recovery period business plan

University of Houston Small Business Development Center

Step-by-Step Guide: How to Build a Business Recovery Plan

By Tatyana Parham

In the midst of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, small businesses around the world are experiencing severe operational and economic challenges. In order to embrace small business recovery in such difficult times, business owners must proactively take the steps necessary to develop resilience in the face of a disaster. By creating a detailed business recovery plan geared towards the impacts of the pandemic, leaders are better equipped to respond efficiently and protect their employees, customers, and operations.

What is included in a small business disaster recovery plan? A business recovery plan is a strategic guide that details processes created to prepare, respond, and recover in the event of an emergency. As the COVID-19 pandemic has a unique set of challenges, as compared to other natural disasters such as floods and hurricanes, it calls for a nuanced plan-of-action that will mitigate risks and allow for an expedient recovery.

An effective business recovery plan clearly outlines policies and procedures that highlight key information such as disaster risk and impact, critical stakeholders and operations, communication models, and strategy for business continuity .

Here are some key concepts to consider when creating a disaster recovery plan for your small business:

Prioritize employee health and safety The health, safety, and wellbeing of your employees and customers should always be your top priority. Address any immediate needs and concerns first, including creating guidelines that support sick employees or those with sick family members. Consider expanding flexibility for typical work arrangements, and verify that you have the capacity to support a remote workforce. If telecommuting isn’t possible, ensure you have measures established that align with the current governmental health policies and support a safe working environment.

Identify COVID-19 risks and impact on your business Conduct a risk assessment:  Small business recovery begins with awareness of the potential risks that can adversely affect your business. A part of this may be to consider how operations will change in a worst-case scenario of 35 - 40% of your workforce being out sick, or how to reallocate your budget and preemptively avoid layoffs.

Other risks may include lack of access to public transport for employee commute, additional costs of establishing a remote workforce, national shutdowns prohibiting in-person contact, slowdown in sales, issues in supply chain and manufacturing, and even your business being forced to temporarily close. Prioritize critical business functions that are the most vulnerable, such as employee payroll inventory management, and outline how you can protect them. Once top risks are identified, you can assess which risks will generate the most substantial impact, so you can determine the most efficient use of your resources.

Analyze the impact:  Understand how the identified risks can affect critical business functions, and map out potential impacts this can have on your business. For example, if you have to temporarily stop operations for six weeks, how will that affect your quarterly and yearly financial statements, and how can you minimize financial loss through alternative sources of income? Identify the gaps in your current processes that prevent your business from operating sustainably. This process is called a business impact analysis.

Designate a recovery team After identifying your business’s prime vulnerabilities, designate a team of stakeholders that will be directly involved in recovery efforts. This team of key players should understand the business’s core competencies, and have the ability to consistently make choices that reflect the best outcome for the needs of the business. Be realistic about expectations for each individual, and ensure that you are a top leader throughout recovery in order to maintain employee confidence levels.

Establish transparent communication Consistently focus on transparent and timely communication with all relevant stakeholders to ensure regular support throughout the pandemic, including employees, clients or customers, suppliers, landlords, and investors. Create an employee communication plan specifically intended for the event of a disaster, and consistently provide updates based on CDC guidelines and organizational priorities. Regularly inform customers of any impact on products, services, and delivery, and maintain steady contact with suppliers regarding their continued capability to provide essential materials.

Revise business strategy for continuity As the pandemic progresses, significant shifts in consumer behavior will demand a different approach to sustaining your business. Proactively strategize how to minimize downtime and disruptions to daily operations. Perform a complete audit of your business and marketing plans to pinpoint what’s working, what’s not working, and what will best support your business in a worst-case scenario.

Creatively decide on a plan-of-action that will provide practical cost-effective strategies that reduce the impact of identified risks. Brainstorm how to protect cash flow and monitor utilization of resources, ensuring that you have more than enough to cover future expenses.

Continue to monitor external vulnerabilities that can impact the flow of business as well, including pressures on customers, partners, and suppliers. Devise multiple plans for multiple scenarios of varying intensity, to ensure full preparation for what’s ahead. Assess your wins and losses throughout the recovery process, and devise contingency plans that will enable your business to thrive moving forward. Although crises may have considerable impacts to the detriment of your business, they reveal opportunities for your business to generally improve in value, organization, or efficiency.

Maximize the use of alternative funding and support To support business recovery, stay up to date with available local and federal assistance programs that offer disaster relief. Visit our online hub for COVID-19 resources here .

What you need to include in your small business recovery plan

COVID-19 has been hard for everyone, especially small businesses. Thankfully, small business recovery is on the horizon for many. 

As we approach the light at the end of the tunnel, we look at how you can create a strong small business recovery plan. Let’s get started.

How to build your small business recovery plan

1. focus on creating a safe workplace.

As small businesses begin to reopen, your first priority should be health and safety. From limiting the number of people in your store to having masks and hand sanitizer readily available, it’s your responsibility as small business owners to keep your employees and customers safe. 

As part of your small business recovery plan, you need to think about what logistical changes are needed for safe business operations. This could include changes such as: 

• Increasing sanitization frequency 
• Implementing curb-side pick up
• Creating a rotating schedule for in-office employees
• Continuing to let your team work remotely  

2. Stay up to date on new regulations

While some states are gradually re-opening, others are still sheltering-in-place, and some never closed at all. Regardless of the status of your area, it’s smart to prepare your small business recovery plan as far in advance as possible. 

As you work on your small business recovery plan, it’s important to have your finger on the pulse of any new regulations. Setting up Google alerts or subscribing to updates for your area’s regulations will help you keep you up-to-date on any changes and let you adjust your small business recovery plan as needed. 

3. Re-evaluate your finances

COVID-19 has hit small businesses extremely hard financially. So before you get back to business, it’s important to re-evaluate your finances.

As you prepare your small business recovery plan, you need to take a look at:

• Costs you can cut
• Grants you can apply for
• Loans you can have forgiven  
• Adjusting your prices
• Any changes to your tax deadlines

Doing so will let you know exactly where your finances stand and what actions you need to take to recover from COVID-19. 

4. Take stock of inventory

A crucial part of your recovery journey is ensuring that you have the inventory needed to get back to business. Before you re-open, it’s smart to do a full inventory count, so that you know exactly what you have to offer your customers. 

Incorporating inventory management into your small business recovery plan also allows you to:

• Get ahead of reordering your best-selling products
• Ensure you don’t lose sales because of a lack of inventory
• Plan promotions for items you have a surplus of

5. Promote your business

Let’s face it, not every small business made it through COVID-19. You’ve worked hard to stay in the game this long and that’s something to be proud of.

And now is the time to get the word out about your return. 

As part of your small business recovery plan, you’ll want to create a promotional strategy around your re-opening. Whether you share your story of resiliency with local news outlets or launch a social media campaign to let people know that you’re back, it’s never too early to create a buzz around your return. 

Looking forward to small business recovery

Here’s a recap of what you need to do for small business recovery:

• Create a workplace that’s safe for your employees and customers
• Stay up to date on changes to business regulations
• Take stock of your finances and create a plan that will allow for economic recovery 
• Gain an accurate understanding of the inventory you have on hand
• Get the word out to existing and potential customers about your business’ return 

In terms of next steps, you’ll want to think about how to handle any follow-up waves of COVID-19 and build a business continuity plan for this situation.

For more tips on small business recovery,

learn how a local landscaper bounced back after the 2008 recession. 

Image credit: Kelly Sikkema via Unsplash

About The Author

Eilis McCann

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Start » strategy, how to build a disaster recovery plan for your small business.

The road to recovery after a disaster doesn’t have to be painful. Learn the six steps you need to take to build an effective recovery plan for your business.

It’s not always possible to avoid the business fallout of a disaster like a pandemic, earthquake, or cybersecurity breach. But you can build a recovery plan to get your business up and running ASAP. Here are six steps you can take to get started.

Review your insurance coverage

Having the right business insurance can be crucial to surviving a disaster. You should regularly review your policies to ensure there are no gaps in your coverage.

For instance, if you live in an area that regularly experiences earthquakes, you want to ensure your policy will protect your business against these risks. You also want to ensure that your insurance will cover the disruption to your company and pay for damages.

[Read more: How to Choose Cyber Insurance ]

Audit your business resources

Next, you want to audit all critical business resources , including:

• Equipment and other assets.
• Perishable resources or products.
• Staff members.
• Property or real estate.

Once your audit is complete, you’ll know what your business stands to lose if it’s exposed to different types of emergencies. For instance, your business could sustain a lot of physical damage during a flood.

But your business may suffer economic damage during a cybersecurity hack. Auditing your business resources will help you determine which areas of your business to focus on.

Have a plan to backup your data

You must have a reliable data backup plan before disaster strikes. Over 50% of businesses aren’t prepared for a significant data loss, and 60% of those companies end up going out of business within six months.

It’s best to have multiple data backup plans in place. For instance, you could buy and use an external hard drive to back up your company’s data. And you should also backup your data in the cloud so that you can access it from anywhere.

[Read more: What Is the 3-2-1 Backup Rule? ]

Over 50% of businesses aren’t prepared for a significant data loss, and 60% of those companies end up going out of business within six months.

Make a list of key employees

The next step is determining which employees are critical to your business functions. For instance, your IT team would be critical in keeping your electronic processes functioning properly in an emergency, whereas sales reps may not be as necessary.

When an emergency strikes, you should immediately reach out to the employees and internal partners that can help keep your business running. No one can fully recover from a disaster on their own, so utilizing the right people will make your recovery efforts much smoother.

Communicate with your customers

No matter what kind of disaster you encounter, it’s key to have a plan for communicating with your customers. For instance, if your company was the victim of a security breach, you should let your customers know what happened and what steps you’re taking to mitigate the damage.

Make sure your customers know what’s happening and how to get in touch with you. It’s also a good idea to pick one employee to monitor your social media networks and answer questions.

[Read more: 5 Crisis Communication Best Practices Every Small Business Should Know ]

Apply for the Small Business Readiness for Resiliency Program

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation partnered with FedEx to create the Small Business Readiness for Resiliency (R2R) Program . The R2R program encourages businesses to prepare for natural disasters before they occur and awards grants to businesses in qualifying areas.

You’ll start by downloading FedEx’s Emergency Preparedness Checklist for Small Businesses. This checklist will help you create an Emergency Action Plan for your business.

From there, you’ll apply online and provide more details about your business. If you apply before a disaster strikes in your area, you may be selected to receive a grant to help your business recover.

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How to craft an effective business continuity plan

Let me take you back in time to the United Kingdom in the 1970s. Punk music was gaining popularity, and the Sex Pistols entered the punk rock scene with the force of a shooting star, capturing fans’ attention.

But as quickly as they arrived, they quickly left the scene. When they broke up in 1978 after a period of internal conflicts, legal troubles, and their frontman’s imprisonment, fans were left both shocked and surprised.

Just like the Sex Pistols, plenty of companies experience rapid growth and success, only to face unexpected challenges and internal conflicts that result in their downfall.

In this article, we’ll draw inspiration from the Sex Pistols’ turbulent journey to explore the concept of business continuity planning (BCP). We’ll look at what a BCP is, why you need one and delve into the strategies and contingency measures that can help you maintain your rhythm and continuity, even when faced with the inevitable storms that can disrupt your operations.

What is a business continuity plan?

A business continuity plan describes how you’ll continue your business when disaster hits. It is a structured strategy outlining how your organization will maintain essential functions when disaster strikes, to ensure minimal downtime and guarantee that operations continue.

Why do you need a BCP in place?

The BCP is crucial and revolves around ensuring your resilience and ability to continue operating in the face of unexpected disruptions, such as natural disasters, cyberattacks, or other emergencies.

Let’s look at it a bit closer, and understand some of the key reasons to have a BCP better:

Minimize downtime

Protect revenue and reputation, compliance and legal requirements, resource allocation, maintain customer service, employee safety.

A BCP helps you minimize downtime. It does this by providing a structured approach to quickly recover and resume your critical business functions.

Example: You’re a retail company with an extensive online presence. If your website experiences a cyberattack that takes it offline, a well-prepared BCP outlines the steps to take to mitigate the attack, get your website back up in no time, and allow you to continue serving your customers.

No one likes disruptions as they result in revenue loss and can damage your reputation. A BCP helps you protect against financial losses and keep customer trust.

Example: You’re the owner of a restaurant chain with multiple locations and one of your branches has a food safety crisis. A BCP can guide you in managing the crisis, ensuring food safety compliance, and communicating effectively with customers to maintain trust in the brand and other locations.

Some industries, like the financial, and pharma industries, have regulatory requirements that mandate businesses to have BCPs in place. Failure to do so has legal and financial consequences.

Example: You’re the owner of a FinTech company. You are required by regulators to have robust BCPs to ensure customer data security and financial system stability.

When a crisis hits you need the right resources to get you back up and running. A BCP helps allocate resources effectively during a crisis, ensuring that personnel, equipment, and materials are used efficiently to address the most critical needs.

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Example: You’re a manufacturing company hit by a sudden supply chain disruption because the Suez Canal is blocked again. You use your BCP to allocate available resources to meet customer demands and minimize production delays.

When all hell breaks loose you want to make sure customer experience takes a minimum blow. A BCP outlines measures to maintain customer service and communication, so customers receive timely updates and support.

Example: You run an airline and there is a labor strike. Your BCP tells you how to manage customer inquiries, rebook affected passengers, and maintain a level of service.

Let’s not forget about the well-being of your employees. During a crisis, this is a top priority. A BCP includes procedures for evacuations, remote work arrangements, and employee support.

Example: There is a fire at your workplace. The BCP outlines evacuation routes, assembly points, and contact information for employees to report their safety status.

Business continuity planning: Steps for success

That’s a lot of reasons, right? Now that we addressed the necessity and urgency of having BCP, let’s look at 5 steps to creating a successful one:

• Analyze your company
• Assess the risk
• Create the procedures
• Get the word out
• Iterate and improve

1. Analyze your company

In this phase you conduct an analysis to identify critical activities, determine which activities must continue, which can be temporarily paused, and which can operate at a reduced capacity.

You then assess the financial impact of disruptions. This involves asking yourself the question, “How long can I operate without generating revenue and incurring recovery costs?”

As this step covers your whole company, it’s important to get key stakeholders involved from the beginning.

