Air Freight Scheduling Tactics

Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery: What’s the Difference—and Why You Need Both When disruption strikes—whether it’s a cyberattack, system failure, or natural disaster—what separates resilient companies from vulnerable ones? Preparation. That’s why Business Continuity Planning (BCP) and Disaster Recovery Planning (DRP) are essential pillars of enterprise resilience. They’re not the same—but they must work together. ⸻ The Difference in Focus: • Business Continuity (BCP): Keeps critical business operations running. • Disaster Recovery (DRP): Focuses on restoring IT infrastructure and data. ⸻ 3 Layers of a Complete Resilience Strategy: 1. Policy Layer (Top of the Pyramid) • Business Continuity Governance • Policies and Strategic Frameworks 2. Management Layers (Middle) • Risk Management • Business Continuity Plans • Testing & Validation Procedures 3. Infrastructure Layer (Foundation) • Servers, Storage & Network • Data Backup & Offsite Replication • Alternative Sites • IT Recovery Processes ⸻ Why It Matters: • BCP ensures business keeps moving, even under stress (e.g. remote operations, supply chain contingencies). • DRP ensures systems bounce back quickly, minimizing data loss and downtime. Together, they protect operations, reputation, customer trust, and regulatory compliance. ⸻ Example: During a ransomware attack: • DRP activates to restore encrypted systems and switch to backup sites. • BCP ensures that customer service, billing, and remote teams continue functioning through predefined manual and digital processes. ⸻ Final Thought: You can’t predict every crisis—but you can prepare for continuity and recovery. BCP and DRP must be designed together, tested often, and led from the top. #BusinessContinuity #DisasterRecovery #BCP #DRP #Resilience #ITRecovery #RiskManagement #CyberResilience #CrisisPreparedness #OperationalContinuity #Governance #InfrastructureStrategy #RiskMitigation

We’ve built an entire federal agency to swoop in and protect depositors when they lose access to their funds due to a bank’s failure to manage its financial risks. But who swoops in to protect depositors when they lose access to their funds due to a bank’s failure to manage its operational risks? Nobody. That’s the clear lesson of the Synapse bankruptcy. If you think it’s a lesson that’s somehow contained to the banking-as-a-service ecosystem, think again. Operational failures that impair customer access to funds can and do occur at depositories of all shapes and sizes. Earlier this year, a credit union in my area suffered systems issues that temporarily prevented many of its depositors from accessing their funds. In my own experience, I’ve twice had megabanks cut off access to my “demand” deposits for several days due to their own operational errors. I know I’m not alone. If you’re concerned about your depositors’ exposure to operational risks - or your ability to address examiner questions about those exposures in the post-Synapse environment - here are some simple steps you can take: ◼️ Use risk assessment to understand your key operational vulnerabilities ◼️ Use contingency planning to mitigate those vulnerabilities and pinpoint needs for additional mitigation measures ◼️ Conduct periodic tabletop exercises to ensure both that your contingency plans work, and that key team members thoroughly understand their responsibilities

Cyber attacks disrupting everyday essential services may sound far-fetched, but we know it’s not.   Our Polish partners recently publicly shared how some of the country’s critical infrastructure was targeted just after Christmas by coordinated attacks, including against a heat and power plant and several renewable energy generators. They likened the attempted disruption to arson.   Incidents like this speak to the severity of the cyber threat and highlight the necessity of strong cyber defences and resilience. Operators of UK critical national infrastructure (CNI) must not only take note but, as we have said before, act now.   The NCSC’s Cyber Assessment Framework (CAF) has been specifically produced to help both operators and regulators understand and implement an appropriate, and robust, level of cyber resilience.   It contains several principles which, if applied correctly, can help to mitigate an attack of this nature. Risk management, identity and access controls, and threat hunting are all key components of meeting the objectives of the latest iteration.    The Cyber Security and Resilience Bill, currently in Parliament, will also strengthen the regulatory framework for key sectors, including the energy sector.   Setting clear security requirements enforced by effective regulators and supported by the NCSC’s guidance, tools and services are essential to ensure that Government has greater assurance that CNI operators are implementing baseline cyber security controls.   The Bill is a critical step towards managing the UK’s collective vulnerability against the backdrop of the modern threat.    We know the threat is not a static component of our risk calculations, however, and it should be monitored by operators to enable them to take informed and well-planned steps to protect their infrastructure.     Prior planning is the key here and we have recently published guidance (https://lnkd.in/eHVCriXK) on how to prepare for and plan your organisation's response to severe cyber threat, which sets out defensive actions that may be proportionate if the cyber threat to the UK were to increase.   But these actions require careful preparation and forethought - they cannot be improvised under pressure.    Although attacks can still happen, strong resilience and recovery plans reduce both the chances of an attack succeeding and the impact if one does.

