It’s fashionable to talk about business DNA. Often it’s another term for business culture, otherwise expressed as “the way we do things around here”. Using “DNA” instead of “culture” has the advantage of using an acronym with some “buzz” to it. Even if you don’t know exactly what DNA is or does, the basic concept of an internal blueprint that guides the growth and direction of an organism (or organisation) is simple enough to grasp, compared to the more nebulous notion of culture. So it would be advantageous to find ways of getting business continuity management into your business DNA.
A fundamental question is “what defines a business’s ‘DNA’”. Luckily, by referring back to its equivalent of business culture, there is a wealth of material on the subject. With a little background reading (outside the scope of this post), you’ll be able to see what sort of culture exists at the moment in your business and how you might take that into account if you want to get business continuity management accepted and “internalised”. The chief executive of your business is typically the one person who has the most influence on determining its culture and its DNA. That person is naturally a valuable resource to convince about the importance and benefit of BC management.
However, business DNA is determined not only by people, but also by the business parts that make it up. When business continuity management is one of those parts, how you do your risk and business impact analysis, your BC planning, your BC testing, and even your disaster recovery will all contribute to the evolution of your business DNA. Whether you see this as a healthy opportunity to exercise some influence or a grave responsibility that could go as far as affecting how the organisation performs as a whole, is a matter of your own individual business culture.