This COVID-19 pandemic has, again, shone a light on the importance of developing a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) early in the establishment of your business. My clients who are successfully navigating this crisis have taken proactive steps to put a BCP in place long before now.

Many companies have not considered a BCP because their focus is on developing molecules and getting into the clinic. While this is indeed a priority, it should not be the only priority. Some companies fail to realize a BCP is a necessity—a necessity, like a fire extinguisher, we hope we never have to use.

A BCP’s purpose is to outline and instruct employees on how to recover critical business functions to maintain business operations in the event of an interruption. When designed properly, it also will ensure that you maintain compliance.

You can create a strong BCP in the same manner as a Voluntary Quality Assurance (VQA)® Culture. And a VQA culture can help you to develop and implement a strong BCP through:

• Collaboration: Who must be at the table to help create it? What departments will be affected, and who can help implement it should we need to?
• Education and Training: How do we prepare people without causing undue panic and anxiety? Who needs to be trained on what? How often do we revisit such training? And how often do we test it?
• Setting Expectations: The BCP outlines specifics about what people need to do and how to do it. We give them the proper tools and clearly outline their responsibilities, so that people know they will be relied on to carry out certain important tasks.
• Accountability: Although holding people accountable in a crisis can be challenging, it is easier to do when people are properly prepared, trained, and know what is expected of them. People holding themselves accountable is the direct result of appropriate preparation.

The more time invested up front means less time scrambling later resulting in more downtime and risk of non-compliance. The time may never come, but you have peace of mind with a plan that can be executed should there be an event. Once your employees and their families are safe, the next priority is to how to keep your business functioning.

What does your BCP look like? Is it in place? When did you last revisited it? What role does Quality play in such a plan at your company?

The #COVID-19 pandemic shines a light on the importance of developing a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) early in the establishment of your business. Many fail to realize a BCP is a necessity—a necessity, like a fire extinguisher, we hope we never have to use.