Bringing together ERM and BCM makes for greater resilience says Airmic’s technical director

Natcats have prompted the rise of business continuity management (BCM) strategies but to achieve greater resilience, organisations must “blend BCM with enterprise risk management (ERM)”.

Airmic technical director Paul Hopkin (pictured) cited research commissioned to Cranfield University, which suggest that by combing the two strategies. businesses could become more resilient.

Speaking to StrategicRISK, Hopkin said: “What is starting to emerge from [the research] is the need to blend together your ERM approach with your BCM approach.

“I think there’s an increasing realisation that ERM is about managing the things that you fairly well expect to happen and BCM is about coping with the unexpected. So what is coming out of the research is the view that you need to combine both approaches.”

Many organisations have been adopting these strategies, and recent years statistics point to an increase in BCM approaches.

The Chartered Management Institute’s 2013 BCM survey found that 87% of managers who had activated their BCM approaches within the last 12 months said that it had effectively reduced disruption. The survey also found that of all managers with BCM approaches in place; 86% believe it improves overall business resilience.