What is the primary goal of business continuity efforts?

The primary goal of business continuity efforts is to ensure the organization survives a disaster. This encompasses a broader perspective than just preserving health and human safety or ensuring all business activities are maintained during a disruption. Business continuity planning focuses on creating a framework that allows an organization to prepare for, respond to, and recover from significant disruptions or disasters, thus ensuring its ongoing viability.

While preserving health and human safety is certainly a crucial component of any response plan, it serves as one aspect of a more comprehensive strategy aimed at maintaining the organization's essential functions and minimizing impacts on its operations. Additionally, ensuring that all IT systems function during an interruption, although important, is a part of the larger objective of survival and not the overarching goal itself. Ultimately, business continuity is about maintaining the organization's critical processes and ensuring its long-term survival in the face of challenges.