2. Assess the risk

Now you have a good overview of your critical processes and the impact of disruption. At this point, pivot your attention to the risks they face, how well you can handle when things don’t work as usual, and how long you can manage if things go wrong.

The goal here is to understand what could go wrong and find ways to avoid, reduce, or transfer them. This assessment will help you strengthen your preparedness and resilience.

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Think about risks specific to your industry and location

It’s important to consider both internal (e.g. an IT system failure or employee shortage) and external threats (e.g. a natural disaster or supply chain disruption) to your critical business activities.

3. Create the procedures

Once you analyze and assess, you need to create procedures.

Develop detailed, step-by-step procedures to minimize risks to your organization’s people, operations, and assets. This can include changes to your operating model, such as using alternative suppliers or implementing remote work options.

4. Get the word out

A plan is just a plan and no one will know how to act if you don’t communicate.

This step is all about communication. Integrate the BCP into your operations, policies, and company culture, and train, test, and communicate with your employees.

And don’t forget that communication is not limited to your company only. Communicate with external stakeholders, customers, suppliers, and so forth.

5. Iterate and improve

Before implementing your BCP ensure its effectiveness.

Don’t worry there are plenty more options to test your BCP. Consider involving external stakeholders or vendors as it makes exercises more realistic. Frequently train those who are accountable for executing the BCP.

After experiencing a real incident or conducting a training exercise, update your plan to improve its ability to protect your business. Keep in mind that both your organization’s development and the circumstances you operate in change, so a regular review isn’t a luxury but a necessity.

How to structure your continuity plan

Now you have a high-level understanding, let’s look at how to structure your business continuity plan.

You can find a copy of the template I use here .

Make sure to include the following sections in your BCP:

Version history

Executive summary, functions and process prioritization, plan activation, governance and responsibilities, recovery plans, crisis communication plan, emergency location and contents, review and testing.

This section shows the revision history. It includes the version numbers of the changes made, by whom, when, and who approved the changes. The revision history allows anyone reading the BCP to understand how it has evolved over time.

The executive summary provides a brief summary of the key objectives, goals, scope, and applicability of the BCP.

This chapter outlines the critical functions and processes in scope of continuation in case of a disastrous event.

This section refers to the risk and business impact assessment outcome. Its aim is to set out what triggers the activation of the plan.

Governance and responsibilities talks about who has to act when the BCP is activated. It includes the members, a description of their responsibilities, contact details of the BCP team, and the chain of command during a crisis.

This section builds upon the business continuity strategies, specifically the one chosen when a disaster occurs. It describes the detailed recovery plans for each critical function, the procedures for restarting operations, resource allocation, and recovery time objectives (RTOs).

Here you cover the internal and external communication strategies. You also address employee awareness and training activities.

Now there is a good chance the disaster will require your crucial activities to temporarily continue at a different location. This section covers all details about the location and what needs to be available at the location.

The BCP is to be tested to reduce the risk of missing things or even worse failing. Here jot down the testing procedures and document results and lessons learned.

This section includes all appendices. Think about the following

• Supporting documents, such as contact lists, maps, and technical specifications
• References to external standards, guidelines, or regulations
• Training programs for BCP team members
• Review of insurance policies
• Financial reserves and funding for recovery efforts
• Procedures for keeping the BCP documentation up to date

Business continuity plan example

Earlier this year, the Koninklijke Nederlands Voetbal Bond (KNVB), which is the Royal Dutch Football Association, was hit by ransomware. The cyberattackers threatened to share personally identifiable information captured and the KNVB paid over one million euros to avoid this from happening.

What could have been done to mitigate the ransomware attack risk?

The Risk of the attack to succeed could have been mitigated with:

• Regular data backups
• Segmentation of networks
• Intrusion detection systems

How to ensure business continuity in case of ransomware?

In response to the ransomware incident, and to allow for continued business as usual as soon as possible, steps could include:

• Isolating affected systems
• Activating backups
• Notifying law enforcement
• Engaging with a cybersecurity incident response team

Key takeaways

A business continuity plan (BCP) is like a safety net for your business when things go haywire. It helps you keep going, avoiding downtime, revenue loss, and reputation hits. On top of that, it’s a legal must in certain industries.

To make a solid BCP, just follow five steps: figure out what’s crucial for your business, spot the risks, plan how to bounce back, make sure everyone knows the plan, and keep fine-tuning it.

Structurally, your BCP should have sections like history, a quick guide, what’s most important, when to activate it, who’s in charge, the nitty-gritty recovery plans, how communication is done, where to go in a crisis, how to test the BCP works, and some extra info.

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Crafting A Business Recovery Plan That Works

A business recovery plan outlines the steps and actions you need to take when your business operations have been disrupted.

It is, in essence, a set of directions on how to recover the critical operations of a specific business area after a disruption occurs. The fact that you’re crafting one now demonstrates a high level of commitment to protecting your company in the event of an emergency as well as serving your customers through thick and thin. But not every business recovery plan is created equal. Let’s take a closer look at what distinguishes successful recovery plans from those that are destined for failure.

Elements Of A Successful Business Recovery Plan  

While a good number of businesses have recovery plans, I’m willing to bet that most of them wouldn’t actually be used in a time of need. Why? They’re trying too hard. A 100-page manual isn’t ideal in a time of high stress. While it’s commendable to be thorough, a plan filled with industry jargon and extraneous information will always get left on the shelf.

In writing a recovery plan, you should strive to include only concise, executable instructions rather than informational descriptions. Doing so will ensure that your plan is useful—and actionable—should it ever be needed.

Download this free guide on creating and implementing a business recovery plan for a sample recovery checklist and the types of disruptions your plan should cover.

Every business recovery plan should include the following three components:

• Information on how to activate your plan.
• Recovery checklists by type of disruption.
• Critical supporting information.

Information On How To Activate Your Plan

Before any recovery steps can be taken, you need to outline some directives that will set the plan up for success. In other words, certain things need to be understood at the outset of a disruptive event. Without some specifics to lay the groundwork, your plan won’t ever get off the ground.

For instance, your plan should outline the following:

• A primary team leader and an alternate team leader who are responsible for business recovery actions.
• Members of the core recovery team.
• The individual responsibilities of the recovery team members.
• How the team will be assembled.
• How the disruptive event will be assessed.
• Who will determine if the recovery checklist should be activated.
• How the plan will be communicated to employees.

This section of the plan ensures that the situation will be assessed and that key team members will be assembled quickly and efficiently. It also lays out the process for communicating with your employees should the plan need to be activated—a critical step for starting the plan off right.

Download Now: The Complete Guide To Creating & Implementing A Business Recovery Plan

To find out more about the other components (including the four categories of disruptions, sample tasks in all phases of managing a crisis, critical supporting information, and a sample checklist so you can make a business recovery plan template of your own), get our free guide on how to create and implement a business recovery plan. Your plan is a key component of your company’s survival strategy, so take the time to do it right. Download this free guide to give your plan the best chance for success.

Michael Herrera

Michael Herrera is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of MHA. In his role, Michael provides global leadership to the entire set of industry practices and horizontal capabilities within MHA. Under his leadership, MHA has become a leading provider of Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery services to organizations on a global level. He is also the founder of BCMMETRICS, a leading cloud based tool designed to assess business continuity compliance and residual risk. Michael is a well-known and sought after speaker on Business Continuity issues at local and national contingency planner chapter meetings and conferences. Prior to founding MHA, he was a Regional VP for Bank of America, where he was responsible for Business Continuity across the southwest region.

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Your Complete Business Recovery Plan for 2022

A complete business recovery plan can be customized to any company’s needs. It should include what the company needs to do to prepare for, evade, and recover from a disaster.

The pandemic has definitely overtaken major headlines all over the world, but it was just one of the many adversities that we collectively faced last year. Political instabilities and natural disasters have rattled markets locally and internationally.

The end of 2021 will not put a stop to these calamities. Fast forward to a new decade, companies should be geared not just for opportunities but also looming risks with a comprehensive plan for business continuity.

In this article, we’ll take you through the basics of building your own business recovery plan applicable to any setup. So whether you’ve recently transitioned most of your operations back in the office or some of your teams remain working remotely, you’ll have a plan that can ensure your business is up and running in spite of disruptive events.

What is a Business Recovery Plan?

A business recovery plan helps companies prepare best measures for unfortunate events to limit effects to the business in general, the workforce, facilities, tools, and operations.

While there is no catch-all business disaster recovery plan, having one ready gives you peace of mind, simplifies the decision-making process, and mitigates the long-term effects of disasters on your business. A business disaster recovery plan also helps you:

• Comply with regulatory or legal requirements • Ensure your finances against high-impact risks • Minimize service interruption and resource costs • Recover faster during and after disasters • Boost client’s trust and confidence in your business • Protect the safety and well-being of your employees

Business Recovery Plan Recovery Strategies

The first part of any effective business recovery strategy is to assess your risks and exposure and impact, followed by a clear communication strategy to all involved stakeholders then plan out your business recovery. Some businesses stop after creating a recovery plan but it’s best to take the opportunity to strategize minimizing future risks and impact on business.

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1. Assess the risks

Identify potential scenarios that could cause business setbacks. This can range from large-scale events such as natural calamities (typhoon, earthquakes), economic events (recession), to self-contained incidents such as cybersecurity attacks (data leak, hacking) or building accidents (fire, flooding). Having a risk matrix will also help you classify and organise each scenarios into different categories.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) determines risk scenarios based on four major areas of impact: people, processes, profits, and partnerships. You can list down and organise your risk scenarios depending on their effect on these categories.

2. Conduct a business impact analysis (BIA)

A BIA serves as the framework to gathering all the information you’ll need to develop your business continuance plan. This is where you can list down the possible consequences from high-risk situations, identify business-critical operations along with the resources (talent and tools) and processes needed to keep them operational.

Steps in Conducting a Business Impact Analysis

The contents and length of a BIA report may vary per organisation. Here is a general checklist you can use to ensure that you have the essential elements in your report.

✓ Investigate and collect information ✓ Analyse the consolidated information ✓ Prepare a report to document and presenting your findings

What to Include in Your Business Impact Analysis Report

The contents and length of a BIA report may vary per organisation. The best BIA reports touch on multiple impact points. We have created this checklist that you can use to ensure that you have the essential elements in your report:

3. Prepare a crisis communications strategy for all stakeholders

A crucial part of your business plan is a communication matrix where you should list employees, business partners, customers, suppliers, and external agencies (such as fire departments and police). Ensure you have all the tools (SMS, email, IM) to maintain two-way contact with your stakeholders, and have a hierarchy to identify which ones to contact first to ask for help or check on their safety.

You can create a stakeholder map as an initial guide on communicating to a certain group. Here’s an example of what you can use:

Stakeholder mapping and legend

• Keep Satisfied – Customers Give them reassurance that they could access your services and/or products within a predetermined date in accordance with your allowable outage period.

• Manage Closely – Executives, Partners, and Employees Check on everyone’s status especially for those with business-critical roles and ensure their safety.

• Monitor – External Agencies (Government, Media, Financial Institutions) Reach out to your local emergency response agencies. Monitor updates on mainstream and social media. Contact your insurance agency if applicable.

• Keep Informed – Recovery Team During and after the recovery period, coordinate closely with your designated recovery team to provide them the resources they need.

4. Create department-specific (e.g. IT and Financial) Recovery plans for your business

Prepare resource requirements and recovery procedures wherein your technology infrastructure and other office equipment are compromised physically or digitally. Just like setting up your personal emergency fund, consider how much you’ll allot for purchasing new resources. Your department-specific continuity plan should also be regularly updated with data security and insurance policies.

READ MORE: Bulletproof Enterprise Data Security Measures to Protect Your Remote Team

5. Check for occupational health and safety hazards

Inspect your facilities if they’re equipped with working safety features. If you’re leasing an office space, you can coordinate with the building’s administrator to see their emergency response plan and align it with yours. This sample workplace inspection checklist will give you a quick overview of the key areas that you need to keep in mind when visiting your office:

6. Keep your stakeholders updated

It’s important to be transparent with your investors, employees, and more importantly, your customers, to improve your relationship and uphold accountable service. They’ll also appreciate staying abreast of your restoration efforts in the case of inevitable service disruption or delayed product deliveries.

Plan Better with a Business Continuity Step By Step Guide

Once you’ve gathered all the information and have conducted your BIA report, you can start developing your business recovery plan to fit your current environment and goals.

Aside from your gathered data, use the 4Ps framework to guide you in creating your recovery goals. Each action towards recovery should focus on reducing or eliminating risk to your:

• People: ensuring the safety and wellbeing of your customers and staff. • Processes: maintaining operability with established workflows and usable equipment. • Profits: generating sufficient revenue for business survival and investment. • Partnerships: having a conducive environment for your operations through compliance with regulatory agencies and help from local authorities.

Emapta specializes in helping businesses establish a fool-proof business continuity plan through creating outsourced teams in the Philippines. Our infrastructure and technology ensures that business operations run smoothly 24/7. Speak with one of our outsourcing experts today!

READ MORE: See How World-Class IT Infrastructure Empowers Data Security in Outsourcing

Back Up your BCP with a Contingency Plan

During the pandemic, we’ve learned that it was businesses possessing the flexibility to reshape their structure and operations with haste who successfully survived the rapid changes.

How were they able to do it quickly? In the case of our clients, having an office backup location via our network of 14 BCP-ready sites gave their staff optimal space to continue working that resulted in mitigated downtime. Offshoring has significantly broadened their operations too, such that their remote international teams  can keep productivity at an all-time high and complete work on behalf of local offices that were closed during lockdowns.

If you want to significantly lower the risk of interruption in your key business functions, consider outsourcing some of your operations to proficient international talent as your contingency plan. So that when certain incidents disrupt your local office, your business is flexible enough to let your offshore team is ready to continue your operations.

Explore outsourcing as your fool-proof contingency plan

Creating a contingency plan.

And with the advent of technology and a mature outsourcing industry, transitioning some or all of your back-office processes and other functions has never been easier. Having an offshore team in place can give you much-needed peace of mind that someone has your back in case you need more time to recover from any high-risk events while giving your customers continued access to your products and/or services. Companies have successfully set up their services offshore with us through this 5-step transition plan:

1. Assessment

You can compare your existing facilities to that of your outsourcing partner. Observe if their location, facilities, workspace quality, and back-office support are compatible with your requirements.

