The current global COVID-19 pandemic, recent natural disasters, environmental accidents, technology failures, and human crises have demonstrated that serious incidents can and will occur, affecting both the public and private sectors.

The challenge is to have an emergency response plan in place or to employ disaster management strategies that were previously used. Organisations of all sizes and types now need to engage in a comprehensive and systematic process of prevention, protection, preparedness, mitigation, response for continuity, and recovery of business activities.

It is no longer sufficient to prepare a response plan that anticipates and minimises the consequences of a naturally, accidentally, or deliberately caused disruption. Instead, organisations must also take adaptive and proactive measures to reduce the likelihood of disruption. Today's threats require the creation of a permanent, managed process that will ensure the survival and sustainability of an organisation's core activities before, during, and after an inevitable event.

An organisation's ability to recover from a disaster is directly related to the extent of business continuity planning that took place BEFORE the disaster. Studies show that two out of five businesses that experience a disaster will close within five years of the event. Business continuity plans are essential for the continued operation of all types of businesses. Even more importantly, these plans assume increasing significance as companies become ever more reliant on technology to conduct business.

Despite this clear message that disruption is catastrophic, Gartner research shows that fewer than 30 percent of Fortune 2000 companies have invested in a comprehensive business continuity plan. The reason for this oversight may simply be that the technical challenges seem too daunting, or perhaps the cost of implementation is considered too high. These are all surmountable challenges that can be resolved with business continuity solutions.

ISO 22301, the world's first international standard for Business Continuity Management (BCM), was developed to help organisations minimise the risk of such disruptions. ISO officially launched ISO 22301, "Societal security – Business Continuity Management Systems," the new international standard for Business Continuity Management Systems (BCMS).

ISO 22301 specifies the requirements for planning, establishing, implementing, operating, monitoring, reviewing, maintaining, and continually improving a documented management system to be prepared to respond to and recover from disruptive events when they arise. The requirements set out in ISO 22301 are generic and intended to apply to all organisations (or parts thereof), regardless of type, size, and nature. The extent of application of these requirements depends on the organisation's operating environment and complexity.