruptcy cases had put an automatic hold on the families’ efforts to collect any of the $1.5 billion, under federal law. The dismissal of the FSS bankruptcy meant the families would have to shift those efforts from the bankruptcy court to the state courts in Texas and Connecticut where they won the legal judgments.
Jones and Free Speech Systems filed for bankruptcy protection in 2022, the same year that relatives of many victims of the school shooting that killed 20 first graders and six educators won their lawsuits.
The relatives said they were traumatized by Jones’ hoax conspiracies and his followers’ actions. They testified about being harassed and threatened by Jones’ believers, some of whom confronted the grieving families in person saying the shooting never happened and their children never existed. One parent said someone threatened to dig up his dead son’s grave.
Jones is appealing the judgments in the state courts. He has said that he now believes the shooting did happen, but free speech rights allowed him to say it didn’t.
COMMENTS
When business operations are disrupted by a negative event, good contingency planning gives an organization's response structure and discipline. During a crisis, decision-makers and employees often feel overwhelmed by the pile-up of events beyond their control, and having a thorough backup plan helps reestablish confidence and return ...
A contingency plan is the way that your team should react if there is something that interrupts the normal course of business. Contingency plans are often found as part of emergency planning ...
While business continuity plans aim to ensure the uninterrupted operation of the entire business during a crisis, a business contingency plan zeroes in on procedures and solutions for specific critical incidents, such as data breaches, supply chain interruptions, or key staff unavailability. A business contingency plan could include:
Contingency Planning in 7 Steps. 1. Identify critical business functions. This first step is the most important aspect of your planning, as it sets the tone for why your plans need to exist in the first place. During this phase, identify all critical areas essential to keeping your business up and running every day.
5 steps for creating a contingency plan. Assemble the planning team and brainstorm key risks. Perform a business impact analysis (BIA) Develop response and recovery strategies. Test the plans and train staffers. Regularly review new risks and update plans as needed.
What is a contingency plan? Businesses need a plan to get back on track when a disaster interrupts daily operations. Contingency plans, also known as "business continuity plans," "emergency response plans" and "disaster recovery plans" help organizations recover after a disruption. Whether they're preparing for a global outbreak ...
Business contingency planning is work an organization does to determine how it responds to future events that might affect the business. The goal is to prepare an organization to respond to negative events and mitigate their impact on the business. A business contingency plan is a written document that outlines an organization's contingency planning efforts.
A business contingency plan is used to identify any potential business risks and clearly identifies what steps need to be taken by staff if one of those risks ever becomes a reality. A business continuity plan sounds similar in name and like a business contingency plan, aims to mitigate risks to the company. Business continuity plans outline a ...
How to Make a Contingency Plan . An effective contingency plan is based on good research and brainstorming. Here are the steps you need to follow in a contingency planning process. Step 1: List down the key risks. Identify the major events that could have a negative impact on the course of your business and on the key resources, such as ...
Step 5: Review and update the plan regularly. As the business environment continues to evolve, it is essential that contingency plans are regularly reviewed and updated to reflect changes in the ...
Business contingency plans understand the key risks that could derail an entire project or business continuity. Typically, contingency planning relies on business impact analysis to determine the biggest risks and potential setbacks. This allows companies to proactively create a backup option from an original plan.
One of the benefits of planning in advance is that you have time to brainstorm responses. If the disruption has happened before, ask them what they did to resolve it and what they wish they had done differently. 3. Determine who needs to know. Once you've created a viable plan, determine who the stakeholders are.
To create a contingency plan for your organization, follow this five-step framework: 1. Identify/prioritize your resources. First, do a little research throughout your organization to identify and prioritize the resources that your organization cannot do without, such as employees, IT systems, and specific facilities and physical assets. 2.
A business contingency plan is an action plan that is used to respond to future events that might or might not affect a company in the future. In most cases, a contingency plan is devised to respond to a negative event that can tarnish a company's reputation or even its business continuity. However, there are positive contingency plans, such ...
Step 1: Create a contingency planning policy statement. A contingency plan policy statement is a formal document that outlines the contingency objectives for your organization, such as getting back to normal operations by a certain time. A policy statement also expresses the authority and gives the guidance necessary for stakeholders to create ...
All you need to do is add the right attachments ahead of time. That's exactly how you want your contingency plans to function with your current plan. 5. Share, review and revise. Once you have integrated the contingency plans into your overall business plan, it's time to get your team on board.
A contingency plan can also help organizations recover from disasters, manage risk, avoid negative publicity, and handle employee injuries. By developing a contingency plan, your business can react faster to unexpected events. The faster your organization is able to get back up and running, the less impact you'll see on profits and revenue.
A business contingency plan is a "plan B" or blueprint for how to keep your business running in the event of a natural disaster, major technical issue, or other unforeseen disruption. A contingency plan identifies potential risks to your business and outlines steps your management team and employees can take if confronted with one of those ...
7. Monitor and review the contingency plan. If you want your contingency plans to protect your business, you have to keep them up to date. That means you'll need to schedule regular reviews of the plan to check that it's still relevant and aligned with your changing business.
To create a business contingency plan for your small business, follow these steps: Identify all the risks with your small business. These include risks related to hardware failure, suppliers going out of business, and core staff leaving the company. Prioritize the risks based on their impact on your small business, Determine the impacts these ...
A contingency plan example may be positive like when there's an unexpected surplus in the cash flow. But more often than not, the contingency planning process mostly refers to negative events. The events which might have a bearing on the organization's financial health, reputation or on its ability to continue with business operations.
1. Assess Potential Risks to Your Company. Contingency planning starts by acknowledging the risks that your company faces. After all, you can't create a backup plan if you don't know what you're trying to overcome. Invite department heads, team leads, and/or employees to anonymously participate in a risk assessment.
A contingency plan is a comprehensive strategy that includes backup plans, procedures, and protocols designed to minimize disruption and ensure continuity of critical business processes in the event of a crisis. But what are the crucial components of a contingency plan that businesses often forget?
A project management plan offers a blueprint to stakeholders and end-users surrounding the execution of an upcoming project. While it takes time to put it together, the process is worth it. It ...
The government has begun drawing up contingency plans for the collapse of Thames Water amid growing doubts in Whitehall about the ability of Britain's biggest water company to service its £14bn ...
In 2013, contingency plans to evacuate tens of thousands of Canadian citizens living in Lebanon were drawn up by the federal government, as fears grew of a looming war between Hezbollah and Israel.
Best practices for planning and running an in-person business event. These best practices can help you and your audience get the most out of your business event: ... Develop a contingency plan. Bad weather, transportation challenges, and other unexpected events can disrupt your event if not accounted for. Creating a contingency plan for ...
Agencies representing TikTok's biggest advertisers are drawing up contingency plans as the US prepares to ban the popular video app, including seeking break clauses in their marketing contracts.
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' Infowars media empire will be shut down and sold off, a bankruptcy court-appointed trustee said in an emergency court filing Sunday, signalling the end of the ...
A U.S. bankruptcy court trustee is planning to shut down conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' Infowars media platform and liquidate its assets to help pay the $1.5 billion in lawsuit judgments Jones owes for repeatedly calling the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting a hoax. (AP Photo/Bryan Woolston, File)