2. Preparation

Ensure there’s a room for discussion when it comes to meeting your needs. The right outsourcing partners adjusts to your needs, not the other way around, and gives you the freedom to have full control over your team.

3. Contract

After coming to an agreement on your ideal setup, it’s time to cost it all up. When evaluating your outsourcing provider’s offer, always keep in mind the value of what you’re paying for. Is worth it? Are there any hidden costs?

4. Kick-off

In this phase, your outsourcing partner will take of everything to set you up offshore – hiring talent matched to your required roles, designing an office space conducive for collaboration, while keeping everything transparent with you.

5. Onboarding

As you take charge of aligning your local team and your international office, your outsourcing partner will be there to take care of your offshore team’s day-to-day operations, including back-office processes.

Developing a business continuity plan is one guaranteed way of future-proofing your business, but it’s just the start.

Outsourcing might be your potential fail-safe solution – in cases where your can’t work locally, you’ll always have your international team to carry your business forward. As part of your contingency plan, you have the power to build your office-based dedicated team or add in more flexibility through hiring remote talent.

No matter the uncertainty, it is always better to be prepared than simply being reactive. Keep your business recovery plan at hand so you can be ahead of what’s to come.

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Be prepared for anything, outsource with us today!

Outsourcing is a solid business recovery plan you can implement easily with the added benefit of cost-savings and scalability. Get in touch with our expert outsourcing specialists to learn more about our services.

Small Business Recovery

When a disaster occurs, businesses must take care of their employees’ needs, communicate the impact, address financial matters (e.g., insurance, disaster assistance), restore operations, and organize recovery. Below are resources to help reopen your business and make progress through long-term recovery.

Quick Guide: Small Business Recovery

January 01, 2015

Top 10 Tips for Recovery

• Implement your disaster plan. Assess damage and consider if a backup location is needed.
• Shift your team and leadership from preparedness to recovery.
• Implement a communications strategy to ensure that the facts go directly to employees, suppliers, customers, and the media.
• Encourage employees to take appropriate actions and communicate.
• Document damage, file insurance claims, and track recovery.
• Cultivate partnerships in the community with businesses, government, and nonprofits.
• Provide employee support and assistance.
• Connect with chambers of commerce, economic development, and other community support organizations.
• Document lessons learned and update your plan.
• Contact the Disaster Help Desk for support at 1-888-MY-BIZ-HELP (1-888-692-4943).

Checklists and Additional Tips

• Responding to Disaster: Tips from the Frontline  – Helpful info-graphic of key items to consider
• A  checklist  for reopening your business after a disaster
• Or, if you want more details, use the original checklist in this ‘ Recovery Toolkit ’, which includes additional checklists 
• Recovery Resources
• The  U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA)  offers low-interest loans and other resources to assist small businesses post disaster. 
• The  Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)  provides updates on current disaster events and assistance for employees who have damage at their homes.
• When Disaster Hits Home: A Story of Resilience and Recovery  – How a business responded both in their community and with their employees.

Below is a list of categories for available recovery resources:

• Immediate Needs, Emergency Response & Recovery

Recovery Guidance

• Financial Assistance / Funding / Taxes
• IT Disaster Recovery

Mental Health

Individual, families, employees and community recovery, immediate needs, emergency response & recovery.

• Google Person Finder  – This app helps people connect with family and employees after a disaster.
• Safe and Well   - Register or search the Red Cross’ Safe and Well listing here.
• Google Public Alerts  – This service allows you to go online to search for the latest information during an emergency, and will disseminate relevant emergency alerts to you when/where you need them.
• Disaster Help Desk for Business  – Provides assistance to businesses struck by disasters across the country. Dial 1-888-MY-BIZ-HELP or 1-888-692-4943 to get help navigating the disaster assistance realm.
• FEMA Text Messages is a service that allows you to use your cell phone’s text messaging capability to receive text updates from FEMA (standard message and data rates apply).To sign up for monthly preparedness tips: text PREPARE to 43362 (4FEMA).
• The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)  – Provides updates on current disaster events
• Ready.gov/business (FEMA)  – Has many business-focused tips and resources on what to do during different types of disasters.
• Disaster Recovery and Continuity Guide  – This guide provides worksheets and question matrices on all things recovery. Starts with basic planning tips, hazard assessment, etc., but the bulk of this guide is in recovery, with useful worksheets.
• Tax Relief in Disaster Situations  – Links to disasters across the US and the resources, information, and tools for each region.
• Hurricane Preparedness for Business: What to do Before, During and After a Disaster  – Use the Recovery Checklist “After the Storm” ( pages 3-5 ) for bullet points of different ideas and issues to consider.
• Helping Families Recovery After Disaster: The Family Financial Toolkit  – As small businesses owners need to also take care of disaster impacts at home, this toolkit provides resources  lessons learned, case examples, etc.
• Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Checklist for Small Business Owners  – Eleven simple, great tips for recovery.
• Disaster Cleanup  – Tips and resources from the SBA that includes fact sheets and info from CDC, EPA, FEMA, OSHA.
• Business Continuity Plan: Components and Sequencing Description  – A Recovery Plan template with tables, checklists, Yes/No questions, etc.

Federal Financial Assistance / Funding / Taxes

• SBA online loan application  – You are encouraged to apply BEFORE the deadline. There is no obligation to accept the funds, but keeps your options open if needed. 
• SBA Customer Service Center - Call 1-800-827-5722
• DisasterAssistance.gov  – This FEMA site provides disaster survivors with information and services during times of disaster. Programs to assist individuals and homeowners may be useful to your employees. You can register for assistance even if you are not sure you need or want it.
• Disaster Resource Guide for Individuals and Businesses  – Guide to understanding IRS resources available after a disaster, such as claim unreimbursed casualty losses on damaged property; includes forms and numbers.
• Preparing for a Disaster (Taxpayers and Businesses)  – Encourages planning, tips for safeguarding documents, and tracking valuable IRS resources such as completing the  Loss Workbook  after a disaster. 
• Tax Relief for Disaster Situations  (IRS) – After your area is declared a disaster, this page provides tax relief information from the IRS.
• Disaster Assistance for Business  – Overview of all Federal Assistance and resources (ignore Nevada-specific info).
• Disaster Assistance  – Resources available from SBA to businesses, individuals, and families.
• Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)  – FEMA’s main site has information on what to do before, during, and after disaster.
• IRS Videos on Disaster Subjects  – Informative videos to help businesses that have been affected by disasters.
• US Department of Agriculture (USDA)  – Provides disaster assistance information for farmers and ranchers
• Disaster Recovery Small Business Loan or Grant Program  –How to create opportunities for loans or grants for area businesses.

This is a topic no one wants to discuss; yet it is critical to recovery. There are resources to help minor to severe trauma by allowing people to express their experiences. By ignoring the problem, it may only get worse, and your business may lose key people at critical recovery times. It is better to address issues or needs up front and allow staff to debrief.

• Disaster Distress Helpline  - To reach out for free 24/7 counseling or support, contact the Disaster Distress Helpline at 1-800-985-5990 or text “TalkWithUs’ to 66746. TTY for Deaf/Hearing Impaired: 1-800-846-8517. To see the Red Cross page for this resource click  here .
• American Psychological Association  – Works with the Red Cross on crisis counseling.
• Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)  – FEMA’s main site has information on what to do before, during, and after disaster. To register for assistance, visit  www.DisasterAssistance.gov
• The American Red Cross  – Assists with finding shelter,  loved ones, or other services.

“Keep detailed records of business activity and the extra expenses of keeping your business operating in a temporary location during the interruption period. If you are forced to close down, include expenses that continue during the time that the business is closed, such as advertising and the cost of utilities” -- The Insurance Information Institute

Insurance Help

• Document damage by taking photos or videos. Review your policy, contact your insurance company to file a claim, and document cleanup or repairs with receipts and photos. Get two or more quotes for repairs, check contractor licenses, and document expenses and losses that can be compared with pre-disaster numbers.
• Per the Insurance Information Institute (iii), “Keep detailed records of business activity and the extra expenses of keeping your business operating in a temporary location during the interruption period. If you are forced to close down, include expenses that continue during the time that the business is closed, such as advertising and the cost of utilities.
• 11 tips  on how to work with the insurance company, file a claim, and other items. 
• How to document and calculate loss.  http://bit.ly/1EVGng1
• In the Wake of the Storm: Five Reminders about Your Insurance Coverage  – Great tips post-Hurricane Sandy on filing different types of claims, potential issues.
• Speak UP: How to communicate with your insurance company  – Simple tips on how to work with your insurance company after a disaster.
• National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) Summary of Coverage for Commercial Property  – General information about flood insurance coverage, options, and understanding terms.
• Property Insurance and Disaster Recovery  – An interesting article covering insurance coverage, as well as other things to be aware of during recovery.
• Missouri Small Business & Technology Centers: Insurance Claims  – Great information and tips, step-by-step guide for filing claims, available disaster assistance, etc. (ignore Missouri-specific phone numbers).
• Maximizing Insurance Recovery for Loss Resulting from Tornados and Other Natural Disasters  – Helps insurance policy holders or those seeking insurance to navigate potential issues.
• The Basics of Business Interruption Insurance  – Provides a basic understanding of filing a business interruption insurance claim, document preparation, etc.
• Procedures for Filing Major Loss Property Insurance Claims  – Assistance with filing a claim (ignore Hawaii-specific numbers).
• Flood Insurance Claims Handbook  (FEMA) – Assistance with filing a claim on National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) coverage.

Employee Assistance

• If you don’t have an Employee Assistance Program (EAP), consider starting one.  An EAP will help your business and your employees cope with the aftermath of a disaster.
• An EAP can further aid employees who have experienced trauma from a disaster and any associated losses. This includes helping executives and other company leadership who may have a difficult time focusing during recovery.
• After a disaster employees may experience increased fear, grief, stress, sadness, and anxiety, often continuing for weeks or months. Point employees to your EAP or crisis counselors for assistance. Address all employees by holding a disaster debrief to discuss what happened and what resources are available to them.
• To alleviate stress and minimize confusion, your leadership should communicate with employees about how the company is addressing recovery and what resources exist for employees.
• Continue to update employees on the business’ ongoing recovery.
• Consider ways that your company can help employees’ and their families access medical care, food, housing, and other essentials.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     
• Those hit hardest may not have working phones or the ability to call area resources to find new housing, childcare, animal care facilities, a rental car, or other services necessary to restoring their daily lives. Find or connect employees to needed resources, then share with other employees, customers, and the public.
• Use the human resources (HR) department’s employee hotline, or create one, to take calls regarding employees’ disaster needs. Make sure to keep needs confidential.
• Un-impacted employees are often willing to help fellow employees with caring for pets, carpooling, housing a family, loaning lost equipment like computers or cell phones, and organizing fundraisers to replace lost items.
• Disaster Distress Helpline —To reach out for free 24/7 counseling or support, contact the Disaster Distress Helpline at 1-800-985-5990 or text “TalkWithUs’ to 66746. TTY for Deaf/Hearing Impaired:  1-800-846-8517. Visit  http://rdcrss.org/1hsTafJ .
• A Manager’s Handbook: Handling Traumatic Events  – Discusses Employee Assistance Programs following disaster.  
• IRS: Help During Disasters  – Comprehensive list of resources for employers or employees facing the effects of disaster.

Documentation and Administrative Recovery

• Use photos and videos to document damage to property, inventory, equipment, and other losses. Document all repairs (e.g., boarding up broken windows, holes in a roof). Document the repair and restoration process until normal operation is resumed.
• Make a list of damaged or lost items and, if possible, include date of purchase, value, and receipts.
• Document all extra expenses you incur in the process of resuming operations, including renting equipment (until yours is repaired or replaced), temporarily leasing another location, marketing, and moving expenses.
• File a claim with your insurance company as soon as possible, if needed.
• Ask your insurance agent to review your business to determine what needs to be covered (e.g., loss of net income, operating expenses that need to be paid while closed, or extra expenses incurred afterward) so that you can begin addressing how you will cover it. “How” includes insurance policies, loans, and credit.
• Keep all important documents in one place, backed up, and stored off-site where they are accessible. This will save precious time. Add security (e.g., encrypting) to protect key financial data, bank accounts, etc.
• Copies of documents or information you should have available may vary depending on the type of business, but can include: insurance policies, leases, recent income tax forms, historical sales records, inventory, employees’ computer equipment and software inventory, contracts especially Service-Level Agreements (SLA). You may need to produce copies of some of these documents as part of the recovery. Make sure you do not lose your only hard copies in the process.
• Disaster Relief for Individuals and Small Businesses  – Created after Hurricane Sandy, it provides five steps on how to apply for federal assistance.

Connect with Local Chambers of Commerce

• Your local chamber is a great resource and conduit during a recovery process. Because chambers speak for busiesses, they can advocate for additional outside resources that the community might need. Chambers channel resources and funds that can be of great assistance to impacted businesses. They need to hear about your business’s needs.
• Many chambers have relationships or share space with Small Business Development Centers (SBDC). SBDCs offer free business counseling including guidance after disasters.
• The Disaster Help Desk is a resource available to your business. If this is the first time you are thinking about disaster recovery, reach out for help to ask the questions of what you need to think about, do first, who to call, things to consider, etc. Contact the Disaster Help Desk at 1-888-MY BIZ HELP (1-888-692-4943).
• Local chambers have connections within the local community, in the region, and across the country. These connections can be especially useful in providing help after a disaster.

