When your business is faced with disaster, how will you keep up day-to-day operations? Preventing disruption is key, since any interference with daily business activity means lost revenue and reduced profit. Still, 51 percent of organizations across the world do not have a business continuity plan, according to a study based on Mercer's "Business Responses to the Covid-19 Outbreak Survey."

A business continuity plan provides a framework for addressing how to operate during a disaster, how to communicate, and how to recover. Covid-19 has shown many businesses the fallout that can result from not having a business continuity plan.

It's late in the game to develop one now to address the pandemic; however, this is the right time to start planning for the next crisis—which can and will come, given time. Disasters will eventually arise in many forms other than infectious disease. The next crisis may take the form of a cyberattack, workplace violence, or natural disaster.