Optimizing your business continuity plan is a matter of knowing you company and knowing what the potential threats to its success are. It's not just getting back up and running as quickly as possible or protecting your data, every firm is different and will have varying requirements for successful disaster recovery. According to Continuity Central, as a CEO, it is important to ask a few basic questions to mitigate risk and optimize continuity.

These questions are:

• What products and services are the most important for ensuring vital strategy objectives are met?
• Is your company structured properly to meet those objects first upon recovery?
• Which resources are the most critical for achieving those objects?

These three questions will outline the foundation of a continuity of operations plan and help a business cut through the smoke to get to the root of any crisis recovery problem.

"Companies typically offer a multiplicity of products and services, but CEOs and their immediate teams need to understand which ones are absolutely vital to the company's ability to meet its strategic targets. They also need to understand exactly which resources are essential to delivering those products and services," Leigh-Anne van As, business development manager at ContinuitySA, explained to the source. "Once they have the answers, CEOs and their teams can allocate investment and attention appropriately, and optimize the company's operations."

Answering these questions will help set up a risk profile, which must be further developed to set up the overall foundation of continuity. Ultimately, this will fall in line with creating the strongest recovery strategy possible for your firm and minimizing risk along the way. For assistance answering these questions and any others you might have regarding crisis planning, contact business continuity consultants who are experts in preparing your company for the worst.