Entrepreneurs are risk takers by definition. They are people willing to risk their time, or money or reputation on a business plan without guarantees of success. Running a business is no place for the timid.
This partly explains why IT professionals often have difficulty selling the concept of disaster recovery to decision-making executives. Because their “failure-is-not-an-option” mindset is so deeply entrenched, some decision-makers see the term “disaster recovery” as being an alarmist, “sky-is-falling” proposition. These are not people who are prone to cry wolf.
Some DR proponents have found that they have more success selling their concept and their services if they frame it as being about “business continuity” in the face of delays, losses or costs triggered by an “extended outage”. Instead of disaster preparedness, they have had more success selling DR to executives as being “an investment in brand security”, a way to protect their company’s reputation.
It’s About Better Vocabulary
It wouldn’t be the first time that technical terms emanating from the IT department have flummoxed the people inhabiting the corner offices. But it would be a mistake to attribute executive resistance to DR strictly due to semantics. The truth is that unless a decision-maker has seen first-hand the damage that a natural disaster/power outage can do to an organization, they need to be persuaded of the costs and benefits of a DR program.
They need to see DR as an equation, balancing the value of building and maintaining and DR program against suffering the consequences of a major crisis. But the decision makers also need to understand that there are costs and benefits to a DR plan even without experiencing the major hit of an actual disaster.
Benefits of DR Run Deeper Than Many Decision-Makers Believe
A comprehensive IT-based disaster recovery program, involving offsite data storage and operational capabilities, will ensure the organization’s capacity to comply with many legal and regulatory requirements for full and comprehensive retention of important records and documents. Furthermore, such a DR program may also reduce the organization’s cost of business insurance.
On top of this there are side benefits when any organization can proudly declare that they are prepared to react and recover fully and quickly should any unforeseen circumstances strike. It can put the organization at the forefront of their industry peers with enhanced public image, adding value in eyes of potential stakeholders. An organization that is seen as well-managed and secure will attract customers, potential partners, deal-makers and talent.
And that is language that even a risk-taking entrepreneur will understand.