“Monitor progress on your program and find ways to improve it. Reinforce employees’ participation in, and responsibility for, the overall recovery effort.” -- The Hartford

Celebrate Milestones

• The business recovery process is immense, stressful, and labor intensive. When people are already busy and potentially burdened by recovery efforts, celebrating milestones may seem frivolous. But do not overlook the need to address  employees’ mental health and to remind them that their hard work has purpose, progress is being made, and light exists at the end of the tunnel.
• By reopening your doors, it can encourage other businesses and organizations to recover faster, thereby helping the community as a whole.
• Recovery requires interconnectivity between public, private, non-profit, faith-based, and community organizations at all levels. Celebrate and promote recovery events that provide assistance to individuals, families, businesses, and other organizations in a “together we recover” type of approach. It is a great opportunity to keep the focus on recovery over the longer-term, bring resources to those who need it, and put your businesses in a position of information-sharing that will be remembered by your employees and the community for years.
• Celebrate your reopening and highlight your goods and services as an opportunity to market to potential new customers, especially those waiting on other businesses to reopen. Once you have these new customers, they will likely stay.
• Recovering from a disaster is hard work. Praise, recognize, and reward efforts throughout all levels of the business.
• Handling the recovery well and acknowledging employees’ roles increase company loyalty.
• Highlighting the re-openings of hospitals, schools, iconic community locations like restaurants considered “institutions”, civic spots, memorials, businesses or areas that have prevailed in spite of adverse odds, are all opportunities to tell the story of the community working together and building back better and stronger. This is a way to bring visitors into a recovering community.
• Your human resources department is typically the one that recognizes milestones within the company and can play an important role in recovery by being attentive to the needs of employees by celebrating recovery milestones. The events may be organized in a fun and inviting way and can incorporate employees with non-essential recovery roles so they can participate in the restoration of the business.
• Recognize that there may be employees who are still experiencing difficulties, a personal loss, or need help. You can use milestones to also highlight whichever areas still need assistance.

“Also, as the recovery continues, remember that many staff are either displaced themselves or are sharing their space with the staff who are displaced, making working conditions far less than ideal. Stress levels will be unusually high; therefore, setting a positive tone, recognizing staff accomplishments, and celebrating milestones are more important than ever.” -- Comprehensive Guide to Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Recovery

Recommended

• Disasters U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation and American Express Open Applications for Grant Program to Support Small Business Owners Impacted by Maui Wildfires
• Disasters Maui Small Business Recovery Grant Program Toolkit
• Disasters Building Resilience Conference Toolkit
• Disasters Maui Small Business Recovery Grant Program: Terms and Conditions
• Disasters Maui Small Business Recovery Grant Program: Frequently Asked Questions

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From surviving to thriving: Reimagining the post-COVID-19 return

The 1966 World Cup marked a low point for Brazilian soccer. Although the winner of the previous two tournaments, the team was eliminated in the first round, and its star player, Pelé, failed to perform. Fouled frequently and flagrantly, he threatened never to return to the World Cup. Many wondered if Brazil’s glory days were over. Four years later, however, Brazil won again, with such grace and style that the 1970 team is not only widely regarded as the best team ever to take the pitch but also as the most beautiful. And Pelé was named the player of the tournament.

Making this turnaround required innovation, in particular, the creation of a unique attacking style of soccer. It required building a cohesive team, even as most of the roster changed. And it required leadership, both in management and on the field. The result: by reimagining everything, Brazil came back stronger.

As businesses around the world consider how they can return from the torment inflicted by the coronavirus, Brazil’s journey from failure to triumph provides food for thought. In a previous article, McKinsey described five qualities that will be critical for business leaders to find their way to the next normal : resolve, resilience, return, reimagination, and reform. We noted that there would likely be overlap among these stages, and the order might differ, depending on the business, the sector, and the country.

In this article, we suggest that in order to come back stronger, companies should reimagine their business model as they return to full speed. The moment is not to be lost: those who step up their game will be better off and far more ready to confront the challenges—and opportunities—of the next normal than those who do not.

There are four strategic areas to focus on: recovering revenue, rebuilding operations, rethinking the organization, and accelerating the adoption of digital solutions.

1. Rapidly recover revenue.

Speed matters: it will not be enough for companies to recover revenues gradually as the crisis abates. They will need to fundamentally rethink their revenue profile, to position themselves for the long term and to get ahead of the competition. To do this companies must SHAPE up.

S tart-up mindset. This favors action over research, and testing over analysis. Establish a brisk cadence to encourage agility and accountability: daily team check-ins, weekly 30-minute CEO reviews, and twice-a-month 60-minute reviews.

H uman at the core. Companies will need to rethink their operating model based on how their people work best. Sixty percent of businesses surveyed by McKinsey in early April said that their new remote sales models were proving as much (29 percent) or more effective (31 percent) than traditional channels.

A cceleration of digital, tech, and analytics. It’s already a cliché: the COVID-19 crisis has accelerated the shift to digital. But the best companies are going further, by enhancing and expanding their digital channels. They’re successfully using advanced analytics to combine new sources of data, such as satellite imaging, with their own insights to make better and faster decisions and strengthen their links to customers.

P urpose-driven customer playbook. Companies need to understand what customers will value, post-COVID-19, and develop new use cases and tailored experiences based on those insights.

E cosystems and adaptability. Given crisis-related disruptions in supply chains and channels, adaptability is essential. That will mean changing the ecosystem and considering nontraditional collaborations with partners up and down the supply chain.

Rapid revenue response isn’t just a way to survive the crisis. It’s the next normal for how companies will have to operate. Assuming company leaders are in good SHAPE, how do they go about choosing what to do? We see three steps.

Identify and prioritize revenue opportunities. What’s important is to identify the primary sources of revenue and, on that basis, make the “now or never” moves that need to happen before the recovery fully starts. This may include launching targeted campaigns to win back loyal customers; developing customer experiences focused on increased health and safety; adjusting pricing and promotions based on new data; reallocating spending to proven growth sources; reskilling the sales force to support remote selling; creating flexible payment terms; digitizing sales channels; and automating processes to free up sales representatives to sell more.

Once identified, these measures need to be rigorously prioritized to reflect their impact on earnings and the company’s ability to execute quickly (exhibit).

Act with urgency. During the current crisis, businesses have worked faster and better than they dreamed possible just a few months ago. Maintaining that sense of possibility will be an enduring source of competitive advantage.

Consider a Chinese car-rental company whose revenues fell 95 percent in February. With the roads empty, company leaders didn’t just stew. Instead, they reacted like a start-up. They invested in micro–customer segmentation and social listening to guide personalization. This led them to develop new use cases. They discovered, for example, that many tech firms were telling employees not to use public transportation. The car-rental company used this insight to experiment with and refine targeted campaigns. They also called first-time customers who had cancelled orders to reassure them of the various safety steps the company had taken, such as “no touch” car pickup. To manage the program, they pulled together three agile teams with cross-functional skills and designed a recovery dashboard to track progress. Before the crisis, the company took up to three weeks to launch a campaign; that is now down to two to three days. Within seven weeks, the company had recovered 90 percent of its business, year on year—almost twice the rate of its chief competitor.

During the current crisis, businesses have worked faster and better than they dreamed possible just a few months ago. Maintaining that sense of possibility will be an enduring source of competitive advantage.

Develop an agile operating model. Driven by urgency, marketing and sales leaders are increasingly willing to embrace agile methods; they are getting used to jumping on quick videoconferences to solve problems and give remote teams more decision-making authority. It’s also important, of course, for cross-functional teams not to lose sight of the long term and to avoid panic reactions.

In this sense, “agile” means putting in place a new operating model built around the customer and supported by the right processes and governance. Agile sales organizations, for example, continuously prioritize accounts and deals, and decide quickly where to invest. But this is effective only if there is a clear growth plan that sets out how to win each type of customer. Similarly, fast decision making between local sales and global business units and the rapid reallocation of resources between them require a stable sales-pipeline-management process.

2. Rebuilding operations.

The coronavirus pandemic has radically changed demand patterns for products and services across sectors, while exposing points of fragility in global supply chains and service networks. At the same time, it has been striking how fast many companies have adapted, creating radical new levels of visibility, agility, productivity, and end-customer connectivity. Now leaders are asking themselves: How can we sustain this performance? As operations leaders seek to reinvent the way they work and thus position themselves for the next normal, five themes are emerging.

Building operations resilience. Successful companies will redesign their operations and supply chains to protect against a wider and more acute range of potential shocks. In addition, they will act quickly to rebalance their global asset base and supplier mix. The once-prevalent global-sourcing model in product-driven value chains has steadily declined as new technologies and consumer-demand patterns encourage regionalization of supply chains . We expect this trend to accelerate.

This reinvention and regionalization of global value chains is also likely to accelerate adoption of other levers to strengthen operational resilience, including increased use of external suppliers to supplement internal operations, greater workforce cross-training, and dual or even triple sourcing.

Accelerating end-to-end value-chain digitization. Creating this new level of operations resilience could be expensive, in both time and resources. The good news, however, is that leading innovators have demonstrated how “Industry 4.0” (or the Fourth Industrial Revolution suite of digital and analytics tools and approaches) can significantly reduce the cost of flexibility. In short, low-cost, high-flexibility operations  are not only possible—they are happening. Most companies were already digitizing their operations before the coronavirus hit. If they accelerate these efforts now, they will likely see significant benefits in productivity, flexibility, quality, and end-customer connectivity.

Rapidly increasing capital- and operating-expense transparency. To survive and thrive amid the economic fallout, companies can build their next-normal operations around a revamped approach to spending. A full suite of technology-enabled methodologies is accelerating cost transparency, compressing months of effort into weeks or days. These digital approaches include procurement-spend analysis and clean-sheeting, end-to-end inventory rebalancing, and capital-spend diagnostics and portfolio rationalization. Companies are also seeking to turn fixed capital costs into variable ones by leveraging “as a service” models.

Embracing the future of work. The  future of work , defined by the use of more automation and technology, was always coming. COVID-19 has hastened the pace. Employees across all functions, for example, have learned how to complete tasks remotely, using digital communication and collaboration tools. In operations, changes will go further, with an accelerated decline in manual and repetitive tasks and a rise in the need for analytical and technical support. This shift will call for substantial investment in workforce engagement and training in new skills, much of it delivered using digital tools.

Reimagining a sustainable operations competitive advantage. Dramatic shifts in industry structure, customer expectations, and demand patterns create a need for equally dramatic shifts in operations strategies to create competitive advantage and new customer value propositions. Successful companies will reinvent the role of operations in their enterprises, creating new value through a far greater responsiveness to their end customers—including but not limited to accelerated product-development and customer-experience innovation, mass customization, improved environmental sustainability, and more interconnected, nimble ecosystem management.

Taking action. To keep up during COVID-19, companies have moved fast. Sales and operation planning used to be done weekly or even monthly; now a daily cadence is common. To build on this progress, speed will continue to be of the essence. Companies that recognize this, and that are willing to set new standards and upend old paradigms, will build long-term strategic advantage.

3. Rethinking the organization.

In 2019, a leading retailer was exploring how to launch a curbside-delivery business; the plan stretched over 18 months. When the COVID-19 lockdown hit the United States, it went live in two days. There are many more examples of this kind. “How can we ever tell ourselves that we can’t be faster?” one executive of a consumer company recently asked.

Call it the “great unfreezing”: in the heat of the coronavirus crisis, organizations have been forced to work in new ways, and they are responding. Much of this progress comes from shifts in operating models. Clear goals, focused teams, and rapid decision making have replaced corporate bureaucracy. Now, as the world begins to move into the post-COVID-19 era, leaders must commit to not going back. The way in which they rethink their organizations will go a long way in determining their long-term competitive advantage.

Specifically, they must decide who they are, how to work, and how to grow.

Who we are. In a crisis, what matters becomes very clear, very fast. Strategy, roles, personal ownership, external orientation, and leadership that is both supportive and demanding—all can be seen much more clearly now. The social contract between the employee and employer is, we believe, changing fundamentally. “It will matter whether you actually acted to put the safety of employees and communities first,” one CEO told us, “or just said you cared.” One noticeable characteristic of companies that have adapted well is that they have a strong sense of identity. Leaders and employees have a shared sense of purpose and a common performance culture; they know what the company stands for, beyond shareholder value, and how to get things done right.

How we work. Many leaders are reflecting on how small, nimble teams built in a hurry to deal with the COVID-19 emergency made important decisions faster and better. What companies have learned cannot be unlearned—namely, that a flatter organization that delegates decision making down to a dynamic network of teams is more effective. They are rewiring their circuits to make decisions faster, and with much less data and certainty than before. In a world where fast beats slow, companies that can institutionalize these forms of speedy and effective decentralization will jump ahead of the competition.

Many leaders are reflecting on how small, nimble teams built in a hurry to deal with the COVID-19 emergency made important decisions faster and better.

Organizations are also showing a more profound appreciation for matching the right talent, regardless of hierarchy, to the most critical challenges. In an environment with strong cost pressures, successful leaders will see the value in continuing to simplify and streamline their organizational structures. Experience has shown a better way, with critical roles linked to value-creation opportunities and leadership roles that are much more fluid, with new leaders emerging from unexpected places: the premium is placed on character and results, rather than on expertise or experience. This can only work, however, if the talent is there. To hire and keep top talent, the scarcest capital of all, means creating a unique work experience and committing to a renewed emphasis on talent development.

How to grow. Coming out of the crisis, organizations must answer important questions about growth and scalability. Three factors will matter most: the ability to embed data and analytics in decision making; the creation of learning platforms that support both individual and institutional experimentation and learning at scale; and the cultivation of an organizational culture that fosters value creation with other partners.

Those organizations that are making the shift from closed systems and one-to-one transactional relationships to digital platforms and networks of mutually beneficial partnerships have proved more resilient during the crisis. “Every business is now a technology business, and what matters most is a deep understanding of the customer, which is enabled by technology,” remarked a retail CEO.

By organizing to encourage insight generation—for example, by linking previously unconnected goods and services—technology is revolutionizing how organizations relate to their customers and their customers’ customers. Creating digitally enabled ecosystems is therefore critical because these catalyze growth and enable rapid adaptation. When the crisis hit, one company moved all its full-time direct employees into a virtual operating environment; meanwhile, its outsourcing partner, the CEO recalled, “hid behind their contract and played one customer off against another.” It is not difficult to imagine who is better placed to succeed in the more flexible post-COVID-19 business environment, where value creation is shared and strategic partnerships matter even more.

4. Accelerate digital adoption to enable reimagination.

Over the past few months, there has been a transformation in the way we interact with loved ones, do our work, travel, get medical care, spend leisure time, and conduct many of the routine transactions of life. These changes have accelerated the migration to digital technologies at stunning scale and speed, across every sector. “We are witnessing what will surely be remembered as a historic deployment of remote work and digital access to services across every domain,” remarked one tech CEO. He is right. Through the COVID-19 recovery, too, digital will play a defining role.