ChatGPT is down. Do you have a plan B? Today's ChatGPT outage is a powerful wake-up call for all of us in the learning and development space. It raises a crucial question: Will we become too dependent on AI tools without maintaining our core expertise? As learning professionals, we're rapidly integrating AI, automation, and intelligent workflows into our learning ecosystems. But today's disruption reminds us of a fundamental truth – technology will fail. The real measure of our effectiveness isn't just how well we leverage these tools, but how resilient our strategies remain when they're unavailable. Here's my major concern: Do we have robust contingency plans for when our AI collaborators, agents, automated workflows, or learning platforms go dark? Can our frontline associates still perform effectively? More importantly, how do we justify to leadership if we've allowed our teams to become overly reliant on systems without maintaining human capability? The solution isn't to shy away from innovation, but to build thoughtful redundancy: 1. Maintain expertise across multiple AI models and platforms 2. Document critical workflows that can be executed manually 3. Regular "manual mode" practice sessions with teams 4. Clear escalation paths to bring humans back into automated processes Remember: AI and automation should enhance our capabilities, not replace our fundamental expertise. The true mark of a learning organization isn't its technological sophistication but its ability to deliver value consistently even when the technology fails. What's your backup plan for when AI fails?

Global disruption is accelerating again. What should Third-Party Risk professionals do right now? Energy market instability. Trade fragmentation. War-driven logistics disruption. Climate-driven operational interruptions. Rising cyber spillover. April 2026 is showing a pattern many recognize: disruptions are not isolated events, they are overlapping and reinforcing each other. Below are practical actions that risk leaders should be considering right now. 1. Reassess critical suppliers based on current geopolitical exposure Vendor criticality defined 12 months ago may no longer reflect current reality. Suppliers dependent on: • Middle East shipping routes or energy inputs • China-linked components or rare earth materials • Eastern European logistics corridors • climate-sensitive regions • fragile telecom or infrastructure networks may now represent materially higher disruption risk. Re-ranking supplier criticality based on current exposure is more useful than expanding risk questionnaires. 2. Identify concentration risk below Tier 1 vendors Many organizations understand their direct suppliers but lack visibility into: • fourth parties supporting cloud infrastructure • sub-processors handling sensitive data • logistics providers shared across multiple vendors • shared technology platforms embedded across services Recent global events highlight how quickly disruption propagates through shared dependencies. 3. Evaluate supplier viability under cost and logistics shocks Rising energy prices, shipping delays, tariff pressure, and currency volatility can affect vendor stability even when performance metrics appear unchanged. Risk teams should consider: • suppliers operating on thin margins • suppliers heavily dependent on imports or exports • vendors exposed to sanctions or trade controls • vendors facing insurance or freight cost increases Operational disruption often begins as financial pressure. 4. Increase monitoring frequency for high-impact vendors Annual or static reviews are insufficient when disruption conditions change quickly. For critical vendors, consider monitoring: • geopolitical exposure • cyber incidents • financial stress indicators • changes in subcontractors • shifts in service delivery location • force majeure triggers Continuous monitoring does not require reviewing every supplier, focus on those that matter most. 5. Stress test business continuity assumptions Many BCP plans assume localized disruption. Recent events show disruption can affect multiple regions simultaneously. Risk teams should revisit: • alternate supplier readiness • recovery time assumptions • cloud region concentration • telecom dependency • logistics rerouting capability • substitution feasibility Testing assumptions now is significantly less costly than testing them during an outage. #ThirdPartyRiskManagement #TPRM #VendorRiskManagement #3prm #OperationalResilience #SupplyChainRisk #RiskManagement #CyberRisk

Considering intrusions into communications providers like Salt Typhoon and as MITRE demonstrated in a recent exercise (https://lnkd.in/e_2Krj65) with infrastructure owner operators, cyberattacks capable of disrupting multiple interconnected critical infrastructure sectors are possible today and the implications for emergency management and operational technology (OT) operators are stark: if you can’t communicate, you can’t operate. Chris Sledjeski and I authored a white paper based on findings from that exercise, “Building PACE Capabilities for the Current Threat Environment”, (https://lnkd.in/eFDJywtw) highlighting why Primary, Alternate, Contingency, Emergency (PACE) planning for critical infrastructure needs to evolve for today’s threats, not just the geographically bounded scenarios many plans were built for. Key takeaways: - Commercial voice/data works well in “blue sky” operations, but under systemic cyberattacks, the same interoperability and interconnectedness can create shared choke points - even across seemingly “alternate” providers.   - PACE plans must plan for wider geographic impacts and longer duration (e.g., weeks, not days), including cascading infrastructure failures.   - Backup comms for your company alone isn’t enough.  Durable PACE must include your ability to coordinate with your key partners in energy, logistics, workforce and multi-level coordination (regional operations and emergency management).   - SATCOM can be a Contingency option but shouldn’t be assumed for emergency comms due to constraints both terrestrial and known/emerging cyber and RF threats.   - Emergency comms may mean drastically reduced communications and slower operations potentially even “runners” requiring additional procedures, staffing, and practiced relay methods. MITRE is working with some key industry and government partners on technology solutions in this space.  More to come in the coming weeks.  However, the time to plan for this is now, when we have working communications so we are ready for a tough day.

