May 2019
Survey of Corporate Attitudes Towards Business Continuity Planning (BCP) (2019)
Less than 50% of companies intend to formulate a BCP
— Intention to formulate a BCP tends to be high in areas where a large earthquake is predicted —
Introduction
Companies are required to minimize the impact on management assets, continue business and recover early when emergency situations occur, such as a natural disaster, an epidemic of infectious disease, and an information security incident. Therefore, it is important not only for business continuity but also from a perspective of maintaining and improving a corporate value to assume the impact of various risks on corporate activities, and prepare response measures in normal times.
Teikoku Databank has conducted a survey on corporate attitudes towards Business Continuity Planning (BCP). This survey was conducted in conjunction with the May 2019 TDB Trends Research.
*Survey period: May 20 – May 31, 2019, Companies Surveyed: 23,169, Valid Responses: 9,555 (Response Rate: 41.2%). The survey for Business Continuity Planning (BCP) has been conducted every year since June 2016 and this is the 4th survey.
*Details of this survey can be found on the dedicated Economic Trend Survey HP (http://www.tdb-di.com).
Primary points of survey results(summary)
- 1 With respect to company status in terms of formulating a BCP, companies that “have formulated” a BCP remained at 15.0% (y-o-y increase of 0.3 points). Even those that “have the intention to formulate” (total of those that “are currently formulating” and “are considering formulating”) stood at 45.5%, which was less than half the companies. It has become clear that companies have not yet made progress on formulating a BCP.”
- 2 Among companies that “have the intention to formulate” a BCP, risks in which business continuity is assumed to be difficult were “Natural disaster,” such as earthquake, storm and flood damage, and eruption with the highest ratio (of 72.5%), followed by “Facility failure” (40.9%), “Fire and explosion accident,” and “Trouble and failure of in-house business management system” (both 34.5%). For matters that have been implemented/considered in preparation for business interruption risks, “Establishment of means to confirm employees’ safety” (72.2%), “Information system backup” (61.5%), and “Establishment of the chain of command for emergency situations” (47.2%) were highly ranked.
- 3 With respect to the effect of formulating a BCP, “Employees’ risk awareness has improved” was ranked the top (59.3%), responded by companies that have formulated a BCP, followed by “Standardized and manualized operations have advanced” (35.4%), and “Operational priority has become clear” (32.9%).
- 4 Reasons for not formulating a BCP were “Do not have the skills and know-how necessary to formulate” with the highest ratio (of 43.9%), followed by “Cannot secure human resources to formulate such a plan” (33.7%), and “Ends in document creation, and difficult to make a plan practical-to-use” (27.9%). The result also showed one in approximately 4 companies “does not feel the necessity” to formulate a BCP (24.0%).