Books on business continuity plan best practice don’t feature in the overall business management book bestseller list – or not yet anyway. It’s not that there’s any shortage of books on the subject. There are many respected authors who have something to contribute to BCP at various levels. Popular BCP titles include for example “The Definitive Handbook of Business Continuity Management” by Andrew Hiles, who is also the name behind “Business Continuity: Best Practices”. Yet a look at the “all-time greats” of business literature in general suggests that BCP best practice isn’t so far away. Try the following five as an example.
The five titles discussed here are the first ones from the “25 Most Influential Business Management Books” listed by TIME magazine as the books that transformed the way that people think about management. TIME lists them in alphabetical order of title. The first one? “The Age of Unreason” by Charles Handy – and as every believer in business continuity plan best practice knows, outside-the-box business thinking is an important part of successful business continuity when the only constant is change. Rather like the next one, “Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies” by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras – need we say more?
“Competing for the Future” (Gary Hamel and C.K.Pralahad) and “Competitive Strategy” (Michael E.Porter) are then titles that underscore the way that credible, correctly communicated business continuity plans can also help to attract better partners and more customers. And fifth in the alphabetical list is “Emotional Intelligence” (Daniel Goleman), pointing to the necessity to think “people” as well as “systems” for truly effective BCP. Even if business continuity plan best practice has yet to carve out an overall top spot for itself, the consolation prize is seeing how consistently it can be linked to the other key business areas in the bestsellers list.