Instead of starting with threats or systems, I start with the value stream. Why? Because business continuity isn’t really about hurricanes, power outages, or servers going down. It’s about something much simpler: preserving the flow of value through the business. Executives don’t care which database is offline. They care that customers can’t buy, contracts can’t close, or invoices can’t be sent. That’s the flow you’re protecting. Here’s how I break it down: 1️⃣ Identify the process that directly supports revenue or mission-critical outcomes. - What activity actually creates value? - For a SaaS platform, it might be the software deployment pipeline. - For a manufacturer, it might be raw materials through production to distribution. - For a hospital, it might be patient intake → treatment → billing. 2️⃣ Map each step in that process — people, systems, vendors, tools. - Who touches this? - What tech or suppliers does it rely on? - Where are the single points of failure? 3️⃣ Estimate what percentage of the company’s total revenue depends on this process. - If it fails, how much of your annual revenue would actually pause or disappear? - Is it a core process that drives 80% of revenue or a supporting function tied to 10%? 4️⃣ Estimate how much of that revenue is at risk in a realistic disruption. - Will you lose all revenue immediately? - Or just delay it? - Be conservative and credible — executives hate inflated numbers. 5️⃣ Spread that loss over operating hours to create an hourly cost of disruption. - Take the annual revenue at risk, divide it by 8,760 hours (for 24/7 ops) or by working hours for narrower processes. - Then add recovery costs (staff overtime, consultants) and reputational or compliance penalties. What you end up with isn’t perfect — but it’s credible. It turns abstract “criticality” into a number: This process costs $X per hour when it’s disrupted. Why this works: ✅ It sidesteps technical jargon — you’re talking value, not servers. ✅ It reframes continuity as a business problem, not an IT problem. ✅ It gives executives a simple, repeatable model to prioritize investments. ✅ And yes, it’s executive-friendly — because it speaks in dollars, not downtime. I’ll walk through a concrete example in my next post. But first, let me ask you — what would you add or improve in this approach? Have you seen a better way to make the financial case for continuity?

I recently came across a post by Deola Balogun about how over 500 cartons of strawberries, though perfectly harvested, ended up as waste within 24 hours. First, it’s important to acknowledge the human side of this. Because behind those cartons were farmers who had committed their harvest, a team that had planned extensively, and a business that absorbed significant financial loss. Situations like this are not just operational failures, they are deeply frustrating, costly, and so disheartening for everyone involved. But beyond the emotion, there are important lessons here. This wasn’t a production issue. It didn't happen because there was no demand. But it did because the system in between failed. A last-minute aircraft change reduced capacity to less than 10%. No backup cold chain options. No viable road contingency designed for perishables. And within hours, value started to disappear. As a supply chain professional, stories like this are painful, but not surprising. Because what this highlights is a structural issue we don’t talk about enough: In many emerging supply chains, success is still too dependent on things going perfectly. Meanwhile supply chains are not designed for perfection, they are designed for when things go wrong. But what could have been done differently? 1. Built-in redundancy for critical transport lanes. Perishable logistics should never rely on a single mode of transport. Air freight disruptions should automatically trigger pre-arranged fallback. 2. Packaging aligned with multiple transport scenarios If a product is highly perishable, packaging decisions should account for delays and modal shifts, not just ideal conditions. 3. Distributed cold storage strategy Strategic cold rooms along key corridors (Jos-Abuja-Lagos) could have preserved product integrity during unexpected delays. 4. Stronger logistics partnerships, not just vendors In resilient supply chains, partners don’t just say “no capacity” they provide alternatives. This is where building strategic relationship comes in. 5. Risk planning as a standard, not an afterthought Insurance, contingency budgets, and predefined escalation plans should be embedded into operations, not created mid-crisis. Because the bigger issue remains the fact that: We are not losing value because we cannot produce, we are losing value because we cannot consistently move. And for those of us in the field, the responsibility is clear: To build supply chains that don’t break under pressure, but adapt, absorb, and deliver. My thoughts are sincerely with the team and producers who took this loss. Image credit: Deola Balogun #ROI #Supplychain #Logistics #OperationalSystems #AzukaLogs

