Business Continuity Divide and Implications for Global Business Supply Chains
1st November 2008 by Raz Chaudary
Not enough qualified people to support business continuity needs of global supply chains is the message being communicated by Goh Moh Heng from the Singapore based Business Continuity Management Institute (BCMI).
“As the world globalizes, the demand for business continuity management and disaster recovery becomes a prerequisite for us in Asia,” said Goh.
There is a critical shortage of qualified experts to support the resilience of globalised supply chains and the world’s manufacturing regional zones are lagging the developed economies in this area.
“However, we are about 15 to 20 years behind what Europe and the United States are [currently] experiencing,” Goh said. Business continuity management is a “very developed profession” in the two regions, where it has been around for the last three decades, Asia is currently facing a shortage of professionals well-versed in running BC plans, he said, noting that there “so many [job] vacancies in business continuity planning right now” Goh noted.
“We do not have enough people [with experience ranging] from one to five years,” Goh explained. He added that even though there are professionals with between eight and 15 years of experience, the region lacks a pool of professionals that form the “base” of the business continuity workforce”.
“That becomes a challenge for us because in order for this profession to move forward, we need this training to take place,” he added.
Raz Chaudary is the Development Project Manager for Business Continuity at LRQA.