Once upon a time, in the land of tech giants and blue checkmarks, Elon Musk bought Twitter and decided it was time for a little... spring cleaning.
Except instead of dusting off old code or reorganizing the snack pantry, he reduced the workforce from around 7,500 to just 1,500 employees. That's not just spring cleaning—that's a demolition.
Now, you might be wondering, "What does this have to do with Business Continuity (BC)?" Well, more than you'd think. Musk's bold (some might say reckless) approach to deciding what’s truly essential offers a peculiar but fascinating case study for BC professionals. It forces us to ask: Are we overcomplicating what’s really mission-critical?
Rethinking the Definition of 'Mission-Critical'
Traditionally, BC planning is like Oprah giving away cars: "You get a critical process! And you get a critical process!" The result? A bloated Business Impact Analysis (BIA) that attempts to cover everything from core revenue functions to Bob’s favorite spreadsheet.
Elon Musk did the opposite. His logic?
Question Every Requirement: Assume that every process or role is non-essential until proven otherwise.
Cut First, Reassess Later: His philosophy was, "If you’re not adding things back in after cuts, you didn’t cut hard enough to begin with."
Performance-Driven Survival: He gave employees a simple choice: commit to an extreme, high-performance culture or leave.
Does that sound harsh? Absolutely. But did Twitter (now X) collapse? Surprisingly, no. The platform kept running, sparking an uncomfortable question for us in BC: Are we preserving processes that aren't truly critical?
The Traditional BC Approach: Death by BIA
We BC folks love our BIAs. They make us feel productive, organized, and, let's be honest, important. But the traditional BIA-to-plan cycle often looks like this:
Interview every department (yes, even survey the janitorial closet).
Create a massive spreadsheet with color-coded priorities.
Spend months developing recovery strategies.
Roll out plans no one reads until something breaks.
Sound familiar? This exhaustive approach consumes time and resources, yet often fails to deliver clear, actionable priorities.
Applying the Musk Method to Business Continuity
Imagine if we flipped the script:
Assume Nothing is Critical (Until Proven Otherwise): Start with a blank slate. Instead of asking, "What do you need to survive?" ask, "What happens if this disappears?"
Cut the Fluff: Be ruthless. Not every process needs a detailed recovery plan. Focus on what directly impacts revenue, safety, or regulatory compliance.
Stress-Test Your Assumptions: Run exercises where certain functions are intentionally left out. See what breaks. That’s your critical process.
Iterate Like a Startup: Instead of one massive annual review, adopt a continuous improvement model. Regularly reassess what’s mission-critical as the business evolves.
The Takeaway
Musk’s Twitter experiment shows that organizations can survive drastic reductions—sometimes even thrive. For BC professionals, the lesson isn’t to slash and burn our continuity plans. It’s to challenge the status quo.
Are we protecting processes out of habit, not necessity?
Are our BIAs uncovering critical functions or just creating busy work?
What would happen if we cut first and let necessity dictate what gets added back?
Business continuity isn’t about covering everything. It’s about covering what matters. Maybe it's time we stop treating every process like a precious snowflake and start thinking like Elon (minus the Twitter rants, of course).
Ready to Rethink Your Critical Processes?
At Stone Risk Consulting, we take reducing the workload of BC seriously. Our innovative approach to defining critical processes through techniques like Value Stream Mapping help organizations focus on what truly matters. If you're looking to streamline your Business Continuity planning and want to learn more about our methodology, reach out to us for a consultation.
Let's make your BC program as efficient and resilient as it should be.
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