Non-Legal Advice

TBC provides Business Advice in the Round. We don’t just help your business or social enterprise with legal issues. We provide you with access to our expert collaboration partners in areas such as accountancy and financial services and we offer you non-legal advice from our own team of business professionals in the key areas of Strategy, Government Relations, Crisis Management and Cyber-Security Cyber-Resilience and Data Protection.

Strategy

Most businesses understand the importance of having a strategy. More often than not that strategy is set out in a Strategic Plan and that plan is usually stored at the back of a filing cabinet and rarely if ever looked at once its completion has been celebrated.

Truly successful businesses don’t just have a Strategic Plan that they look at regularly. They operate with a continuous strategic mind-set and with systems that ensure every operational step is in line with the fundamental pillars of the business strategy.

A key issue for businesses in setting, maintaining and measuring success against their strategy is that the strategy setters, maintainers and measurers almost always work ‘in the business’. Just as a fish does not ‘see’ water, business owners and senior managers don’t ‘see’ the business.

Whether you’re just starting a business, well established, a new owner, a keen seller or just need to create a strategy to achieve a specific goal such as an acquisition, our experienced strategic thinking business professionals can help.

Governmental Relations

when it comes to dealing with governments what you know does matter but whom you know matters too!

There is an art to dealing with governments whether at local, regional, national or international levels. Understanding the language of government, the nuances of their communication, when diplomacy is required, when ‘maybe’ means ‘no’ and ‘yes’ means ‘maybe’ are all key factors in successful governmental relationships.

TBC can help you with all aspects of governmental relations whether you are doing business directly with them or need their input or imprimatur. We have access to governmental contacts at all levels in the UK and in many international jurisdictions as well as at The United Nations in both New York and Geneva.

Crisis Management

A crisis is an event that creates a significant threat to a business and will have negative consequences if not successfully managed. The threats can be to public safety or of financial or reputational loss and can arise from numerous events including accident or error, legal actions, public accusations and employee behaviour.

Every business hopes that it will never have to deal with a crisis. Successful businesses plan for what they will do in case one arises and put in place a system to ensure that a crisis is met with a coordinated response, the necessary resources and a clear external and internal communications strategy.

TBC’s business professionals have many years of experience in planning for and dealing with crises and can help your business to create or refine a Crisis Management and Communications Plan with clear escalation frameworks, incident response protocols, management processes and communications templates.

Cyber-Security

To quote the UK National Cyber Security Centre ‘Cyber security is how individuals and organisations reduce the risk of cyber-attack.’.

There is much information on line about cyber security and how to protect your business. Indeed, the NCSC publishes information for businesses which is well worth reading. BUT true cyber security is far more than protecting your assets from malicious cyber-attack. It also means ensuring your computer systems and networks, hardware and software, data and intellectual property are managed in a way that reduce the risk of human error and opportunistic theft or attack. It is not just about passwords and encryption. It’s about your culture and your people. TBC has experts that combine the technical know-how, cyber security knowledge and business experience to help you ‘cyber secure’ your business.

Cyber-Resilience

Whilst the impact of cyber-attacks against large corporates are more obvious, the effects on a small or medium enterprise can be just as devastating. Loss of access to systems or vital data can derail normal business activities, personal data can be breached, reputations harmed and regulatory intervention provoked.

If, despite your best cyber security efforts, cyber threats become reality, it is your management team which needs to respond while the IT experts unravel the technical mess. Implementing workarounds, dealing with customers, regulators and law enforcement all take planning, clear decision making and coordination across the business. In other words, it takes cyber resilience.

Analysis demonstrates that organisations with well-designed, and rehearsed, contingency plans survive cyber-attack far better than those without. Furthermore, regulators are willing to punish organisations as much for their poor response to attack as for allowing it in the first place.

Whatever the size and complexity of your business, TBC can help you build an appropriate cyber-resilience model which will minimise the adverse impacts of a cyber-attack and satisfy regulatory scrutiny.

Data Protection

It is tempting to think of GDPR as a 2018 moment in time, and that all will be well because you have ticked all the boxes. However, to quote the Information Commissioner “Unlike planning for the Y2K deadline, GDPR … requires ongoing effort”. It’s about more than a website cookie notice.

We live in an increasingly privacy-savvy world, with data subjects (your clients and employees) becoming more aware of their rights and often unafraid to exercise them. Business reputations are at stake and regulatory attention can be a mere breach away.

Particularly in SMEs, with no dedicated privacy department, there can be gaps in GDPR compliance. Privacy notices and other mandatory documentation may be missing or deficient and planning for a breach notification may be non-existent which increases legal risks.

TBC has privacy experts who can quickly assess your current status and address any gaps. They are qualified and experienced practitioners, who will add advice on operational risk management to the dry legalities and help your business at a lower cost than a specialist privacy lawyer.