What are Business Continuity Solutions?

Marsh’s Business Continuity Solutions offer a comprehensive approach to help organisations maintain essential functions and quickly recover from disruptions, such as natural disasters, cyberattacks, system failures, operational breakdowns, and financial crises. Our solutions include risk assessment, impact analysis, plan development, training, and exercises to minimise downtime and protect critical assets. This holistic approach safeguards business resilience and long-term success.  We also draw on the climate adaptation expertise of Marsh Asia’s Centre for Climate Adaptation and Resilience Excellence (CCARE) to ensure our solutions are climate-ready. 

Why do you need Business Continuity Solutions?

At the launch of the Council for a Competitive Climate Transition (C3T), Grace Fu, Singapore’s Minister for Sustainability and the Environment, posed leaders an urgent question: “Do you have a business continuity plan (BCP) for climate change?” She encouraged businesses to contemplate scenarios like “What if there’s excessive flooding?” or “What if extreme heat compromises data centre efficiency?” Her message underscored the vital importance of scenario planning in preparing for unforeseen climate-related challenges.

Business interruption has become the top risk for companies across Asia. Disruptions are driven by increasingly complex and interconnected threats — from cyber incidents such as ransomware and data breaches to supply-chain volatility, geopolitical tensions, and natural  hazards compounded by severe floods and prolonged droughts resulting from the El Nino climate pattern. In fact, 73% of businesses in Asia have experienced climate-driven disruptions over the past three years, according to Marsh’s Climate Adaptation Survey.

Benefits of well-designed Business Continuity Solutions: 

• Protect assets and resources, including facilities, equipment, and data from potential threats.
• Ensure employee safety through clear procedures during emergencies.
• Minimise business interruption as well as operational and financial impact by maintaining financial liquidity and operational funding, and ensuring rapid IT system recovery to minimise downtime and data loss.
• Align with global ISO standards and best practices, including evaluating and mitigating the impact of climate change on operations.
• Comply with regulatory, legal, and industry-specific requirements. 
• Facilitate effective communications with strategic stakeholders like employees, business partners, and customers to maintain trust and confidence.
• Support recovery and continuous improvement, including mechanisms for regular risk monitoring, reviews, testing, and updates.

What are the challenges of effectively implementing a business continuity plan? 

A robust business continuity plan (BCP), which is an essential component in the business continuity management process, outlines actions and strategies to achieve business resilience. However, many companies face barriers such as:

• Limited awareness and understanding as companies may underestimate the importance of BCP.
• Resource constraints including a lack of funds, skilled personnel, and technology.
• Poor risk assessment which can cause organisations to overlook critical threats and leave gaps in BCP.
• Lack of testing and updates which leads to outdated plans that do not reflect current risks or operational realities.
• Cultural and organisational resistance can impede the adoption of new BCP strategies and procedures. 

How do Marsh Asia’s business continuity solutions work? 

• We provide tailored training sessions to foster internal buy-in and raise awareness of the importance of BCM.
• Our risk management framework — aligned with ISO best practices — enables organisations to conduct thorough risk assessments. 
• Our business impact analysis framework prioritises recovery for critical functions, such as IT systems and financial operations, which support the continuity of key products and services. 
• We emphasise the benefits of proactive crisis management, supported by regular testing and updates to adapt to the evolving risk landscape.
• Unlike traditional siloed approaches, Marsh Asia delivers a unified framework that brings together elements of incident management, crisis management, and business continuity management to enable your business to anticipate risks, respond decisively, and recover effectively. 

How Marsh Asia helped a pulp and paper manufacturer minimise business interruption from floods 

Client’s need
A manufacturing client in Indonesia experienced supply chain disruptions from extreme rain and flooding.

The approach
The incident management and crisis management teams were deployed to the flooded area. This enabled the client to reduce coordination time across key internal teams and facilitated faster decision-making and action.

The outcome
Marsh's business continuity strategies and recovery plans empowered the client to prioritise recovery for critical functions, secure alternative suppliers, and accelerate the recovery process.