The causes of disruption are varied: They can be internal to your organisation (e.g. a key member of staff retiring or failure of your IT systems), or external (e.g. severe weather closing down the road network or the business failure of one of your key suppliers).

Disruptive incidents are not uncommon, so effective planning and preparation is essential. A survey carried out by the Manchester Business Continuity Forum in 2007 revealed that 12% of organisations surveyed had experienced a business continuity interruption in the last year. Utility (electricity, water, gas) interruptions and phone loss were the most common causes of disruption.