"You can't have a plan unless everybody has an input," the CFO said. "You can open a branch, but if your IT department can't get the computers working, then you're going to be operating offline with customers. That is going to involve accounting because accounting is going to say how are you balancing your work. Everything is connected."

Emphasizing customer service and involving yourself with continuity planning can lead a CFO to create a better outcome in contingencies, said Brian Kinman, a partner in the governance, risk and compliance practice at professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.

"If I look at all my stakeholders and customers aren't getting satisfied, then they'll find another way to be satisfied that may not include me after the crisis," he explained.

Previously, corporate continuity planning meant mostly and, as a result, how the company recovers as a whole was not fully understood, Kinman said.

This mentality changed as business grew more complex, with finance and operations increasingly becoming intertwined. Then, he said, companies gradually realized that a complete plan started with a dialogue between all executives to understand how the entire organization functions.