Disaster Recovery Journal Fall 2025

What are some lessons learned you still leverage today? Pause, stop, and soak before respond ing. Whether to an email, Slack message, verbal request, phone call or text, take the time to absorb the message, prioritize the request, and be intentional in your response will always lead to better out comes. Assume positive intent. In any role, and especially in the resilience space (and customer success!), we rely upon others to help us do our jobs in the most robust, efficient way. Everyone is more than busy in today’s world which, at times, can mean there are delays in work output that have an impact to our goals and objectives. I’ve found if you take the time to get to know your cross-functional colleagues, understand what they have on their plate, and assume they aren’t causing intentional delays or roadblocks, ultimately everyone collaborates more effectively. What aspects of working in this industry would you like to see change or evolve? Whether in the resilience industry or other, people tend to get comfortable working in their silos. It’s the subject matter they’re comfortable with and as a result, it’s easy to overlook or forget the bigger picture of their work, how it contributes to their colleagues’ work, and ultimately their organization’s strategic goals and objectives. I’d love to see our industry continue to evolve to break down those silos, for our resilience professionals to not just col lect the data but also share the wealth of critical business information that’s inherently a part of business continuity, disaster recovery, and risk management programs. Risk management truly is a competitive advantage, and I’d like to see a more focused approach from program teams to execute against this, as well as recognition and support from leadership for these teams and pro grams.

What types of formal training and certifications have you pursued, and what kinds of learning and networking opportunities are you seeking to continue your professional development? I currently hold a Master’s of Business Administration (MBA) from Suffolk University, Certified Business Continuity Planner (CBCP), Project Management Professional (PMP), and am a level 2 certified Customer Success Manager through Success Hacker’s customer suc cess program. I continuously seek out professional development literature, most recently reading “Strategic” by Rich Horwath. I also love a variety of podcasts ranging from “Women in Customer Success,” to “HBR on Leadership,” to “The Huberman Lab,” and a good daily dose of NPR’s “Up First” and the WSJ’s “Morning Report.” Having the opportunity to speak with my clients, colleagues, and fellow industry professionals at conferences and Fusion’s Regional User Group meetings is by my favorite way to network. From industry best practices to new technolo gies, to learning about what folks do in their time away from work, these types of opportunities are priceless. What gets you excited about your career? Resiliency and customer success, while two seemingly different industries are quite similar. Both require you to understand every part of a business, what each function does and how each team operates. When I moved into a customer success role, supporting the resiliency industry, it was amazing to me how much of my experience leading a global continuity program is relevant to what I do today to support the strategic growth of my clients. With that, I’m excited to see how both the resilience and customer success spaces continue to mature into being not only a necessity to support an organization, but a true value-add for businesses, including revenue growth and strategic planning.

What advice would you give to those embarking on a career in this industry? What parts of your job and/or educa tion do you get the most out of today? What doesn’t feel like work, where hours go by before you look up at the clock and realize it’s time to end your day? Articulate what those areas are and throw yourself into learning more about them. For example, I get the most joy out of sitting down with a client, listening to a challenge they are facing in their day-to day work, and then digging into the why. Why is this a challenge, what gaps exist in their current processes today, what infor mation do they need to share with their leadership teams and then using critical thinking to help them solution and solve their needs. Because I know this, it’s allowed me to focus my time, efforts, and career devel opment opportunities to help me be even better at what I do and enjoy it in the pro cess. Talk to other people. Folks who have been in the industry for their careers, folks who have pivoted from other industries, and folks who are newer to the space. Ask questions, and be curious about their experiences, the challenges they’ve faced, and what they’ve learned along the way. This type of insight is invaluable when entering a new industry, and the connections you make along the way will only benefit you, personally and professionally. v

Melanie Lucht is the vice president of cus tomer success at Fusion Risk Management. She leads a team of customer success man agers who support and advocate for cus tomers on their resilience journey, getting the most value out of Fusion’s risk and resil iency solutions, industry thought leadership and best practices. Prior to joining Fusion in 2024, Lucht was at Carnegie Mellon University for nearly 12 years, serving as

the associate vice president and chief risk officer since 2018. Lucht is a Master Business Continuity Professional (MBCP), a member of the Business Continuity Institute (MBCI), a Certified Insurance Counselor (CIC), Certified Continuity Manager (CCM) and holds the Associate for Risk Management (ARM) designation.

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