Business Continuity Planning

Terrorism, natural disasters, or hazardous materials threaten the viability for all types of businesses. With an eye toward business scale, scope, and diversity, Business Continuity Planning: Increasing Workplace Resilience to Disasters, addresses a range of potential businesses from home-based to large corporations in the face of these threats, including the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. Information on business continuity planning is easy to find but can be difficult to work through. Terminology, required content, and planning barriers often prevent progress. This volume solves such problems by guiding readers, step-by-step, through such actions as identifying hazards and assessing risks, writing critical functions, forming teams, and encouraging stakeholder participation. In essence, this volume serves as a business continuity planning coach for people new to the process or seeking to strengthen and deepen their ongoing efforts. By engaging stakeholders in a business continuity planning process, businesses can protect employees, customers, and their financial stability. Coupled with examples from recent disasters, planners will be able to inspire and involve stakeholders in creating a more resilient workplace. Designed for both educators and practitioners, Business Continuity Planning: Increasing Workplace Resilience to Disasters walks users through how to understand and execute the essential steps of business continuity planning.

Brenda D. Phillips, Ph.D., is the Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences and Professor of Sociology at Indiana University South Bend. Previously, she taught emergency management at Oklahoma State University and has served as a subject-matter expert, consultant, and volunteer for multiple agencies, communities, educational institutions, and voluntary organizations. She is the author of Disaster Recovery, Mennonite Disaster Service, and Qualitative Disaster Research, the co-author of Introduction to Emergency Management, and the co-editor of Social Vulnerability to Disaster and co-author of the forthcoming Business Continuity Planning. She has written numerous peer-reviewed journal articles in the discipline of emergency management and disaster science with direct experience in researching hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, and hazardous materials accidents, much of which has been funded by the National Science Foundation. Dr. Phillips has been invited to assist or speak at disaster programs in the United States, Canada, Mexico, People's Republic of China, Costa Rica, New Zealand, Germany, Sweden, and Australia where she has promoted evidence-based best practices for community safety.

Dr. Phillips firmly believes in the extension of faculty expertise through volunteer service.

With over thirty years of experience in the field of emergency management education, Dr. Phillips has volunteered for local emergency management planning committees and voluntary organizations, especially for high risk populations. She has served as an unpaid reviewer of city and agency emergency management plans and assisted with planning around disaster-time domestic violence, safety for people with disabilities, and elderly evacuation. She has led business continuity planning at multiple academic institutions and businesses. Her most meaningful volunteer activities have helped to rescue animals and rebuild homes (and docks that support sustainable livelihoods) after disasters. Mark Landahl, Ph.D., CEM® has more than 23 years of experience spanning the fields of law enforcement, emergency management, homeland security, and higher education. After retiring as the Homeland Security Commander for the Frederick County (MD) Sheriff's Office, he began service in his current position as the Emergency Manager for the City of Rockville (MD). In addition to professional practice, Dr. Landahl teaches at several universities as an adjunct professor.