Sabotage your own business?
Imagine if someone wanted to sabotage your business, put yourself in their shoes. How would they do it? What are the weak points they would target? This exercise may sound a bit creepy to you, but it can offer some interesting insights into your business continuity planning, your plans for dealing with emergencies.
It is often difficult to step back from day-to-day business operations and get an overview of potential risks and threats. Business continuity planning offers particular challenges because our natural reaction is to think things through logically, while interruptions such as fires or equipment failures generally unleash a chain of totally unexpected consequences.
So try looking at things from different angles and spot the connections and vulnerabilities. Think like a saboteur. At first glance, they do the risk assessment: how vulnerable is this business? At first glance there is the business impact analysis: what would be the most damaging?
The saboteur enters the successful barber shop, just opened and causing a stir among the competition. Proudly posted on the reception desk is the appointment book – handwritten and packed with dates and times of future clients’ appointments. In the blink of an eye it is stolen and critical information is lost!
The saboteur enters your business. Can you imagine how easy it would be …
- leave the faucet running in the bathrooms above your office
- exchange the 3 for an 8 on your price list or on the date of the big event
- overload that shelf over your laptop
- Block that drain cover in the warehouse.
- Call the health and safety executive to have your staff use the wrong stairs.
- Put a wrench in the works – literally!
Can you imagine the saboteur as a mysterious stranger? Don’t forget the familiar face that may want to cause harm. Recurring short, broken part, or wrong delivery could be due to the staff member desperately wanting the overtime. Or the colleague who needs time off to “help” get sent home early.
The key point is to detect where you are vulnerable, whether by malicious intent, accident or simple human error. Spend some time thinking about how to sabotage your business, you could save it!