“I attended Commercial Initiatives’ Training at HQN in London in February, just before the Pandemic hit, and it was the most useful training I have ever received! Not only was it timely but I was able to walk back into our office and lead a re-working of our plans that allowed us to move from 'behind the curve', in terms of BC planning, to firmly being 'on or ahead of the curve'. This was further endorsed by a subsequent external audit of our COVID preparedness which rated us as 'excellent'. I would heartily recommend Commercial Initiatives’ pragmatic and practical BC planning and training services.”
- PAUL ANSON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF BUSINESS GROWTH AND RESILIENCE AT MAGENTA LIVING HOUSING ASSOCIATION
“It can be very difficult in education to find the time and the resources to commit to a thorough and comprehensive Business Continuity Plan. We approached David Leigh at Commercial Initiatives in 2017 to deliver a bespoke scenario exercise (a serious fire at the Tottenham Campus) which he and his colleague delivered with excellent feedback. On the back of this scenario exercise the first proper BCP was commissioned for CONEL from David, along with a Business Impact Analysis and their handy plan templates. This prepared the college well for the business continuity challenges we encountered during the merger with the Capital City College Group and has proved useful two years later in dealing with the COVID 19 situation.”
- ANDY FORBES, PRINCIPAL AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE AT CITY OF BRISTOL COLLEGE
"As a leading specialist provider in the insurance and legal world we have to take our corporate resilience very seriously.
Commercial Initiatives came forward with a modern and competitive approach including a full Business Impact Analysis and providing their latest plan templates.
We implemented these in the run-up to the current COVID 19 situation and as a result the firm is on a sound footing going forward. I couldn’t recommend David Leigh and his team enough."
- IAN MICKLEWRIGHT, MANAGING DIRECTOR, ALPS LTD, AUTO LEGAL PROTECTION SERVICES
“We have worked with Commercial Initiatives over a number of years now and their expertise and advice have allowed us to build a really robust Business Continuity Management System. Our plans and procedures have been progressively exercised and refined and have been critical in swift and successful COVID pandemic response. Even as this is ongoing they have assisted us with a “Lessons Learned” review in order to ensure we are adopting and embedding evolving good practice and boosting our resilience.”
- NICK EDWARDS, HEAD OF ICT & FACILITIES, PHOENIX COMMUNITY HOUSING ASSOCIATION
"When we had our gas explosion in Salford, the plans developed for us by David Leigh and the Commercial Initiatives team provided us with a strong foundation to deal with the ensuing crisis.
The Incident Management Plan itself ensured that we were able to focus on the key issues during the immediate aftermath of the incident thus avoiding "headless chicken syndrome". Our response was widely praised by other bodies including the Police and statutory authorities. Without the plan, and perhaps even more importantly, the rigorous scenario testing of the plan we had undertaken with David and his team our response would have been far less professional. We were able to move seamlessly from the Incident Management phase to wider business recovery as a result of looking beyond the initial incident during our planning and scenario testing exercises. The incident attracted widespread media coverage both locally and nationally and again the work we had done with David and the team on media relations enabled us to respond effectively to that interest and manage any difficult reputational issues.
Although we would prefer that they didn't, disasters and crises do happen and thanks to the work we had done with Commercial Initiatives we were able to deal with this major incident effectively and professionally."
- PAUL WHITEHEAD, DIRECTOR OF FINANCE AND CORPORATE SERVICES AT CITY WEST HOUSING TRUST
"We have used Commercial Initiatives several times now to run a test of our business continuity plan, using real life scenarios. The exercises have always been valuable, helping us to review and improve our plans through David Leigh and the Commercial Initiatives team completing a Business Impact Analysis for us. Commercial Initiatives have also developed our departmental recovery team plans. We have really learnt from the expertise of David and his team. Staff particularly participating in the exercise say they have come away with a very practical and enjoyable experience of business continuity."