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MAY 2021 I PCB007 MAGAZINE 39 • Financial Risks: Cash is king in a crisis. What are the key risks to cash flow? How can you maximise cash flow and minimise outgoings to ensure that you maintain your business as a going concern as long as possible? I could keep going. e more one thinks about this COVID-19 pandemic, the more risks you will identify. e challenge is therefore to organise and prioritise these risks so that you can focus your resources on mitigating the most serious risks. at is what a business con- tinuity plan is all about and this plan is at the core of your business continuity management. Prevention, Preparedness, Response, and Recovery (PPRR Framework) e Prevention, Preparedness, Response, and Recovery (PPRR Framework) can be used to prepare your plan under the four main pillars: • Prevention: Risk management planning, which incorporates the prevention element that identifies and manages the likelihood and/or effects of risk associated with an incident • Preparedness: Business impact analysis, which incorporates the preparedness element that identifies and prioritises the key activities of a business that may be adversely affected by any disruptions • Response: Incident response planning, which incorporates the response element and outlines immediate actions taken to respond to an incident in terms of contain- ment, control, and minimising impacts • Recovery: Recovery planning, which incorporates the recovery element that outlines actions taken to recover from an incident in order to minimise disruption and recovery times Prevention You need to identify and analyse the poten- tial risks to your business with a risk manage- ment plan. Your plan will include events which will have an adverse effect on your business and pinpoint solutions for dealing with each risk you identify. e questions you need to ask: • What could cause an external shock? • How serious could the impact be? • What are the odds this could occur? • Can we reduce or eliminate this risk? Preparedness As part of your preparedness, you should complete a business impact analysis (BIA). Your BIA will derive information from your risk management plan to calculate the risks and impacts on your critical activities. Critical activities are defined as primary business func- tions that must continue in order to support your company. Ask yourself and identify: • Your critical business activities • e impact to your business caused by disruption • How long you can survive without this core business • How long it will take to recover Response Your incident response plan is built to an- swer to critical events and reduce the impact of these on your business operations. It will also prepare key people to provide an effective re- sponse to ensure minimal disruption to opera- tions in the event of an emergency. e type of business you are in will determine your appro- priate response to incidents. Your response plan will have evacuation procedures, your emergency kit, people's roles and responsibilities, key contacts, and an events log. Recovery At this stage you are returning to normal business operations before the critical inci- dent. Your core business is back online, and