The book provides a fascinating view of this often-misunderstood subject, written by an industry insider who has been involved since the beginning. It explains not only the WHAT, but also the WHY, WHO, and WHEN of how the discipline emerged and grew. It provides an easily readable view of where the topic is today. The book also tracks the key milestones in the evolution of the discipline and shows how lessons from past events are currently applied.

Easily readable and informative, this book provides a myriad of incidents, case studies, and personal experiences to highlight the narrative. The key global events that changed the direction and perception of the resilience are looked at in-depth. Terrorist attacks on business, major natural disasters, 9/11 and Covid-19 provide seminal points in the journey.

The author believes that the movement from a primarily operational discipline to a strategic business imperative is well underway. However, it will need organizational change and focused sustainability strategies to reach its true potential. The book discusses how resilience and risk must work in tandem to be fully effective and why technological changes will revolutionize the way top management will have to deal with risk in future.

In more recent times the impact of Covid-19 has challenged the entire concept of how resilient businesses really are when faced with an unexpected and unplanned event. The author undertook considerable research with professionals and academics into how effective resilience management was during Covid-19. He has monitored the management changes that came from those learnings.

How a simple idea to protect companies from the impact of computer disruptions would eventually become a new way of viewing and managing a long-term business viability is an often-untold story. Chronological progression from recovery to continuity to resilience, combined with projected future trends is intuitive but still academically sound. The book is committed to a jargon-free style supported by case studies, lessons learned, and storytelling.

It is a landmark book that not only documents the evolution of resilience practice but also provides executives and practitioners with practical strategies for the future. The combination of historical perspective, narrative storytelling, and forward-looking analysis is unique and compelling.

The author is uniquely qualified to write this book. His professional authority, long-standing contribution to standards, and unique personal perspective place him in at the forefront of resilience leaders. The book covers the full story of the incidents and developments that have created the demand for strong operational, organizational, and business resilience.

He was a pioneer in the 1980’s of the emerging demand for Disaster Recovery services – jointly forming one of the first consultancies to specialize in this field. He saw the potential for planning software and his initial company produced some of the earliest tools in the field.

His professional journey mirrors exactly that of the topic. Over 40 years, he has worked exclusively in the field as a consultant, business owner, technical expert, author, educator, standards writer, mentor, and effective communicator.

Seeing the need to professionalize the topic, he helped found the Business Continuity Institute in 1994 and held several senior positions (including Chairman, Technical Director, and International Director) of that Institute. For a decade, he was Chief Knowledge Officer for the US based Disaster Recovery Institute International. For 20 years he has edited the professional peer reviewed publication “Journal of Business Continuity and Emergency Planning” He also an advisor to other specialist publications in the UK and US.

During the early 2000’s, he made a significant contribution to the British Standards Institution publication of the first comprehensive Business Continuity standard in the world BS25999-2006.

He has always seen the value of communicating the resilience message internationally, speaking or chairing conferences in over 30 different countries. He has also appeared on TV networks both in the UK and the US, discussing the implications of many potential disasters. He has won professional awards, advised many major corporations in a range of business sectors and trained hundreds of people to gain professional certification.