If you had to evacuate from your building right now and were told you couldn’t get back in for two weeks, would you know what to do to ensure your business continues to operate? Would your staff? Would every person who works for your organization?

Increasing threats to business operations, both natural and man-made, mean a disaster could occur at any time. It is essential that corporations and institutions develop plans to ensure the preservation of business operations and the technology that supports them should risks become reality.

Building an Enterprise-Wide Business Continuity Program goes beyond theory to provide planners with actual tools needed to build a continuity program in any enterprise. Drawing on over two decades of experience creating continuity plans and exercising them in real recoveries, including 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, Master Business Continuity Planner, Kelley Okolita, provides guidance on each step of the process. She details how to validate the plan and supplies time-tested tips for keeping the plan action-ready over the course of time.

Disasters can happen anywhere, anytime, and for any number of reasons. However, by proactively planning for such events, smart leaders can prepare their organizations to minimize tragic consequences and readily restore order with confidence in the face of such adversity.

Veronica della Dora is Professor of Human Geography at Royal Holloway University of London, UK.

Avril Maddrell is Associate Professor in Human Geography at the University of the West of England, UK and an Editor of the journal Gender, Place and Culture.

Alessandro Scafi is Lecturer in Medieval and Renaissance Cultural History at the Warburg Institute, University of London, UK.

Heather Walton is Senior Lecturer in Practical Theology and Co-Director of the Centre for Literature, Theology and the Arts at the University of Glasgow, UK.