4.1 Establishing the Recovery Philosophy

It is usually not possible to offer normal levels of service in the immediate aftermath of a disaster. Emphasis should be placed on recovering those aspects of the business that reflect the senior management's chosen recovery philosophy. For example, in which order should the following be addressed, in a 'disaster'?:

• Caring for the safety and emotional wellbeing of staff and visitors
• Minimising Loss
• Maintaining a presence in the market place
• Executing payments on time
• Maintaining (legal) compliance
• Retaining the loyalty and motivation of the staff
• Providing special service to major customers
• Providing maximum information to shareholders and head office
• Managing media attention and public interest
• Restoring physical and virtual environment security and access controls
• Retaining customers, by providing near normal service levels
• From the philosophy statement comes a recovery policy statement, which will be incorporated into the BC plan documentation and procedures

The following is a general policy statement which has been used several times in MSTA business continuity plans:

"Initially, the emergency operation will concentrate on limiting exposure, identifying and executing payments due and satisfying regulatory and compliance issues. New business will be actively discouraged, although there will be flexibility in certain situations to minimise long term loss of business or market share. There will be no new business development or non-essential transactions".

A policy statement should be drawn up, to be included in BC plan documentation. In MSTA methodology this statement is contained in the Management Summary section of the plan.