- A Restaurant Analogy
- First and Foremost: Finding the TIME
- Using Meaningful Data to Get Your Plan Funded
- Additional Observations on Using the BIA to Pitch Management
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First and Foremost: Finding the TIME
Katrina. Rita. Ike. Even after the spate of recent disasters, trying to “sell” disaster recovery planning to executive management can be challenging. Immediately after a well-known disaster, organizations typically get back to business as usual rather quickly, forgetting what happened or what they were going to do about it. This is typical of human nature, and it is illustrative of why it is important to execute when the concept of business resumption planning is still a focus of attention.
Even at times of relatively high interest, management is reticent to fund the effort and to commit financial or personnel resources. This leaves technologists like us to use a “guerrilla” approach that primarily involves “surfing the web” and scouring libraries for inexpensive solutions. It also involves tackling the project largely as “kitchen table” work in the evenings, mainly because your regular daily responsibilities do not go away and, God forbid, this project might involve hiring staff. So how does one convince management to authorize hiring and other expenses to get the job done? You can employ a few proven tactics to do this. First: Believe it or not, management is not bashful about spending money on disaster recovery.
I realize you are skeptical. So was I. Early in my career when someone asked me to describe management’s attitude about funding disaster recovery, I used to quote that old Three Stooges routine:
Moe: “If you had a dollar, and your father gave you a dollar, how much would you have?”
Larry: “One dollar.”
Moe: “You don’t know your arithmetic.”
Larry: “You don’t know my father.”
Change the word “father” in the joke to “manager” or “boss,” and I think you will see the similarity.
Notwithstanding the levity, it is possible to get your disaster recovery planning effort funded. If you know how to speak in terms that management uses (sorry, but this group is not going to learn your technical terms), you can bring into play the recent rash of mega-disasters to advance your disaster recovery plan and get it funded. In fact, you can use the same concept of speaking to management in terms they understand to justify most any capital outlay. Let’s look at how to, and how not to, ask the boss for money.