3 Ways to Tank Your Growing Business - And How To Avoid It (Intro)

 

Mistake #1: No Policies & Procedures - Why this can lead to misconduct

Someone just microwaved fish in the lunch room. Lucy in the mail room is using her personal email address for business. Jack just installed some software on his station to work from home. It's absolutely amazing how many businesses I have come across that are in the process of growing and expanding, yet have never considered policies and procedures to be important. Policies are good practice guidelines that you and your employees should follow on a daily basis. There should also be a formal process in place for employees to sign and agree to the terms of the policies. Procedures are things that you do on a daily basis, but are documented so they can be replicated if needed by a new employee. Policies and procedures set clear expectations for employee behavior and job performance. They provide guidance on how to handle various situations, which can improve decision-making and reduce confusion or conflicts in the workplace.

Mistake #2: No Disaster Recovery or Incident Response - Why this can lead to legal risks

Hackers are knocking at your door. Your network is under siege. You never saw this coming. That is the failure of not having a good incident response plan in place. Without being able to detect incidents before they happen you'll be unable to protect your network and your data sufficiently. During an incident, stress levels are high and time is critical. A pre-established plan provides a clear framework for decision-making, ensuring that team members know their roles and can act decisively rather than panicking or making poor choices in the heat of the moment. Without this you face increased liability in case of data breaches or other security incidents. This puts you in a weakened legal position if faced with lawsuits from affected parties (e.g., customers whose data was compromised).

Your data's being held up by ransomware. Somewhere in your organization, someone invited malware in and it's running rampant through your network. You're facing a flood, an electrical nightmare or maybe a typhoon or apocalypse. You have to shut everything down. Only you have no plan to recover from this disaster. Disaster recovery plans can cover everything from basic recovery to more complex recovery based on your environment. Loss of critical data and systems, make it especially difficult or impossible to rebuild operations. You may even have difficulty obtaining insurance payouts without proper documentation of pre-disaster assets and processes. Completely avoidable.

Mistake #3: No Business Continuity - Why this can lead to unrecoverable damage

You couldn't recover from the disaster. Your customers are losing trust in you. The media is raining on your parade. All because you didn't create a business continuity plan to recover from a disaster and carry on. If you manage to scrabble your way out of the rubble, you may find that regaining customer trust is almost impossible. A business continuity plan prepares an organization to maintain essential functions during and after a crisis or disaster. This could include natural disasters, cyberattacks, pandemics, or other unexpected events. By identifying critical processes and resources in advance, the organization can respond more effectively to disruptions, minimizing downtime and financial losses.

What is a growing company to do so they are protected against external and internal threats?

Invest in a solid governance, compliance and risk program. Simply starting with policies and procedures will go a long way to protecting your organization against legal, regulatory, compliance and financial risks.

My GRC expertise is ready to assist in determining your current security stance and help you on your path to affordable, better compliance. Contact me today to request a consultation.