Driven by recent events, UK businesses are now far better prepared for disruption or disaster than two years ago according to BSI British Standards' annual Business Barometer, published today.
The research revealed that 42% of businesses have reviewed their approach to planning for the unexpected following the London and Glasgow terror alerts in June 2007 and over a third following the widespread flooding throughout summer 2007.
The research also found 81% of FTSE 250 companies would expect to last up to one week before feeling serious detrimental effects following disruption or disaster while almost two thirds (63%) are now very well prepared for catastrophic IT failure compared to only 27% in 2005.
Meanwhile half of leading businesses are ready for a forced office relocation and 47% are fully prepared for a comprehensive supply chain failure. These figures were just 15% and 18% respectively two years ago.
Mike Low, Director of BSI British Standards, said: The scale of risk and opportunity in the FTSE 250 are enormous and these organisations are quickly recognizing that what is termed Business Continuity Management now has to be at the heart of their operations. It's also crucial for smaller organisations and those in other sectors to look seriously at how they would cope in the event of a disaster.
Terrorism and flooding forcing businesses to review their crisis management
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