During the early recovery period of partial reopening, business leaders will face some fundamental challenges. One is that consumer behavior and demand patterns have changed significantly and will continue to do so. Another is that how the economy lurches back to life will differ from country to country and even city to city. For example, consumers may feel comfortable going to restaurants before they will consider getting on a plane or going to sporting events. Early signals of increased consumer demand will likely come suddenly, and in clusters. Analyzing these demand signals in real time and adapting quickly to bring supply chains and services back will be essential for companies to successfully navigate the recovery.

To address these challenges, leaders will need to set an ambitious digital agenda—and deliver it quickly, on the order of two to three months, as opposed to the previous norm of a year or more. There are four elements to this agenda:

Refocus digital efforts to reflect changing customer expectations. To adapt, companies need to quickly rethink customer journeys and accelerate the development of digital solutions. The emphasis will be different for each sector. For many retailers, this includes creating a seamless e-commerce experience, enabling customers to complete everything they need to do online, from initial research and purchase to service and returns. For auto companies, this could mean establishing new digital distribution models to handle trade-ins, financing, servicing, and home delivery of cars. For industries such as airlines, ensuring health and safety will be essential, for example, by reinventing the passenger experience with “contactless” check-in, boarding, and in-flight experiences.

Use data, Internet of Things, and AI to better manage operations. In parallel, companies need to incorporate new data and create new models to enable real-time decision making. In the same way that many risk and financial models had to be rebuilt after the 2008 financial crisis, the use of data and analytics will need to be recalibrated to reflect the post-COVID-19 reality. This will involve rapidly validating models, creating new data sets, and enhancing modeling techniques. Getting this right will enable companies to successfully navigate demand forecasting, asset management, and coping with massive new volumes. For example, one airline developed a new app to manage and maintain its idle fleet and support bringing it back into service; and a North American telecommunications company developed a digital collection model for customers facing hardship.

Accelerate tech modernization. Companies will also need to greatly improve their IT productivity to lower their cost base and fund rapid, flexible digital-solution development. First, this requires quickly reducing IT costs and making them variable wherever possible to match demand. This means figuring out what costs are flexible in the near-to-medium term, for example, by evaluating nonessential costs related to projects or maintenance, and reallocating resources. Second, this involves defining a future IT-product platform, establishing the skills and roles needed to sustain it, mapping these skills onto the new organization model, and developing leaders who can train people to fill the new or adapted roles. Third, the adoption of cloud and automation technologies will need to be speeded up, including bringing cloud operations on-premise and decommissioning legacy infrastructure.

Increase the speed and productivity of digital solutions. To deal with the crisis and its aftermath, companies not only need to develop digital solutions quickly but also to adapt their organizations to new operating models and deliver these solutions to customers and employees at scale. Solving this “last mile” challenge requires integrating businesses processes, incorporating data-driven decision making, and implementing change management. There are different ways to do this. A wide variety of companies, from banks to mining operations, have accelerated delivery by establishing an internal “digital factory” with cross-functional teams dedicated to matching business priorities to digital practices. Others, in addition to reinventing their core businesses, have established new business–building entities  to capture new opportunities quickly.

For companies around the world, the qualities that brought Brazilian football to new heights in 1970—imagination, leadership, and on-the field execution—will be paramount as they consider how to navigate the post-COVID-19 environment. Business as usual will not be nearly enough: the game has changed too much. But by reimagining how they recover, operate, organize, and use technology, even as they return to work, companies can set the foundations for enduring success.

Kevin Sneader , the global managing partner of McKinsey, is based in McKinsey’s Hong Kong office. Bob Sternfels is a senior partner in the San Francisco office.

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What Does Recovery Mean in Business?

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As a dictionary definition, recovery in business refers to the process of restoring a struggling company to a stable, profitable state.

This could involve a range of actions, from restructuring the company’s operations to securing additional financing. The goal of recovery is to ensure the long-term viability of the company, which could involve a change in strategy, refocusing of the company’s goals or simply the application of better management practices.

For most business owners, recovery means getting back on track after a period of financial difficulty.

This could be due to a range of reasons, such as a market downturn, increased competition, or mismanagement. Whatever the cause, recovery is essential for the survival of the business.

Without a successful recovery, the business could be facing insolvency or bankruptcy.

But how can businesses recover?

Recovery in business is a challenging process, but it is not impossible. Here are five ways owners can follow to achieve recovery:

Review your finances

The first step in recovery is to review the company’s finances. This involves assessing the company’s assets, liabilities, and cash flow. This information will help you understand the company’s financial position and identify areas where cost-cutting is necessary. In some cases, it may be necessary to sell assets or secure additional financing to ensure the company’s survival.

Restructure your operations

In some cases, the company’s operations may need to be restructured to ensure profitability. This could involve consolidating departments, outsourcing non-core functions, or redefining the company’s product or service offering.

Whatever the action, the focus should be on improving efficiency and reducing costs. A new strategy may also be needed to ensure the company’s long-term viability.

The Benefits of Restructuring Your Business

Develop a recovery plan

Once you have assessed the company’s financial position and identified areas for improvement, it is time to develop a recovery plan.

This should be a comprehensive plan that outlines the steps needed to achieve recovery, including cost-cutting measures, revenue-generating initiatives, and a timeline for achieving specific milestones.

The plan should be realistic and achievable, and it should be regularly reviewed and updated as needed.

Communicate with stakeholders

During the recovery process, it is essential to communicate with all stakeholders, including customers, suppliers, employees, and investors. T

hey should be informed about the company’s financial situation and the steps being taken to ensure its survival. This will help maintain their trust and support during the recovery process.

Seek professional help

Recovery in business is a complex process, and it may be necessary to seek professional help. This could involve working with a financial advisor, restructuring specialist, or insolvency practitioner.

These professionals can provide expert advice and support during the recovery process, helping to ensure the best possible outcome for the company.

What companies have done this at scale?

There are numerous examples of SMEs that have successfully recovered from financial difficulties over the years, here are a few examples:

The Cheesecake Factory – The restaurant chain faced financial difficulties in 2019 due to increased competition and rising costs. However, the company was able to recover by closing underperforming locations and improving its menu offerings. The Cheesecake Factory has since reported improved financial results.

Brompton Bicycle – In the early 2000s, this manufacturer of foldable bicycles faced financial difficulties due to increased competition from low-cost manufacturers. However, the company was able to recover by focusing on innovation and improving its distribution network. Brompton Bicycle has since become a successful and profitable company.

J D Wetherspoon – The pub chain faced financial difficulties in the late 1990s due to overexpansion and high debt levels. However, the company was able to recover by selling underperforming locations and improving its management practices. J D Wetherspoon has since become a successful and profitable company, with a strong focus on customer experience.

Prezzo – The restaurant chain faced financial difficulties in 2018 due to declining sales and increased competition. However, the company was able to recover by restructuring its operations and closing underperforming locations. Prezzo has since reported improved financial results and has plans to expand its operations.

The Co-operative Group – The UK’s largest mutual retailer faced financial difficulties in the early 2010s due to poor management practices and declining sales. However, the company was able to recover by improving its governance structure and focusing on customer needs. The Co-operative Group has since become a successful and profitable company, with a strong focus on ethical practices.

These examples highlight the importance of taking action to address financial difficulties, whether through cost-cutting measures, operational restructuring, or other strategies. With the right approach and support, SMEs can recover from financial difficulties and achieve long-term success.

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Business Continuity Event Planning: Building a recovery strategy

In previous posts, we examined understanding the business, the relationship between event response and recovery efforts, and how to build an incident response plan .  The natural next step after initial response is the interim and permanent recovery of critical systems.  However, before drilling into the mechanics of creating and managing a business continuity plan for recovery, I’d like to step back and take a quick look at creating the controlling strategic framework upon which catastrophe response and recovery activities are based.

Having a management-approved business continuity strategy in place provides guidance relative to the requirements of initial response, what to recover, and to what extent it should be recovered.  Many organizations plan to recover everything, a recovery strategy doomed to fail in large organizations. 

Building a strategy begins with understanding the business .  Only with a thorough knowledge of what processes cannot be down for even a short period can you build an effective recovery plan.  Armed with operations management approval of these processes, and an understanding of the underlying technology, you can make an informed decision about what to temporarily recover at a recovery site. 

The approach I recommend is to:

• Work with business managers to identify critical processes.  Critical processes are those identified during the understand-the-business phase and ranked high when performing business impact analysis (BIA).
• Using the results of the BIA, and the time necessary to identify and prepare a permanent recovery site, identify those processes which must be part of the interim recovery activities (e.g., hot site).
• Work with business managers and key employees to identify technology requirements and possible manual workarounds.
• Document the results of Item 3 in a business recovery plan.
• Cycle through this process at least annually.

Considerations

Again, not all processes can be recovered.  This includes some critical outcome activities.   However, business continuity teams must provide accurate information to management to ensure the right decisions can be made as to whether to accept or mitigate the resulting risk.  According to BS 25999-1:2006 (Business continuity management code of practice, p. 21), managers should consider three things when assessing whether a process should be recovered and when:

• The maximum tolerable period of disruption of the critical process
• The costs of implementing a strategy or strategies for recovery or mitigation
• The consequence of inaction [defined in the BIA]

There are also logistics considerations when building a strategy.  It cannot be built in isolation.  What is and is not possible must be considered.  A strategy built on unachievable assumptions results in incident response and recovery plans with little or no chance of success.  Logistical considerations include:

• Availability of key personnel.  If a recovery site is out of town, how will employees reach the site?  If a catastrophe encompasses a large geographic region, will employees even be available?

Premises.  Considering the list of critical processes, supporting technology, and manual workarounds, what are the office or data center requirements, including:

• Connection to the Internet
• Direct connections to outside businesses/customers
• Office equipment
• IT infrastructure.  Entering into a contract for a warm or hot site requires considering what infrastructure is needed.  The cost of the contract increases with increases in infrastructure requirements.  When determining requirements, recovery teams must not only consider operational equipment.  They must also consider what equipment is initially necessary to concurrently recover critical systems, if necessary. 

There are additional considerations, but working through these provides answers about what type of recovery, if any at all, is feasible.

The final word

Whether a strategy is needed for smaller events (i.e., server failure, loss of key personnel) is up to management.  However, a strategy is necessary before planning for events resulting in loss of most or all data center capabilities.

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Tom Olzak is an information security researcher and an IT professional with more than 34 years of experience in programming, network engineering and security. He has an MBA and a CISSP certification. He is an online instructor for the University of Phoenix, facilitating 400-level security classes.

Tom has held positions as an IS director, director of infrastructure engineering, director of information security and programming manager at a variety of manufacturing, healthcare and distribution companies. Before entering the private sector, he served 10 years in the U.S. Army Military Police, with four years as a military police investigator.

Tom has written three books: Just Enough Security , Microsoft Virtualization , and Enterprise Security: A Practitioner's Guide . He is also the author of various papers on security management and has been a blogger for CSOonline.com, TechRepublic, Toolbox.com and Tom Olzak on Security.

The opinions expressed in this blog are those of Tom Olzak and do not necessarily represent those of IDG Communications Inc. or its parent, subsidiary or affiliated companies.

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What Is an Economic Recovery?

• Understanding Economic Recovery
• The Economic Cycle

The Process of Recovery

Indicators of recovery.

• Risks and Challenges

Special Considerations

The bottom line.

• Macroeconomics

Economic Recovery: Definition, Process, Signs, and Indicators

Economic recovery is the business cycle stage following a recession that is characterized by a sustained period of improving business activity. Normally, during an economic recovery, gross domestic product (GDP) grows, incomes rise, and unemployment falls as the economy rebounds.

During an economic recovery, the economy undergoes a process of adaptation and adjustment to new conditions, including the factors that triggered the recession in the first place and the new policies and rules implemented by governments and central banks in response to the recession.

The labor, capital goods, and other productive resources that were tied up in businesses that failed and went under during the recession are re-employed in new activities as unemployed workers find new jobs and failed firms are bought up or divided up by others. Recovery is an economy healing itself from the damage done, and it sets the stage for a new expansion . 

Key Takeaways

• Economic recovery is the process of reallocating resources and workers from failed businesses and investments to new jobs and uses after a recession.
• An economic recovery follows after the recession and leads into a new expansionary business cycle phase.
• Leading indicators—such as the stock market, retail sales, and business startups—often rise ahead of an economic recovery.
• Government policies can sometimes help or interfere with the economic recovery process. 
• During an economic recovery, central banks may enact monetary policies aimed at increasing the money supply and encouraging lending.

Understanding an Economic Recovery

Market economies experience ups and downs for several reasons. Economies can be impacted by all kinds of factors, including revolutions, financial crises, and global influences. Sometimes these shifts in markets can take on a pattern that can be thought of as a kind of wave or cycle, with distinct stages of an expansion or boom, a peak leading to some economic crisis, a recession, and subsequent recovery.

An economic recovery occurs after a recession as the economy adjusts and recovers some of the gains lost during the recession. The economy then eventually transitions to a true expansion when growth accelerates and GDP starts moving toward a new peak.

Not every period of slow growth or even contraction is severe enough to be designated as a recession. In the United States, the most common rule of thumb for a recession is if there are two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth .

Economic Recovery and the Economic Cycle

The economic cycle, also known as the business cycle, refers to the recurring pattern of economic growth, contraction, and recovery. This cyclical pattern is typically moves through four main phases that we'll talk about in a moment. Note that "economic recovery" isn't one of the four phases; however, the recovery occurs between the trough and the expansion periods discussed below. Here are the four phases:

• Expansion: This phase marks a period of economic growth and increasing activity. During an expansion, businesses invest, employment rises, and consumer spending increases. The economy is generally robust, and confidence among businesses and consumers is high. Note that one of the main reasons this happens is because the economy is recovering, potentially boosted by government intervention. This is the period where economic recovery happens.
• Peak: The peak is the highest point of the economic cycle. This means the economy is done expanding. In many ways, this means that the economy has recovered (so "economic recovery" has been completed). At this stage, the economy is operating near its full capacity. As the economy reaches its peak, growth slows down, and signs of potential overheating become apparent.
• Contraction (Recession): The contraction phase is characterized by a decline in economic activity. GDP contracts, businesses reduce investments, unemployment rises, and consumer spending decreases. This is the part where the economy begins to move into a period where economy recovery is needed.
• Trough: The trough represents the bottom of the economic cycle, where economic activity reaches its lowest point. During this phase, the negative trends observed in the contraction phase begin to stabilize or reverse. Businesses may start to invest again, and consumer confidence begins to recover. This prior sentence is the epitome of economic recovery which (hopefully) leads to a period of prosperity and a new period of expansion.

