the return on investment of business continuity

Devra Schwartz’s years of experience in government organizations, educational institutions, and the private sector have given her a unique insight into the importance of prioritizing business continuity. A seasoned safety and security consultant, Devra Schwartz emphasizes the need to maintain consistent operations in order to enhance a company’s stability and maintain its reputation.

The Need for a Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP)

The goal of an effective Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP) is to facilitate an organization’s resumption of critical and essential functions following a crisis or major emergency, ultimately allowing the organization to maintain its employee-base, reputation, and financial position.

A COOP covers “all-hazards” and can be activated due to a wide range of emergencies, which may result in the loss of critical personnel, critical buildings, facilities, equipment, corrupted or inaccessible data, the loss of vendor assistance or services, and the loss of critical documents and records.  With a thoughtful and thorough COOP in place, your organization will be poised to mitigate risk amidst unforeseen challenges, laying the groundwork for your organization’s resilience and continued success.

Devra Schwartz published a step-by-step guide to organizational continuity planning, which you can find here.

Just like all emergency plans, COOPs are not intended to be the 100% solution. That said, with a thorough COOP and staff who are familiar with and trained on business continuity, an organization will have the tools it needs to adapt their COOPs quickly, allowing them to resume and maintain critical and essential functions with minimal disruption or impacts.

Devra Schwartz has long championed the importance of business continuity as a crucial aspect of maintaining an organization’s financial stability and upholding its reputation. With her firsthand experience in establishing and activating successful COOP programs, she strongly believes that prioritizing emergency preparedness is key to building the resilience an organization needs to weather crises.