Building continuity into strategy

A recent article in Strategy + Business magazine set out that the three primary goals of the CEO for creating ‘business resilience’ include (1) securing the people of the enterprise; (2) securing the core business of the enterprise (systems, facilities, infrastructure and processes); and (3) securing the business networks (such as the supply chain). Given these three goals, who is better suited to take on a leadership role in coordinating business continuity than the senior managers of corporate real estate (CRE) and workplace resource (WR) organisations? For several years, as the concept of Corporate Infrastructure Resource Management (CIRM) has evolved, senior CRE managers have sought out ways to create additional value for the enterprise’s core businesses. The authors believe that CRE organisations possess many of the competencies required to play significant roles in their business continuity programmes, and seizing this opportunity to fill the gaps can elevate the profile of workplace to the executive level. This paper presents a simple framework, based on five leverage points, that will enable CRE to take a more active leadership role in managing business continuity and to move to a ‘strategy and continuity’ model for managing corporate real estate.