The Balance / Sabrina Jiang

During a recession, many businesses fail and go out of business, and many of those that survive cut back activities to reduce costs in the face of decreased demand for their output. Workers often get laid off and business assets get sold piecemeal. Sometimes business owners are forced to liquidate an entire business.

Some of these capital assets end up in the hands of other businesses, sometimes even brand new businesses, that can put them to productive use. Sometimes these are very similar to their previous uses, and sometimes these are totally new lines of business. This process of sorting capital goods into new combinations, under new ownership, at new prices after they have been released from failed businesses or business cutbacks in the recession, is the essence of economic recovery.

As entrepreneurs re-organize productive labor and capital into new businesses and activities, they must account for changes in the economy that have occurred. In some business cycles, real economic shocks have helped trigger the recession, such as the oil price spikes of the 1970s and 2008.

Businesses usually need to deal with a leaner credit environment relative to the easy credit days of the boom that preceded the recession. They may need to implement new technologies and organizational forms. Almost always, the government fiscal and regulatory environment that businesses operate under changes from the boom to the recession and recovery.

In the end, the recovery can change the patterns of economic activity in an economy, sometimes drastically and sometimes in barely noticeable ways. The economy heals the damage during the preceding parts of the business cycle by reallocating, reusing, and recycling resources into new uses, in an analogous way to how the body breaks down dead and damaged tissue in order to produce new, healthy cells and tissues after an injury.

Importantly, in order for the process of recovery to proceed, it is critical that the business and investment liquidations of the recession are carried out and the resources tied up in them are allowed to flow to new uses and new businesses. 

Eventually, this process of recovery leads to a new phase of growth and expansion once resources have been mostly or fully reallocated across the economy.

Economists will often create charts that measure different components of an economic recovery, such as GDP and employment rates. These recovery charts are named after the shape they form, such as a V-shaped , W-shaped, or K-shaped recovery .

Economists often play a big part in defining an economy’s business cycle phase as well as the stages of economic growth or contraction it may be experiencing. To assess the economy, economists look at both leading and lagging economic indicators in their analysis.

Leading indicators can be things such as the stock market, which often rises ahead of an economic recovery. This is usually because future expectations drive stock prices. On the other hand, employment is typically somewhat of a lagging indicator . Unemployment often remains high even as the economy begins to recover because many employers will not hire additional personnel until they are reasonably confident there is a long-term need for new hiring.

GDP is usually the key indicator of an economic phase. Two quarters of consecutive negative GDP growth indicates a recession. Other economic indicators for consideration can include consumer confidence and inflation.

Risks and Challenges of Economic Recovery

There's a handful of risks and potential downsides during the economic recovery phase. First, inflationary pressures pose a significant risk during economic recovery. As demand for goods and services increases, there is a potential for prices to rise, impacting purchasing power and potentially eroding the real value of incomes. Central banks face the challenge of managing this delicate balance, using tools like interest rates to control inflation without stifling economic growth. It's an oversimplification, but inflation and unemployment often move in opposition; to decrease unemployment, the Federal Reserve usually to face higher inflation.

External factors such as global geopolitical tensions, trade disputes, or public health crises can also pose unique challenges. The interconnectedness in the global economy means that events in one region can have far-reaching consequences. For example, the White House signed an Executive Order in 2023 to implement trade sanctions against Russia in response to the Ukraine conflict. One could argue the United States was still emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic; still, the government decided certain repercussions (i.e. constraints on oil and the energy sector) would likely occur that wouldn't help economic recovery.

Accommodative monetary policies, such as low-interest rates, implemented during economic recovery, may also contribute to the creation of asset bubbles. Though economic recovery is marked by growth, the government must be mindful of how favorable policies may create inflated valuations or excessive exuberance.

Last, as markets move into a recovery stage, entities may find it necessary to seek debt to cover lost wages (for individuals) or growth/operations (for businesses). There's considerable risk that, although an economy is recovering, there will be a response lag that entities need to weather.

Fiscal and monetary policy actions taken by regulators are often guided by an economy’s business cycle. With the onset of a recession, these policies are generally aimed at helping businesses, investors, and workers who have been impacted. Governments may implement direct assistance and they may stimulate demand by easing interest rates to encourage lending. They may provide funding aimed at propping up threatened financial institutions.   

Unfortunately, these policies can also have the effect of delaying the recovery by preventing the liquidation of failing businesses. These policies may encourage businesses and workers to not adjust the prices and arrangements of business ventures and employment conditions to the new realities revealed by the recession.

Similarly, propping up business arrangements, investments, and institutions that do not reflect economic reality delays the process of reallocation of resources to new uses, new owners, and new jobs for unemployed workers. It can also do permanent damage to society by encouraging people and businesses to continue to destroy capital and waste real resources by engaging in economic activities that are not profitable or efficient under the new economic conditions.

The longest recovery and expansion period on record is held by the economy of Australia.

Examples of Economic Recovery

A recovery and expansion period can last for years. The economic recovery from the 2008 financial crisis and recession began in June 2009. Real GDP had contracted by 5.5% in the first quarter of 2009 and another 0.7% in the second quarter. The economy showed signs of recovery by the third and fourth quarters of 2009. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, a popular proxy for economic performance and a leading indicator, had already been rising for four months after bottoming out in February 2009.

The United States economy demonstrated a robust recovery post-COVID-19, returning to its pre-pandemic growth trajectory with a 2.1% real GDP growth in 2022. Since Q1 2022, the country's real GDP has increased every quarter. In addition, since peaking at 14.8% unemployment in April 2020, the United States had been 4.0% or less unemployment from January 2022 to January 2024.

In July 2020, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reported a record timeframe for recovery and expansion over the next 10 years. In the wake of the massive disruption to supply chains, closures of businesses, and lay-offs of workers due to the public health mandates and social distancing orders, the CBO projects the economy will rebound at a modest pace with a projected real GDP growth of 2.2% for the U.S. in 2024.

How Do Fiscal and Monetary Policies Contribute to Economic Recovery?

Fiscal policies, such as government spending and taxation adjustments, and monetary policies, involving interest rate changes and liquidity management, contribute to economic recovery by influencing aggregate demand, investment levels, and financial market stability. The government uses these policies to stimulate economic activity during downturns; in certain economies, it might be argued that economic recovery can't happen without the government's policies.

How Does Inflation Impact the Sustainability of Economic Recovery?

Inflation impacts the sustainability of economic recovery by influencing purchasing power and consumer confidence. Moderate inflation can be a sign of a healthy economy, but excessive inflation may erode the value of money, leading to decreased consumer spending. When excessive inflation occurs, the government may also decide to pull back some favorable policies, meaning the economy is somewhat likely to slow (and thus risks recovery).

What Role Does Labor Play in Economic Recovery?

Labor market dynamics play a crucial role in economic recovery. Factors like employment levels and skill mismatches influences recovery sustainability, as getting people back to work can help increase consumer spending (and thus business growth opportunities).

What Impact Does Technology and Automation Have on Economic Recovery?

Technology and automation impact economic recovery by influencing employment patterns and income distribution. While driving efficiency, the transition to automation may create job displacement challenges, therefore reducing consumer spending opportunities. However, companies may find they can be more efficient and incur fewer costs when implementing innovation solutions like this. Therefore, individuals must adapt and upskill to continue to not be entirely displaced by emerging technology.

Economic recovery involves the revitalization of a national or global economy following a period of downturn or recession. It's usually characterized by positive growth indicators such as increased GDP, declining unemployment rates, and restored consumer and investor confidence. Economic recovery can happen when policymakers employ a handful of policies, though there's risks and challenges in balancing economic growth and external risks like geopolitical relations and inflation.

The National Bureau of Economic Research. " What's a Recession, Anyway? ," Pages 3 and 6.

The National Bureau of Economic Research. " Historical Oil Shocks ," Pages 8-18, 21-23.

White House. " FACT SHEET: Biden Administration Expands U.S. Sanctions Authorities to Target Financial Facilitators of Russia’s War Machine ."

Australian Trade and Investment Commission. " Australia’s Long-Distance Growth Record Outpaces OECD Partners ."

Bureau of Economic Analysis. " Gross Domestic Product: Second Quarter 2009 (Third Estimate) ."

Bureau of Economic Analysis. " Gross Domestic Product, 1st Quarter 2009 (Final) and Corporate Profits ."

Bureau of Economic Analysis. " Gross Domestic Product, 4th Quarter 2009 (Third Estimate); Corporate Profits, 4th Quarter 2009 ."

Yahoo Finance. " Dow Jones Industrial Average: Historical Data ," Select Time Period "Jan. 31, 2009 - Jun. 29, 2009."

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. " Real Gross Domestic Product ."

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. " Civilian Unemployment Rate ."

Congressional Budget Office. " An Update to the Economic Outlook: 2020 to 2030 ," Page 1.

Congressional Budget Office. " An Update to the Economic Outlook: 2020 to 2030 ," Page 3.

• Recession: Definition, Causes, Examples and FAQs 1 of 37
• What Causes a Recession? 2 of 37
• 7 Ways to Recession-Proof Your Life 3 of 37
• 5 Things You Shouldn’t Do During a Recession 4 of 37
• How Do Asset Bubbles Cause Recessions? 5 of 37
• What Happens to Unemployment During a Recession? 6 of 37
• How the Federal Reserve Fights Recessions 7 of 37
• What Happens to Interest Rates During a Recession? 8 of 37
• Why Is Deflation Bad for the Economy? 9 of 37
• Why Is Stagflation Bad for the Economy? 10 of 37
• Are Economic Recessions Inevitable? 11 of 37
• Do Recessions Have a Silver Lining? 12 of 37
• The Impact of Recessions on Businesses 13 of 37
• 9 Businesses That Thrive in Recessions 14 of 37
• Industries That Can Thrive During Recessions 15 of 37
• What’s the Best Investing Strategy to Have During a Recession? 16 of 37
• How to Spot Recession-Resistant Companies 17 of 37
• 3 Ways to Take Advantage of a Recession 18 of 37
• 4 Ways to Hedge Against the Next Recession 19 of 37
• US Recessions Throughout History: Causes and Effects 20 of 37
• 2008 Recession: What It Was and What Caused It 21 of 37
• American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA): Objectives and FAQs 22 of 37
• 5 Top Investors Who Profited From the Global Financial Crisis 23 of 37
• Double-Dip Recession: Overview, History, FAQ 24 of 37
• Economic Cycle: Definition and 4 Stages of the Business Cycle 25 of 37
• Economic Recovery: Definition, Process, Signs, and Indicators 26 of 37
• What Is Economic Stimulus? How It Works, Benefits, and Risks 27 of 37
• All About Fiscal Policy: What It Is, Why It Matters, and Examples 28 of 37
• Growth Recession: What It Is, How It Works 29 of 37
• Inverted Yield Curve: Definition, What It Can Tell Investors, and Examples 30 of 37
• Recession Proof: Overview and Example 31 of 37
• Recession Resistant: Definition, How It Works, and Examples 32 of 37
• K-Shaped Recovery: Definition, K-Curve Chart Example, and Causes 33 of 37
• L-Shaped Recovery: Meaning, Examples, FAQs 34 of 37
• U-Shaped Recovery: What It Means, How It Works, and Examples 35 of 37
• V-Shaped Recovery: Definition, Characteristics, Examples 36 of 37
• W-Shaped Recovery: What it is, How it Works, FAQs 37 of 37

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How to Write a Disaster Recovery Plan + Template

Table of Contents

What is a disaster recovery plan?

Disaster recovery plan vs business continuity plan, what are the measures included in a disaster recovery plan, how to write a disaster recovery plan, disaster recovery plan template, disaster recovery plan examples, how secureframe can help your disaster recovery planning efforts.

• July 27, 2023

Anna Fitzgerald

Senior Content Marketing Manager at Secureframe

Cavan Leung

Senior Compliance Manager at Secureframe

A study found that only 54% of organizations have a company-wide disaster recovery plan in place. This percentage is even lower for government IT departments (36%) despite the proliferation of ransomware and other cyber threats. 

Not having a documented disaster recovery plan can seriously hamper an organization’s ability to recover lost data and restore its critical systems. This can result in significantly higher financial losses and reputational damage.

To help ensure your organization can recover from disaster as swiftly and easily as possible, learn what exactly a disaster recovery plan is and how to write one. Plus, find some examples and a template to help get you started.

A disaster recovery plan (DRP) is a document that outlines the procedures an organization will follow to recover and restore its critical systems, operations, and data after a disaster. Examples of disasters that may disrupt the continuity of product or service delivery are natural disasters, cyber attacks, hardware failures, and human errors. 

In planning for disaster recovery, what is the ultimate goal?

The ultimate goal of disaster recovery planning is to minimize the impact of a disaster, and ensure business continuity.

Having a disaster recovery plan in place that is well-designed and regularly maintained can help organizations:

• minimize downtime
• reduce financial losses
• protect critical data
• resume operations quickly 
• provide peace of mind for employees

A disaster recovery plan and business continuity plan both take a proactive approach to minimize the impact of a disaster before it occurs and may even be combined into a single document as a result. 

However, the key difference is that a disaster recovery plan focuses on limiting abnormal or inefficient system function by restoring it as quickly as possible after a disaster, whereas a business continuity plan focuses on limiting operational downtime by maintaining operations during a disaster. 

In other words, a disaster recovery strategy helps to ensure an organization returns to full functionality after a disaster occurs whereas a business continuity plan helps an organization to keep operating at some capacity during a disaster. That’s why organizations need to have both documents in place, or need to incorporate disaster recovery strategies as part of their overall business continuity plan. 

Recommended reading

How to Write a Business Continuity Plan & Why It’s Important for a SOC 2 Audit [+ Template]

Just as no two businesses are the same, no two disaster recovery plans are. However, they do typically include some common measures. These are detailed below.

• Data backup and recovery

A section of a DRP should be dedicated to data backup and recovery. This should list backup methods, frequency of backups, the storage locations, and the procedures for data restoration.

• Redundant systems and infrastructure

Another section may explain how the organization implements redundant systems and infrastructure to ensure high availability and minimize downtime if a disaster occurs. This may involve duplicating critical servers, network equipment, power supplies, and storage devices using clustering, load balancing, failover mechanisms, virtualization technologies, or other measures. 

