Independent Operational Resilience & Continuity Consultant
Adelaide, AU – Working with global mid‑sized firms and organisations
Operational resilience and continuity
I help COOs and operations leaders in mid‑sized global firms keep core operations running when things go wrong – so you protect revenue, customers, and reputation.
The gap most mid‑sized firms face
Most firms have bits and pieces of business continuity, risk, and IT/DR work, but too often:
- Plans are outdated or don’t match how operations actually run today.
- Operations, IT, risk, and suppliers each see their own slice – no one owns the full picture of “how we keep running when X breaks.”
- It’s unclear which products, services or sites are truly critical, or how long they can be down before real damage occurs.
- It’s hard to make the investment case because risks and impacts aren’t expressed in simple business terms.
As COO, you carry the responsibility for continuity, often without a clear, actionable view of exposure and priorities.
What I deliver in 60 days
I run a short, focused engagement that gives you a practical, end‑to‑end view of your operational resilience and continuity capabilities, and a clear plan to close the most important gaps.
In 8 weeks, we will:
- Map your critical products and services, and how they depend on people, processes, providers, and premises.
- Identify where disruption would hurt most – in revenue, customer experience, and brand – and how long you can realistically afford to be down.
- Review your existing continuity, incident, and recovery plans to see what’s usable, what’s missing, and where roles and responsibilities are unclear.
- Highlight weak spots in your ability to prevent, respond to, and recover from disruption.
- Build a simple, prioritised 12–24 month roadmap with concrete actions, owners, and quick wins that reduce real risk, not just create more documents.
You end up with something you can actually run: a realistic plan that fits how your operations work, and that you can confidently put in front of your CEO and board.
Two ways to engage
Rapid Resilience & Continuity Scan (21 days)
A health check to surface your biggest risks and quick wins.
- Brief discovery and collection of key documents (plans, incident reports, org charts).
- A small number of focused interviews across operations, IT, and risk / governance.
- A heat map showing your main resilience and continuity gaps.
- One working session with you and your leadership team to align on the top 3–5 fixes.
Outcome: A clear starting point and shared view of where you are most exposed, and what to tackle first.
Click here to explore a Rapid Resilience and Continuity Scan
Reference: Five Step Model.
Five-Step Version
(suitable for “Rapid Resilience & Continuity Scan”)
1. Frame & Design
Link to strategy, identify capabilities, and define assessment method and maturity criteria.
2. Reflect & Submit
Evidence-based self-assessment by participants using structured criteria and rating scales (Capability Assessment app).
3. Synthesise & Cluster
Aggregate and visualise results by capability, theme, and unit to reveal systemic patterns.
4. Validate & Prioritise
Test findings with executives; rank gaps by strategic importance, risk, and feasibility.
5. Integrate & Implement
Translate priorities into initiatives, accountabilities, and governance for ongoing review. (A final report to the client for their consideration)
Operational Resilience & Continuity Readiness Sprint (60 days)
The “deeper dive” engagement – a full, practical roadmap. (Priced to scale)
- Everything in the Rapid Scan (above), plus deeper mapping of critical services, sites, and key suppliers.
- Workshops with operations, IT, and risk to agree realistic strategies and recovery expectations.
- A structured view of your resilience across governance, critical services, continuity planning, testing, third parties, and learning.
- A prioritised 12–24 month roadmap with phases, owners, and indicative effort and cost.
- A concise pack you can use with your CEO and board to show where you stand and what you’re doing about it.
Outcome: A joined‑up, business‑level plan to strengthen resilience and continuity, grounded in how your firm actually operates.
Who I work with
This offer is a strong fit if:
- You’re a mid‑sized firm or organization with multiple sites or regions.
- A serious outage, cyber incident, supplier failure, or extreme weather event would materially affect revenue, customers, compliance or reputation.
- You have some continuity and risk work in place, but no integrated, up‑to‑date picture across the business.
- You want a practical, operator‑friendly approach rather than a theoretical exercise.
Next step
Start with a short conversation.
We’ll talk through your current situation, recent incidents or near‑misses, and what you want your resilience and continuity capabilities to look like in 12–24 months. If it makes sense, we can then decide together whether the Rapid Scan or the full Readiness Sprint is the best starting point.
Email me – johnsalter@me.com
Email johnsalter@me.com
John Salter Consulting Services 