Startacus learns about Business Continuity...
by
Deborah Stewart, Young Enterprise Business Advisor & Business owner, writes for Startacus on Business Continuity and getting her light bulb moment...
Storms, fire, terrorism, floods and disease, hundreds of business minded Norfolk Students have learnt how to be prepared for anything that life can throw at them.
Amazingly I am now in my fifth year of running the Business Continuity Award Scheme for young people. Yes, I know for some these words would flow quite nicely over your head, so let me tell you all about how this came about and why run an award scheme for young people.
Back in 2006, there I was quite happily working with a very busy, and sometimes hectic, work schedule. DR Debbie was my nickname (no, not doctor, D.R abbreviated - Disaster Recovery). Alongside this, I was also doing Business Continuity in a technical and business capacity. Translated as: IT with end-2-end business testing, & managing how to plan for an incident or emergency that would affect the business. I loved my job, but found that I needed a release from this very demanding role & became a volunteer business advisor for Young Enterprise. Yes, I know, “more work”, this was different. Helping young people within Norfolk schools to develop their own business, they would run this over a full academic year. I loved it, & when I was asked to be a business advisor the following year, I jumped at it.
(For info - Young Enterprise (YE) is the UK's largest business and enterprise Charity. Each year, through a range of programmes, it reaches more than 320,000 young people aged from four years through to 25. YE programmes are based on the principle of learning by doing and bring volunteers from businesses into the classroom to work with link teachers & students.)
In the meantime, working in my role as Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Technical Lead,& attending the odd seminar which assisted my CPD (Continuing Professional Development).
During a Business Continuity Seminar, a comment was made about educating the younger generation in Business Continuity had been difficult……………Then I had a "light bulb" moment! There I am working in a business environment in disaster recovery & Business Continuity; I knew the process, plans & requirements of putting together these plans. In conjunction with this, I was a business advisor for YE, so had a contact in putting together a programme for Business Continuity.
After a lot of thought, and a mountain of notes & ideas of how this could possibly work, I needed to speak with my Manager at work and Sarah at NORMIT (Norfolk Major Incident Team), to see how we could take this forward.
The next day, I booked a meeting with my manager - Alan Goulder - who without his support and help the award scheme would not have been such a success in the initial couple of years, today he comes along & gives a scenario based case study for the students, & engages them in to thinking "outside the box ".
He thought the idea of the Business Continuity Award scheme for young people, and running it alongside the Young Enterprise programme, was great, and that I would be allowed the time to work on the project, also making the suggestion that maybe the company (Norwich Union) would offer some sponsorship.
All this in mind, I made appointments to see Sarah -NORMIT to see if she wanted to work with me on the initial project, and Patricia Hagan of Young Enterprise and to get her "buy in" too, she was more than happy to allow this to happen.
2007/2008 saw the launch of the first Business Continuity Award Scheme for young People. This is when the hard work started, but its one project I have never looked back on, & hope to run it for many years to come.
I do hope you have enjoyed reading this, and any comments/discussions would be welcome. Till next time, you can always check out my website
Deborah Stewart MBCI MBCS
Join the Self Start society! If you like what you see here on Startacus and want to get involved yourself, why not become a member of our growing community by joining for free here!
Subscribe to our newsletter
If you would like to receive our startup themed newsletter, full of the latest startup opportunities, events, news, stories, tips and advice, then sign up here.
Belfast-based medical technology company, axial3D, has raised £2.4m of investment following a successful ‘Series A’ funding round.
London-based Fintech Commuter Club has raised £2.2 million in an investment round led by the Coutts Investment Club.
The innovative Spanish startup that lets you be present at business events, from a distance...
Arthur aims to use AI where AI is best used, so that customer care agents in a contact centre can focus on what's important.
London startup Soldo, is aiming to streamline the entire business expense cycle –from payment to reconciliation.
Don’t worry if your business died. You just got a step closer to entrepreneurial heaven says Richard Myers, Commercial Director at Transmit Start-Ups.
When starting your own business website or blog, there are a number of crucial factors that you should consider.
SupplyCompass, a design-to-delivery sourcing platform that provides an efficient and sustainable solution for global supply chains, agrees a £1.5m seed fund deal.
Apprenticeship startup WhiteHat raises $16m Series A led by Index Ventures and prepares to expand its alternative to university.
How can women effectively challenge gender bias in the workplace? Hayley Mackenzie from Boiler Guide, shares here thoughts and experience.
Published on: 26th September 2012
If you would like to enable commenting via your Startacus account, please enable Disqus functionality in your Account Settings.
- Startup Leadership Program invites applications for its 9th London cohort 12th Jul 2019 The Startup Leadership Program continues to grow, inviting applications for its 9th London cohort to join the six-month program.
- Latest Zinc Company Builder Programme to transform the quality of later life 9th Jul 2019 Do you want to build a new purpose-driven startup with support from a world-class network of experts?
- HealthTech startups sought for Greater Manchester Future of Health Challenge 4th Jul 2019 The Greater Manchester Future of Health Challenge is on the hunt for innovative healthtech startups and scaleups...
- Seedrs FMCG Accelerator Programme to help 10 UK-based FMCG businesses 3rd Jul 2019 Seedrs have launched their first FMCG Accelerator Programme dedicated to helping up to 10 UK-based FMCG businesses raise capital.
