Disaster Recovery Journal Summer 2026

of the scenarios, how well they handle stress, who is the real “go to” person in each department. (Sorry, chain of com mand doesn’t always reflect the know how to recovery in a disaster situation). It can’t conduct call tree exercises, it can’t mea sure each aspect of a recovery exercise

and make an assessment of the complexity of time measurements, in-flight data loss, can cross offices support each other, and a litany of other recovery aspects. As we all know, plans are just docu ments, which for many sits on the shelf until an event occurs. To add real value to

your company there are a couple of things you can do to stand above ChatGPT. 1) Understand the business operations top to bottom (critical vs. non-critical) 2) Know your “go to” people in each department. Again, the real “doers” 3) Hone your succession planning to the point where you meet with each backup person and verify they in fact can perform as a backup to the primary 4) One of the most important aspects, know all the connections between business operations and supporting technology This last one is the key to understand end-to-end operations when it comes to operational resilience and how the busi ness operates from customer through tech nology. From a security and confidentially perspective, do not use ChatGPT for spe cific details of your company, yourself, or any other criteria which could lead to exposing proprietary information. Once you know the details the big pic ture becomes clearer. That is a valuable aspect a BC/DR/CM manager can provide to a company ChatGPT cannot. These things will make you a critical value added manager. ChatGPT is a tool in the toolbox for business continuity, risk man agers, and auditors to leverage in building, testing, and reporting on effective recov ery programs. Every program is as good as the knowledge base of the implementer. ChatGPT starts to level the playing field and increases effectiveness by guiding folks who may be new to the industry or, seasoned pros who may not have thought of everything “risk.” Use it, question it, validate it. When you think you are done, dig deeper. Your company and career will benefit from it. v

With more than four decades of experience, Lawrence Robert is a retired business conti nuity executive who built and led enterprise wide resilience programs across complex, highly regulated environments in both

domestic and international markets. Over the course of a 40-year career, he developed and implemented compre hensive business continuity, crisis management, and disas ter recovery strategies for organizations spanning financial services, telecommunications, manufacturing, and aero space and defense. Now retired, Robert remains active in public service through various volunteering venues.