ARSC recently designed and facilitated an Executive Table Top exercise for Risk Management Systems, a Silicon Valley-based SaaS provider of advanced mathematical models of Risk used by insurance companies, capital market firms and sovereign governments. The half-day simulation pitted the Legal, People Strategy, Finance, Model Dev, Site Reliability & Engineering, Enterprise Applications, Marketing/PR, Software Dev, InfoSec and Facilities teams against a hypothetical disgruntled employee with a homemade pressure-cooker bomb. Elements of the scenario included staff casualty, damage to office, systems outage and customer impact. Media attention and reputation risk added additional color and complexity to the hypothetical problem.

Although ARSC exercise results are confidential, it can be said that the event uncovered a host of surprises. Participants learned that their assumptions cannot always be relied upon, and some perceptions of "how things work" will not match how they actually work in an emergency scenario. The team discovered issues that, when remediated, will make the organization more resilient and better able to continue operations and fulfill their brand promise to their customers, owners and employees.

Dave Ruedger, Sr. Director Information Technology RMS acclaimed, “Howard provided a very valuable exercise that was both engaging and fun.  Everyone who participated walked away with some real ‘Aha!’ moment realizations that changed some perceptions and challenged some key assumptions about our ability to respond to potentially business disrupting events.  I highly recommend Alternative Resiliency Services Corp to anyone looking to gain insight into their Business Continuity program and how to better equip their workforce with an effective response methodology.”

Howard Mannella, Managing Principal ARSC adds, "Table Tops are valuable training and leadership development activities: participants learn to think on their feet, think around corners and two moves ahead, make decisions with imperfect ambiguous information and react under stress. These are essential traits that leaders will bring back to their day-to-day activities".

For more information contact ARSC here.
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The Gulf Times, the premiere English-language newspaper for the Persian Gulf region, covered the Qatar Foundation 4th Annual Risk Forum. Alternative Resiliency was a key participant in the Forum, with Managing Principal Howard Mannella presenting a plenary session on the psychology of Risk and participating in an experts' panel. The article can be found here: http://www.gulf-times.com/qatar/178/details/463850/%E2%80%98adopt-global-norms-in-risk-management%E2%80%99

ARSC further established itself as a catalyst for global thought leadership in the areas of Risk, Operational Resiliency, Business Continuity and related domains with a globe-circling itinerary in November: The Pacific Northwest Enterprise Risk Forum in Seattle, International Association of Emergency Management in Las Vegas, the 4th Annual Risk Forum in Doha Qatar and The Asian Banker Financial Crime 360 event in Singapore. 25,000 miles in less than two weeks. These events build on the previous 2015 ARSC appearances in Scottsdale AZ, Munich, Doha and New York. Said Howard Mannella, Managing Principal, "It's a privilege to help 'bend the curve' and contribute to the global conversation about these critical topics."

The second in the ARSC Webcast series on Business Continuity and related topics is now scheduled for July 22. The topic is Business Resiliency Latest Thinking and Trends. This presentation aims to cut through the 'noise'  and so-called opinions by so-called "experts". It covers a bit of history, to see how Resiliency started with computer backups, then went to Disaster Recovery, then to Business Continuity, now to holistic Organizational Resiliency. ARSC will articulate what Resiliency is, and as important, what it is not (spoiler - it's not "insurance" and it's not "the Big 'Code Red' Binder"). The webcast will describe the program elements and what "Good" should look line. It wraps up with the trends and a look into the future. There are valuable takeaways for both the seasoned practitioner and the non-expert manager or executive. The webcast is powered by Bright Talk. Click here to put this informative event on your calendar!

The webcast follows in the wake of ARSC's first installment, Business Continuity=Work From Home? Ha Ha Ha Ha! This presentation covered the importance of relying on telecommuting as an essential but not complete Resiliency play. It dispelled some common myths, addressed the technical and operational risks and presented 'lessons learned' from mass forced Work-From-Home exercises and real events. This is an essential 49 minutes for the executive whose teams are telling him, "We got it covered - no business interruption because we have laptops and we can work from home!" The webcast aired on April 28, to extremely positive reviews. It can be viewed on-demand here.

SOCAP International recently published ARSC's piece on common myths and misconceptions about Business Continuity. This is must-reading for executives who think that appropriate contingency planning or risk management is not for them. It explains how Business Continuity should not be viewed as Insurance, IT's Problem, Big and Intrusive or Unnecessary Because We Can Work From Home. The article can be found here or here.

SOCAP International is the Association of Customer Care Professionals, a member-driven organization committed to promoting customer care and customer engagement as a competitive advantage in business. They can be found at www.socap.org. 

ARSC's keynote presentation at the KuppingerCole European Identity and Cloud Conference was picked up by Computer Weekly. Some excerpts follow:

According to Mannella, businesses should assume that something that might be termed a black swan will happen, and they should plan accordingly.

“Do not rely solely on your ability to predict because improbable events happen all the time. Although the chances of a particular event are low, the chances of some event are high,” he said.

For this reason, Mannella said it is important that every organisation has a business continuity plan, and everyone in the organisation is aware of that plan and is regularly drilled on it.

While risk management deals with prediction, and high availability and redundancy deal with prevention, he said business continuity or disaster recovery management is still necessary to take care of response. “Risk management, high availability protection, redundancy and security do not obviate the need to plan for failure.”

“The C-suite is not scared of Isis, but they are scared of attorneys. So if you talk to your executive stakeholders about the ability to provide an affirmative defence, the ability to demonstrate a standard of due care to limit their liability – not the company’s – but their liability, then you will have their hearts and minds so that you can get the budgets,” he said.

The full article can be found here.

Wood's Creek, an executive-level management consultancy, has requested Howard Mannella to present at an invitation-only Technology Executive Peer Group on April 22. Mr. Mannella will be speaking on the Latest Thinking in Organizational Resiliency and Business Continuity Planning. A case study will also be presented by the group. The group will also discuss Scenario-Focused Engineering (SFE), a new user-centric paradigm for developing systems and services.

CEO and Founder Nancy Truitt Pierce says, "Mr. Mannella is arguably one of the region's leading experts in Business Resiliency, Business Continuity, Disaster Recovery and related disciplines."

"This is exactly the type of forum where where these issues should be discussed - C-level executives in a peer setting where the Chatham House Rule can enable honest and candid dialog and sharing" says Mr. Mannella. "I am particularly humbled by Nancy's introduction and will strive to deliver the content her audiences demand."

Wood's Creek runs C-Level executive peer groups for CFO, CIO, CMO and Sales. Their motto is “Convening Executives for Targeted and Dynamic Peer Conversations”.  More information on Wood's Creek can be found here.