Red Sea Cable Cuts: A Wake-Up Call for Geo-Resilience The recent subsea cable cuts in the Red Sea disrupted a significant share of Europe-Asia traffic, slowing transactions and e-commerce worth billions. Rerouting kept the internet alive, while naturally comes at the cost of higher latency and congestion. This is a reminder that critical infrastructure is now a frontline of geopolitical risk. Resilience is not just a technical checklist, it is a core business design principle. Three Critical Moves Mitigate Now: Diversify cable routes, adopt strategic multi-cloud, explore LEO satellites as complementary pilots (proven useful in crises, but not a silver bullet). Redesign the Future: Build modular IT stacks, embed compliance-by-design, strengthen supply chains with near-/friendshoring. Accept & Manage Risk: Stockpile chips, define exit thresholds, and plan failovers: ATMs dispensing capped cash offline, hospitals reverting to manual protocols, retailers shifting to local stock, manufacturers holding critical spares, or energy operators switching to manual controls.   Beyond Infrastructure Board Accountability: Regulators and investors increasingly hold directors liable for resilience failures. Fiduciary duty now extends to digital and supply chain continuity. Regulatory Foresight: EU DORA, US supply chain mandates, and AI regulation are raising the bar for operational resilience. Competitive Advantage: Firms with robust failovers do not just survive shocks, they win share while others falter. Scenario Planning: Boards must war-game chokepoint disruptions (suppliers, technologies, sanctions,…) like they stress test finances. Hybrid Threats: Physical cuts often intersect with cyber campaigns, boards must plan for compounded risks. Culture & Talent: Teams drilled for crisis response are as critical as cables and servers. Training and Knowledge Sharing: Training to cover advanced resilience techniques and knowledge-sharing communities, incl. with relevant 3rd parties, are key.   At BCG, we help boards and executives Identify critical business services and prioritize resilience measures accordingly, conduct resilience scenario testing and war-games, build adaptive stacks, and design operating models that thrive under disruption. The question is not if you will be tested, it is when. When did your Board last pressure-test the resilience of its most critical business services, vendor or route? #Resilience #Geopolitics #Cloud #RiskManagement #BoardGovernance #BCG Vladimir Lukic / Or Klier / Filippo Scognamiglio / Dr. Amir Alsbih / Miri M.

Imagine this: every distribution process goes haywire. Shipments are delayed, inventory is mismanaged and customer complaints flood in. It’s a distribution dystopia where everything that could go wrong, does. But don’t panic—let’s turn this nightmare into a masterclass on building a resilient logistics plan that can weather even the worst disruptions. Here’s how to prepare for the apocalypse of distribution disasters: 🔧 1. Build a robust contingency plan Strategy: Develop detailed contingency plans for various scenarios—natural disasters, supplier failures or transportation strikes. Ensure these plans include alternative routes, backup suppliers and emergency response teams. In Action: After a major storm disrupted their primary distribution center, a company activated their backup site and rerouted shipments, minimizing delays and maintaining customer satisfaction. 💡 2. Diversify your supply chain Strategy: Build relationships with multiple suppliers and carriers. Consider sourcing from different regions and using various transportation modes. In Action: A retailer with multiple suppliers for key products was able to switch sources seamlessly when one supplier experienced a major disruption, ensuring product availability. 🔍 3. Invest in real-time tracking and visibility Strategy: Implement real-time tracking systems for shipments and inventory. This visibility helps you quickly identify and address issues before they escalate. In Action: A logistics provider using real-time tracking could pinpoint delays in transit, reroute deliveries promptly and communicate updates to customers effectively. 🔄 4. Strengthen communication channels Strategy: Establish clear communication protocols and invest in tools that facilitate rapid updates and collaboration. Regularly review and update contact lists and escalation procedures. In Action: A company with a robust communication system managed to keep customers informed during a major supply chain disruption, maintaining trust and transparency. 📊 5. Implement agile and flexible processes Strategy: Adopt agile practices in your logistics processes. Train your team to adapt quickly to changing conditions and implement technologies that allow for rapid adjustments. In Action: A fulfillment center that used agile methodologies was able to quickly pivot its processes and reallocate resources during an unexpected surge in orders. 💪 6. Conduct regular risk assessments and drills Strategy: Perform regular risk assessments to identify vulnerabilities and conduct drills to practice your response to various scenarios. In Action: A company that regularly tested its disaster recovery plan was better prepared when a significant disruption occurred, allowing for a quicker and more effective response. Do you have any distribution horror stories? 🍿🤏 #SupplyChain #Distribution #CargoMargo