Indicative Scenario Planning Projects

Project Descriptions

Part One: Private Sector Projects

Alternative Futures to Shape Enduring Business Continuity Solutions. A major investment bank hard hit by the September 11th terrorist attacks engaged FSG principals in a scenario-based approach to create robust, long-term business continuity planning (BCP) solutions.

The initial discovery phase of the engagement was a detailed evaluation of vulnerabilities across all asset categories in the firm’s Global Markets & Finance group. A client-consulting team assessed risks and exposures in facilities locations, business partners, technology, personnel and vital records. Gaps were identified in target states of readiness (versus actual preparedness).

A workshop phase followed. Separate strategy workshops were held in London and New York, in both cases to challenge client business leaders to close asset recovery gaps. To ensure creative and rigorous thinking, the consulting team developed to very different business-environment “scenarios” against which participants devised BCP solutions. The scenarios characterized alternative financial services conditions looking out three years, as well as high-impact external events like storms and terror attacks.

The workshops yielded the following:

• Confirmation of a set of “must do” BCP actions that could be accomplished immediately at reasonable cost;
  
• Greater understanding of costs and trade-offs associated with more complex and potentially far-reaching decisions around, for example, facilities locations, business relationships and alliances;
  
• The start of an important internal dialogue between the firm’s executive leadership, business heads and BCP managers with respect to BCP goals and priorities going forward.

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