Alternate worksite

A DRP may identify alternative worksites or recovery locations where the organization can operate if the primary site becomes inaccessible. This section should also define procedures and infrastructure needed to quickly transition operations to the identified alternate sites.

• Communication and notification

Another part of DRP may define communication protocols and notification procedures to ensure communication during and after a disaster. Protocols and procedures typically include:

• notifying employees, customers, vendors, and stakeholders about the disaster
• providing updates on recovery progress
• maintaining contact information for key personnel and emergency services

Recovery objectives

A DRP may set acceptable time frames for recovering systems and data in terms of recovery time objectives (RTO) and recovery point objectives (RPO). These objectives should be based on the criticality of systems and shape recovery strategies accordingly. 

• RTO : The maximum amount of downtime allowed
• RPO : The maximum loss of data accepted (measured in time)

The 10 Most Important Cybersecurity Metrics & KPIs for CISOs to Track

Writing and maintaining a disaster recovery plan requires collaboration and coordination among key stakeholders across an organization and can seem intimidating. Below we’ll outline the process step by step to help you get started. 

1. Define the plan’s objectives and scope

To start, define the objectives and scope of your disaster recovery plan.

Objectives may include:

• safeguarding employees’ lives and company assets
• making a financial and operational assessment
• securing data
• quickly recovering operations

Next, identify what and who the plan applies. Typically, assets utilized by employees and contractors acting on behalf of the company or accessing its applications, infrastructure, systems, or data fall within the scope of the disaster recovery plan. In this case, employees and contractors are required to review and accept the plan. 

2. Perform a risk assessment

Identify potential risks and vulnerabilities that could lead to a disaster, both internal and external to the organization. This should involve evaluating your reliance on external vendors and suppliers for critical services or resources and assessing their own disaster recovery capabilities to ensure they align with your organization's requirements.

3. Perform a business impact analysis

Next, determine the business functions, processes, systems, and data that are essential for your organization's operations. For each critical component, establish recovery time objectives and recovery point objectives. 

4. Define recovery measures and procedures

Define the appropriate measures and step-by-step procedures for disaster recovery based on the risks and business impact you identified. This includes identifying the individuals or teams responsible for recovery tasks, the resources required, and the order of recovery tasks.

As stated above, these recovery tasks may fall into the following categories:

• Alternative worksite

You may also want to outline emergency procedures. These are the actions that should be taken during and immediately after a disaster occurs, and may include evacuation plans and communication protocols and coordination with emergency services.

5. Conduct testing and training regularly

Regularly test the disaster recovery plan to ensure its effectiveness and identify any potential gaps or weaknesses. Conduct training sessions for employees to familiarize them with their roles and responsibilities during a disaster.

6. Review and update the plan regularly

Review and update the disaster recovery plan periodically to incorporate changes in technology, business operations, and potential risks. Ensure that contact information, system configurations, and other relevant details are up to date.

Use this template to kick off your disaster recovery planning and customize it based on your organization's specific risks and objectives.

Below you can find examples of disaster recovery strategies and procedures from disaster recovery plans created and maintained by universities and other organizations. This should help you in brainstorming and documenting your own recovery strategies and plans for different services, environments, and types of disasters. 

1. IT disaster recovery plan

Southern Oregon University has a comprehensive disaster recovery plan specifically for its IT services because they are so heavily relied upon by faculty, staff, and students. There are disaster recovery processes and procedures outlined for various IT services and infrastructure, including its data center, network infrastructure, enterprise systems, desktop hardware, client applications, classrooms, and labs. 

Some of the IT disaster recovery processes and procedures outlined in the plan are:

• Secure facility as necessary to prevent personnel injury and further damage to IT systems.
• Coordinate hardware and software replacement with vendors
• Verify operational ability of all equipment on-site in the affected area (servers, network equipment, ancillary equipment, etc.). If equipment is not operational, initiate actions to repair or replace as needed.
• If the data center is not operational or recoverable, contact personnel responsible for the alternate data center and take necessary steps to ready the facility.
• Retrieve most recent on-site or off-site back-up media for previous three back-ups. Prepare back-up media for transfer to primary or secondary datacenter, as determined during the initial assessment.

2. AWS disaster recovery plan

AWS walks through disaster recovery options in the cloud in this whitepaper . It explains four primary approaches to cloud disaster recovery:

• Backup and restor e: Backup the data, infrastructure, configuration, and application code of your primary Region and redeploy them in the recovery Region. This is the least costly and complex approach. 
• Pilot light : Replicate your data from one Region to another and provision a copy of your core workload infrastructure so that you can quickly provision a full scale production environment by switching on and scaling out your application servers if a disaster occurs. This simplifies recovery at the time of a disaster and also minimizes the ongoing cost of disaster recovery by “switching off” some resources until they’re needed.
• Warm standby : Create and maintain a scaled down, but fully functional, copy of your production environment in another Region. This decreases the time to recovery compared to the pilot light approach, but is more costly because it requires more active resources.  
• Multi-site active/active : Run your workload simultaneously in multiple Regions so users are able to access your workload in any of the Regions in which it is deployed, which reduces your recovery time to near zero for most disasters. This is the most costly and complex approach. 

3. Data center disaster recovery plan

The University of Iowa also has a comprehensive disaster recovery plan , which includes several processes and procedures for recovering from a disaster that affects its data center. Some of these include: 

• Have large tarps or plastic sheeting available in the data center ready to cover sensitive electronic equipment in case the building is damaged due to natural disasters like tornadoes, floods, and earthquakes.
• If replacement equipment is required, make every attempt to replicate the current system configuration.
• If data is lost, then request that the IT department recover it from an off-site backup or cloud deep archive storage.

Secureframe’s automation compliance platform and in-house compliance expertise can help ensure your organization has the policies, controls, and expertise in place to protect systems proactively from business disaster and to recover if they do occur. Request a demo to learn how.

What are the 5 steps of disaster recovery planning?

The five steps of disaster recovery planning are prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. That means when planning, you should identify measures and actions to:

• avoid or prevent a disaster from occurring
• reduce the chances of a disaster occurring or the impact of it
• enhance your ability to respond when a disaster occurs
• be carried out immediately before, during, and after a disaster
• restore your business operations as quickly as possible

What are the 4 C's of disaster recovery?

The 4 C's of disaster recovery are communication, coordination, collaboration, and cooperation. Below are brief definitions of each:

• Communication  - developing and maintaining effective channels for sharing information before, during, and after disasters
• Coordination  - aligning actions to other parts of an organization or other organization to prepare for and respond to disasters
• Cooperation  - working with internal or external parties that share the same goal (ie. responding to and recovering from disasters) and strategies for achieving it
• Collaboration - partnering with internal or external parties to identify challenges and responsibilities to recover from a disaster as quickly as possible

What are the three types of disaster recovery plans?

Disaster recover plans can be tailored to different services, environments, and types of disasters. So types of disaster recovery plans include ones for IT services, data centers, and cloud environments.

How do you create a good disaster recovery plan?

Creating a good disaster recovery plan requires a few key steps such as:

• Performing a risk assessment and business impact analysis
• Setting objectives, including recovery time objectives (RTO) and recovery point objectives (RPO)
• Creating an inventory of critical assets
• Defining data backup requirements and recovery strategies
• Establishing alternate communication methods
• Assigning specific roles and responsibilities

What are the key elements of a disaster recovery plan?

Key elements of a disaster recovery plan are:

• Objectives and goals
• Recovery measures and procedures
• Testing processes
• A communication plan
• Defined disaster recovery stages

Politics latest: MSP who could decide Humza Yousaf's fate appears to reveal price for her support

Scotland's first minister says he will fight a vote in his leadership and is "very confident" of winning. Listen to this week's episode of the Electoral Dysfunction podcast while you scroll through the latest updates.

Friday 26 April 2024 18:00, UK

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• Yousaf tells Sky News he'll 'fight' vote of no-confidence and is optimistic of winning
• MSP who could decide his fate seems to have named price for her support
• Connor Gillies:  First minister must reset relations with very people he's burned bridges with
• Explained: How did we get here - and what happens next?
• Coming up on Sunday: PM sits down with Trevor Phillips
• Latest  Electoral Dysfunction podcast explores what next week's local elections will bring
• Sam Coates explains why they matter
• Live reporting by Charlotte Chelsom-Pill

Rishi Sunak  sits down this Sunday with Trevor Phillips for a wide-ranging interview ahead of the local elections.

With the Rwanda bill becoming law this week and the PM announcing a commitment to increase defence spending, there's been plenty to talk about.

You can watch it in full from 8.30am on Sunday .

Trevor will also be joined by Labour's shadow health secretary Wes Streeting .

Embattled Humza Yousaf has told Sky News he will not resign as Scotland's first minister.

Pressure has been building on  the SNP leader  after he tore up the power-sharing deal with the Scottish Greens - prompting a no-confidence motion in his leadership and a threatened knife-edge vote.

However, Mr Yousaf, on a visit to Dundee that was arranged at short notice after he pulled out of a speech in Glasgow, insisted he was getting on with the job and accused the opposition of "playing games".

He said he would be writing to the leaders of all Scottish political parties to seek talks on making a minority government work.

He told Sky's Scotland correspondent Connor Gillies : "I intend absolutely to fight that vote of no confidence, I've got every intention of winning that vote of no confidence.

"And let me say to the opposition for minority government to work in the interest of the people of Scotland also requires the opposition to act in good faith."

Humza Yousaf's future as first minister is hanging in the balance ahead of a motion of no confidence next week.

Now, as leader of a minority government, his fate may be hanging on just one vote - that of a former SNP leadership rival. 

We take a look at how:

The numbers

In the Scottish parliament, the SNP has 63 seats out of 129 , two short of an outright majority;

The Conservatives have  31;

Labour has 22;

The Greens have  seven;

The Liberal Democrats have four;

The Alba Party has one ;

There is also one presiding officer Alison Johnstone, who is both an MSP and Scotland's equivalent of the Commons speaker.

How the numbers are expected to fall

The motion of no confidence was brought by the Scottish Conservatives.

The Greens, Labour and the Lib Dems have all said they are backing the motion.

That would translate into 64 votes against the first minister versus 63 SNP votes.

So the one Alba vote is expected to be key.

How it may all come down to one ... Ash Regan

Once an SNP leadership rival to Mr Yousaf, Ash Regan defected to Alex Salmond's Alba Party last October. 

If she backs Mr Yousaf then that would mean both sides have 64 votes.

Ms Johnstone would then be expected to vote in favour of the status quo, so the first minister would survive.

But if Ms Regan votes against Mr Yousaf, then the opposition parties will have 65 votes against the SNP's 63, and the first minister would lose.

He wouldn't be compelled to resign in this situation, but he'd be under huge pressure to step aside.

More to come

And remember, Scottish Labour have lodged a separate motion of no confidence in the Scottish government. 

Alba have said it won't back that motion.

Scotland's First Minister Humza Yousaf is battling to save his job as he faces a knife-edge no-confidence vote.

The SNP leader triggered a crisis at Holyrood after he dramatically brought the power-sharing deal with the Scottish Greens to an end.

The backlash has plunged Mr Yousaf's future into doubt, although party colleagues insist he will not resign.

How did we get here?

The Bute House Agreement - signed back in 2021 and named after the first minister's official residence in Edinburgh - brought the Green Party into government for the first time anywhere in the UK.

It gave the SNP a majority at Holyrood when the votes of its MSPs were combined with those of the seven Green members, and also made Green co-leaders Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater junior ministers.

Without it, the SNP would need to have operated as a minority administration at Holyrood.

What caused the relationship to sour?

There had been mounting tensions between the largest party at Holyrood and their junior partners in government.

The Greens were angered at the SNP-led administration's recent decision to ditch a key climate change target.

That, combined with the decision to pause the prescription of new puberty blockers to under-18s at at Scotland's only gender clinic, resulted in the Greens announcing they would have a vote on the future of the power-sharing deal. 

Read more here:

The 2 May local elections will see more than 2,600 seats at stake across 107 English councils.

Labour's Sadiq Khan and Andy Burnham are among the 10 mayors up for re-election.  

Those in Blackpool South will also be voting for their next MP after ex-Tory Scott Benton broke Commons lobbying rules, triggering a by-election.  

With the Conservatives lagging behind Labour in the polls, the outcome will offer some insight on how voters in England and Wales feel ahead of the general election.

On the Sky News Daily, Niall Paterson is joined by deputy political editor Sam Coates to discuss why the elections are so important for the prime minister's future and where the key political backgrounds are.

By Daniel Dunford , senior data journalist

There might not be a general election just yet, but there are important votes that will define how the areas around us are run for the next four years. 

See what's happening where you are here:

With the local elections less than a week away, deputy political editor Sam Coates explains why they matter and what they might tell us about the upcoming general election.

Ash Regan - the MSP who could decide the future of Humza Yousaf - has appeared to name her price for her support in next week's no-confidence vote.

She has said, in a letter to Alba Party members, that investment in the Grangemouth refinery will be a key condition of her backing the first minister.

The refinery is currently due to shut as early as next year and move to being an import and export terminal.

Alba has launched a a campaign to sustain jobs at the refinery.

"A sign of good faith would be a significant government investment, reinforcing the campaign to save the Grangemouth refinery from closure," she says in her letter.

"I am requesting the undertaking to produce such an initiative in the early course.

"I am hopeful that the first minister will commit to such an initiative in the near future as a sign of our shared dedication to Scotland's welfare."

Ms Regan was once part of the SNP and ran in the contest to succeed Nicola Sturgeon as leader last year, the contest Mr Yousaf won.

She defected to Alex Salmond's Alba Party in October. 

The battle for a town that no one there wants.

Sky News is reporting from Grimsby in the run-up to the general election as one of its Target Towns - a key constituency prized by both Conservatives and Labour - Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes.

But it turns out that Grimsby doesn't really want them.

It hasn't always been a town doused in apathy. 

In 2016, 70% of people here voted to leave the EU - one of the highest results in the country - and in the 2019 election, the constituency turned Tory for the first time since the Second World War.

But five years on, polling by Sky News found that since then, the number of people saying they "almost never" trust the British government to place the needs of the nation above the interests of their own party has nearly doubled - from 26% to 49%.

