In today’s unpredictable business environment, organisations must invest in resilience to ensure they can withstand any disruption and quickly recover, writes Andy Banks
As Irish businesses grapple with a rapidly changing world, the challenges of geopolitical upheaval, soaring inflation and economic uncertainties have become ever more prevalent.
Added to this, businesses are facing the rising threat of cybercrime, supply chain challenges and the climate crisis.
To survive and thrive in this upheaval, Irish business leaders must be able to proactively anticipate and respond to disruption.
The key to success is resilience: the ability to navigate crises and the capacity to adapt and succeed in the face of disruption.
PwC’s Crisis and Resilience Survey 2023 delves into how organisations are directing their resources, efforts and investments toward building resilience to thrive in a state of permacrisis.
There are three ways organisations can embrace and invest in resilience to transform their operations in an era of constant disruption.
1. Integration: An integrated resilience programme is essential
It is no longer sufficient for organisations to operate in silos as they address today’s complex and interconnected risks. Both locally and globally, enterprises are moving towards an integrated approach to resilience.
They are centrally governing and aligning multiple resilience capabilities around what matters most to the business and embedding this programme into their operations and corporate culture.
2. Leadership: Thriving in a permacrisis means upskilling leaders and teams
Consistent with global trends, 33 percent of Irish respondents in the PwC survey said building a team with the right skills is a significant challenge in establishing a resilience programme. Fifty-seven percent of Irish organisations cite upskilling future leaders as one of the three most important elements of future-proofing resilience.
A successful resilience strategy and programme needs:
- Executive sponsorship from the C-suite;
- A senior leader with clear responsibility for the programme; and
- A skilled team to drive the programme across the organisation.
3. Programme approach: Build operational resilience around what matters most
Organisations must build operational resilience and ensure that enterprise planning and preparation are part of a broader continuous cycle.
Irish organisations invest in teams to deliver on the resilience agenda, with 77 percent of respondents confirming at least one dedicated resource.
As more organisations integrate their resilience programmes, many firms worldwide are adopting the core principles of an operational resilience (OpRes) approach, focusing on protecting what matters most and prioritising investment based on what’s critical to their organisation and stakeholders.
This allows organisations to manage risks with high reliability and drive efficiency.
Those who have moved to an integrated resilience programme are significantly ahead in many of the core elements of OpRes: building a robust corporate immune system where an organisation can adapt, flex and grow stronger.
Technology-powered resilience
Distributed data, systems, processes and operational silos mean organisations struggle to obtain a complete view of their resilience, only identifying gaps when disruption hits.
The traditional approach to managing resilience is no longer working – simply checking off compliance with regulations does not deliver resilience.
Too many organisations miss opportunities to identify and rectify vulnerabilities before an incident occurs. What are the vulnerabilities you can and can’t live with? It’s time for a new approach.
Business leaders understand the need to underpin resilience strategies with technology that can intelligently aggregate data from across a business to provide an integrated, insight-driven single source of truth and greater agility in times of crisis.
Business leaders also want to use technology to create a living resilience programme they can continually test and evolve.
Andy Banks is Risk Assurance Solutions Partner at PwC
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