Sink or swim? DRII struggling in Asia

update The American Disaster Recovery Institute International (DRII) has appointed a new representative in Singapore, operating under the name "DRI Singapore". The representative, CCS Enterprise Pte. Ltd., also operates Strohl Systems Singapore for the American BCP software company Strohl Systems.

DRII has been for many years the leading U.S. certifier of an individual's professional competence in business continuity. After a nasty break-up six months ago (how nasty? read this bizarre press release from DRII) with its former regional representative, DRI Asia Pte. Ltd., DRII decided to go with separate representatives in each country. DRII has a representative in China and recently also appointed a representative in Malaysia

New DRII representatives in Asia face a tough slog, for these reasons:

• They must try to rehabilitate DRII's tarnished reputation here with limited marketing budgets, and without the benefit of DRI Asia's mailing list. That list, assembled over five years of marketing effort, is owned by DRI Asia and is now being used to promote a competing, Asian BCP certification program from the BCM Institute.

• Those representatives in Southeast Asia, at least, each have small target markets. Asia (including India, China and Japan) has 3.7 billion people, comprising over half of the world's population--a target market so vast that it would be hard to imagine any competent regional marketing program (as DRI Asia's certainly was) not succeeding.

Singapore, however, has roughly the population of Alabama (population 4.5 million), and many of its BCP professionals have already had BCP training, from DRI Asia and many other training entities here. Malaysia has the population of Texas (population 23 million), but no effective requirements for companies to prepare and test business continuity plans, and therefore little demand for trained BCP professionals. China (population 1.3 billion) has no regulatory requirement for BCP, either, but the biggest challenge in China is crippling theft of intellectual capital (such as DRII's training materials), which get photocopied and ripped-off literally overnight.

• DRII is not focused on Southeast Asia (population 600 million) at the moment. An officer says DRII has been "totally overwhelmed with Latin America (population 550 million), China and Japan (population 127 million)--not to mention Canada (population 33 million)". Fair enough. Any organization has to allocate its time for maximum return. But Canada?!

• The Business Continuity Institute (BCI), DRII's U.K.-based competitor in professional certification, has just launched--at last--its own Accredited Training program in Asia that will compete directly with DRII's training for students--and instructors. Taking a page from the DRII playbook, the BCI will also introduce in January 2008 a multiple-choice exam for applicants aspiring to achieve MBCI certification. The BCI has never offered an examination before. I think that's likely to make the BCI's certification a lot more attractive in Asia, where quantitative measures of success (number of correct answers on an exam, for example) are thought a more reliable indicator of competence than qualitative measures (work-related experience on a c.v. or resumé).

• DRII has ignored people in Asia who've offered to help. I know two highly-qualified, motivated people in Singapore who told me they wrote to or contacted DRII months ago (one at my suggestion) to express interest in representing DRII in Asia. Neither of them received a reply. I think that an incredible waste of opportunity. They must really be overwhelmed at DRII.

• DRII isn't giving its country representatives much visibility: none of DRII's international representatives is listed anywhere on DRII's web site.

I don't think DRII is down-for-the-count in Asia. Damage to its reputation isn't irreparable, yet. Perhaps DRII should heed its own professional practices by assessing the business impact of its decisions on its customers, partners and trainers in Asia. The people I know at DRII are sincere and dedicated, so their manifest lack-of-interest has been baffling and discouraging to watch. There's a lot of potential in Asia at the moment.

In my opinion, many professionals in Asia think of DRII at the moment much as people in Asia think of the U.S. government and its military: heart in the right place but not particularly sensitive to the world around it, self-absorbed, slow to react…but when they get rolling, practically unstoppable.

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Nathaniel Forbes

Nathaniel Forbes is the director of Forbes Calamity Prevention, a Singapore-based consulting firm providing business continuity, crisis management and emergency response advice and training to multinational companies, with a focus on companies with offices in Asia. The firm is 10 years old. FCP's current and past clients include Singapore Exchange Ltd, OCBC Bank, AXA Insurance, The Gillette Company, Siemens and ABN Amro Bank. A former President of the Singapore Computer Society’s Business Continuity Group, Nathaniel passed the DRII’s Certified Business Continuity Planner (CBCP) examination in 1997. He has lived, traveled or worked in Asia since 1973.