It's a stark but bleak view. Voters described both leaders as uninspiring and uninteresting.

When asked what they make of the current prime minister, words like "weak" and "performative" were used. 

Voters couldn't make their minds up about the Labour leader, saying they were unsure about him or his policies.

The lack of a clear dividing line between the two parties could be a problem in the general election, especially as both parties have been trying to show a bit more leg this week ahead of a fully-fledged election campaign.

Labour has shown a hint of more radical policies, with their announcement on aiming to nationalise railways within five years. 

But have they waited a bit too long to impress the people of Grimsby?

The Conservatives ratified their Rwanda policy into law, but voters here weren't hugely enthused by that either, with one member of the audience tonight proclaiming they care much more about housing and the environment. 

They asked - why is the centre of political debate about Rwanda and a policy we don't really care about?

Apathy might override this election.

By  Jennifer Scott , political reporter

Voters in Grimsby - one of Sky News's election Target Towns - have been offering their views on politics, politicians and "broken promises".

The electoral battle in Grimsby and Cleethorpes,  the Target Towns , will be fierce. Labour will need an 11.7 point swing to win this newly-merged constituency back from the Conservatives.

In 2019, residents in Grimsby voted Tory for the first time since the end of the Second World War. The old Cleethorpes constituency was always more of a bellwether, having voted Conservative since 2010.

However, it has shed some of its rural, Conservative-voting residents in the merger.

Speaking on the  Politics Hub With Sophy Ridge , small business owner Shannon said she might not vote in the next general election later this year as she "just can't trust anything anybody says".

She said she has felt this way since Brexit - something Grimsby was overwhelmingly in support of - because "we were promised 'x' and 'y' and it hasn't happened, so I'm just totally disengaged from it".

Asked whether local MPs on the panel - Conservative Lia Nici and Labour's Melanie Onn - could change her mind, Shannon said "possibly", but reiterated how let down local people feel.

"We're promised a lot, but it's never delivered," she said. "Talk of things happening... and then it doesn't happen and people are just fed up... have been told this is what we're going to get, but it doesn't actually happen. And that's why people have just lost faith."

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2023 Annual Report of the Atlantic Sea Scallop Individual Fishing Quota Cost Recovery Program

This page contains information about the cost recovery program for the Atlantic Sea Scallop Individual Fishing Quota (IFQ) fishery, and the costs associated with management and enforcement of the IFQ fishery during the 2023 fee period.

Table of Contents

Use of funds, determining the value of the fishery, cost of management, data collection, and enforcement, calculating the fee as a percentage of total fishery value, calculating fees assessed to individual permit holders, changes from previous years, more information.

The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act) requires NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to collect fees to recover the “actual costs directly related to the management, data collection, and enforcement” of an individual fishing quota (IFQ) program (16 U.S.C. 1854(d)(2)). The law provides that IFQ allocation holders pay a fee based on the ex-vessel value of fish landed under the program. The fee may be as high as, but cannot exceed, 3 percent of the ex-vessel value of the fish harvested under the IFQ program. For the Limited Access General Category (LAGC) scallop IFQ program, the ex-vessel value is calculated as the average price paid per pound of scallops during the fee period multiplied by the total weight landed. 

Although the 2023 scallop fishing year ran from April 1, 2023, through March 31, 2024, the cost recovery fee is based on expenses and landings made during the fee period, which ran from October 1, 2022, through September 30, 2023. This is the 12th year that NMFS collected fees from scallop IFQ vessels.

Payments received as a result of the scallop IFQ cost recovery program are deposited in the Limited Access System Administrative Fund as required by the Magnuson-Stevens Act. Funds deposited in this account are available only to the Secretary of Commerce and may only be used to defray the costs of management, data collection, and enforcement of the fishery for which the fees were collected. Therefore, fees collected as part of this cost recovery program will be used for management, data collection, and enforcement of the scallop IFQ program.

As required in the Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery Management Plan (FMP), NMFS determines the value of the scallop IFQ fishery by multiplying the total landings of IFQ scallops by the average price paid by dealers to IFQ scallop vessels for IFQ scallops. While ex-vessel prices for scallops vary over the course of the fee period, the Scallop FMP requires that the price of all IFQ scallops landed during the entire fee period be the basis of the average price (as opposed to the average price per vessel, per month, or some other unit of scallop landings). Federally permitted scallop dealers must report the weight and price paid for all scallops purchased. From these data, we calculated an average price of $14.37 per lb paid to vessels participating in the scallop IFQ fishery during the 2023 fee period. The total of all LAGC IFQ landings during the 2023 fee period was 1,349,781 lb (shucked meats). Using this average price, we determined that the total value of LAGC IFQ landings was $19,396,367 for the 2023 fee period. NOAA Fisheries used this value to determine the overall fee percentage and the individual fees for vessel owners. We describe these determinations on page 4 of this report. 

The Magnuson-Stevens Act requires the collection of the IFQ fee to recover the actual costs of the program. We have determined that the recoverable costs associated with the management, data collection, and enforcement for the scallop IFQ program include only the incremental costs of the IFQ program, and not the costs that would still have been incurred regardless of the fishery’s status as an IFQ. 

We calculated personnel costs by multiplying hours spent by staff on tasks directly related to the IFQ program, with the hourly salary rates for those individuals. Salary rates included the Government’s share of benefits, prorated. We calculated contract expenses as the cost of contract employees prorated for the percentage of time the contract employees spent on tasks directly related to the IFQ program. In the 2023 fee period, the recoverable expenses primarily consisted of time spent by personnel working on tasks related to the administration of the IFQ program in the following Divisions:

Sustainable Fisheries Division (SFD) 

SFD is primarily responsible for the management and implementation of the Atlantic Sea Scallop FMP, which includes the LAGC IFQ program. SFD staff monitor the IFQ program’s allocation tracking and cost recovery components for consistency with the FMP and regulations, and generates this annual report. SFD is the principal point of contact with the New England Fishery Management Council. SFD implements any needed and approved regulatory changes recommended by the Council. 

Analysis and Program Support Division (APSD)

APSD is responsible for most of the tasks associated with the ongoing operation of the scallop IFQ program. These include issuing annual IFQ allocations and processing and tracking temporary leases and permanent allocation transfers. APSD handles cost recovery tasks, such as generating individual fees, tracking payments, and, if needed, withholding permits for late payments. APSD is responsible for data collection and analysis, including extensive quality control of incoming data sources and tracking of landings against IFQ allocations. In addition, quality control is a critical function of APSD and of any IFQ program because it ensures that the landings data NMFS uses to calculate IFQ landings and, ultimately, the individual fee is correct and consistent with owners’ records. APSD staff, which also includes NMFS port agents, work with vessel owners, dealers, and other NOAA Fisheries offices to correct landings data, as needed. 

Technology and Data Management Division (TDMD)

TDMD is responsible for development and maintenance of the information systems to support the scallop IFQ program. These systems include the internal databases and computer systems for handling allocations, the Fish Online website, and the data connections with Centralized Receivables Service, a free Department of Treasury service that issues the cost recovery bills and processes payments. These databases are critical to monitoring the IFQ program because they track individual landings, IFQ leasing, and permanent allocation transfers that take place in the LAGC IFQ fishery. 

Operations and Budget Division (OBD)

OBD ensures the calculations of personnel costs and other costs are correct and meet required standards, as well as tracking the use of collected receipts. 

Communications and Internal Affairs (CIA) 

CIA is a team within the Regional Administrator’s office and coordinates internal and external communications and messaging for the Region. CIA determined that there were no recoverable expenses associated with the scallop IFQ program during the 2023 fee period. 

The Office of Law Enforcement (OLE) 

OLE determined there were no increased enforcement activities as a result of the scallop IFQ program for the 2023 fee period, and, therefore, there were no recoverable expenses for enforcement.

NOAA General Counsel

The Northeast Section of the NOAA Office of General Counsel provides legal advice to NOAA Fisheries and the Councils and reviews management actions for consistency with applicable legal requirements. General Counsel determined that there were no recoverable expenses associated with the scallop IFQ program during the 2023 fee period.

Table 1 provides details of the recoverable costs by division within the Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office. 

Table 1: Recoverable costs associated with management and enforcement of the scallop IFQ program, 2023 fee period

† Personnel costs include all benefits and contractor costs

We calculated that the recoverable costs for the scallop IFQ program for the 2023 fee period represent 0.6051 percent of the value of the scallop IFQ fishery. We calculated the fee percentage with the total fishery value of $19,396,367 and total recoverable program costs of $117,373 using the following formula:   

($117,373/$19,396,397) x 100 = 0.6051 percent

This value of 0.6051 percent is less than the possible upper limit fee percentage of 3.0 percent (see background section, above). Thus, we were able to assess the total recoverable costs of fee period 2023.

Under the scallop IFQ program regulations, an LAGC IFQ permit holder is responsible for the IFQ fee based on the value of the landings of scallops attributed to their LAGC scallop IFQ permit, including landings made from an allocation that they transferred in (permanent or temporary (lease)) from another IFQ holder. The allocation tracking program that we have developed is able to identify all scallop IFQ transfers and attribute landings to the vessel that landed the scallops. To determine the appropriate IFQ fee for each LAGC IFQ permit holder, we multiply the permit holder’s landings by the average price per lb and then by the fee percentage. This is represented by the following formula: 

(Vessel's IFQ landings by lb) x (0.6051 percent) = 2023 cost recovery fee

Based on this calculation, fees ranged from $10.57 to $5,271.09 per vessel.

We mailed bills for the scallop IFQ 2023 fee period to 109 LAGC IFQ permit holders on February 13, 2024. Permit holders had 60 days (April 13, 2024) to pay the balance due through Centralized Receivable Services.

Total recoverable costs can fluctuate from year to year.  Some management tasks may need to be done every year, and some tasks may require more time and effort in some years.

Table 2. Scallop IFQ recoverable costs, fishery value, and fee percentage 2011-2023

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Last updated by Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office on 04/22/2024

Draft Recovery Plan for grotto sculpin open for public comment

The grotto sculpin is a rare, endangered cave-dwelling fish unique to five cave systems in Perry County, Missouri. Today, we at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are announcing a draft plan to save this unique fish and opening a 60-day public comment period. Saving this species will depend on cooperation among private, local, state and federal partners.

The public is invited to provide comment on the draft plan through January 29, 2024. 

The grotto sculpin is a small fish, measuring less than 5 inches long. This species is found in just five cave systems in Perry County, Missouri. These fish complete a seasonal migration from underground streams to surface streams in the area. Typical of many cave-dwelling species, it is nearly blind and pale-colored. Since the species has such a small range, population-scale fish kills are of particular concern and can occur when contaminants from the surface wash into the cave streams that the grotto sculpin call home. 

Listed as endangered in 2013, the most substantial threats to grotto sculpin come from present or threatened destruction, modification or curtailment of its habitat, including water quality degradation. The draft recovery plan focuses on protecting the species and enhancing their habitat by managing human access to cave systems, managing surface habitat around the caves and monitoring water quality. The plan also focuses on protecting and enhancing habitat around sinkholes and learning more about the threats to the species. 

We are proud to work with Perry County to protect this ecosystem that is home to remarkable cave species like the grotto sculpin. Partnerships have been critical in preventing species decline and provide a solid foundation for recovery actions. Because these fish are sensitive to water quality, the presence of grotto sculpin within the cave systems is a sign that water entering from aboveground is being properly managed for contaminants and is likely to positively impact not only on other cave-dwelling species but also Perry County residents that rely on streams in the area for recreation, business purposes and household use.

Recovery planning is one step in a process to address threats to endangered and threatened species . Plans provide a road map for private, Tribal, federal and state cooperation in conserving listed species and their ecosystems. While a recovery plan provides guidance on how best to help listed species achieve recovery, it is not a regulatory document. You are invited to provide input as the plan is developed and once a recovery plan is finalized, recovery partners will outline specific actions to carry out the plan.

Learn more about the draft recovery plan and how to comment.

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Biden's new student-loan forgiveness plan just began its 30-day public comment period — and anyone can tell the administration what they think of the relief

• The public now has 30 days to comment on Biden's new student-loan forgiveness plan.
• It's the next step in implementing a broader version of debt relief for borrowers.
• The proposals include relief for those with unpaid interest, along with those in repayment for 20 years.

The public has one month to tell President Joe Biden what they think of his new student-loan forgiveness plan .

After announcing details of Biden's second attempt at student-debt relief last week, the Education Department formally published the draft text of the new rules on the Federal Register on Wednesday. The publication of the rules officially kicked off the 30-day public comment, set to end on May 17. Comments can be submitted to the Federal Register here , which the Education Department will then review.

The draft text currently consists of nine rules "that permit separate and distinct types of waivers using the Secretary of Education's longstanding authority under the Higher Education Act," the Education Department said in a Tuesday press release.

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The rules address distinct types of borrowers that would qualify for relief under this new plan: those whose balances have grown due to unpaid interest, those who would be eligible for relief under certain repayment plans but have not yet enrolled, those who have been in repayment for at least 20 years, and those who have attended programs that left them with too much debt compared to post-graduation earnings.

The Education Department also said a separate rule to address relief for borrowers experiencing financial hardship will be released in the coming months.

"These historic steps reflect President Biden's determination that we cannot allow student debt to leave students worse off than before they went to college," Undersecretary of Education James Kvaal said in a Tuesday statement. "The President directed us to complete these programs as quickly as possible, and we are going to do just that."

The department aims to begin implementing relief as early as this fall. Still, as Business Insider previously reported , legal threats to the relief could imperil the department's timeline. While lawsuits have yet to be formally filed against Biden's administration, Missouri's Attorney General Andrew Bailey wrote on X in response to Biden's relief proposals: "See you in court."

And some experts said a conservative Supreme Court could likely rule like they did with Biden's first debt relief plan, striking it down .

"The administration is certainly still facing a very skeptical Supreme Court," Cary Coglianese, an administrative law professor at the University of Pennsylvania, told BI. "Even though it's a different statute, it's still a skeptical Supreme Court. It's still a pretty big program even though it's a smaller one."

Following the public comment period, the Education Department will review comments and could choose to adjust their proposals based on the feedback they receive. It will then finalize the rule and move toward implementation.

Watch: Why student loans aren't canceled, and what Biden's going to do about it

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