Building business resilience for the post-COVID-19 world.

Envisaging the future is not only impossible but unpredictable. Although the disruption will continue to apace, it could have an unimaginable impact on every aspect of businesses and lives. Such disruption may put humans and the economy under huge psychological strain, just like we are seeing in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In this unpredictable time, many enterprises have started building their businesses more resilient. Resilience refers to being prepared and equipped with solutions for the future that is uncertain. In the face of a crisis, resilient businesses survive uncertainty instead of being crushed by it.

Strategizing and planning effective business resilience provides an organization the guidance to ensure the ability to react, resume, and restore to a pre-determined level of operation following a disruption. Organizations of all sizes or types around the world face an array of risks and challenges which could harm them for the long-term, from financial loss to reputational damage. Such risks include natural disasters; terrorist-related incidents and disruption; economic turmoil; cybersecurity risks; civil emergencies; pandemic threats, including COVID-19; compliance failures; technology failure, and more.

Effective business resilience planning involves establishing an adequate minimum level of operations. Becoming a resilient organization requires business leaders to understand what the vulnerabilities are so that they can prepare to stay in business.

Most companies may get conflated with business resilience and business continuity. In this context, they require to take a holistic approach to the risks they face and devise exclusive ways to address them. It should consist of a host of significant areas, including business continuity, cybersecurity, crisis management, and disaster recovery. The main goal of business resilience is to break the siloed mentality that has traditionally separated these areas and bring them together for the betterment of a company.

Creating a Business Resilience Strategy

Having a deliverable business resilience strategy in place not only helps organizations to be resilient in an uncertain situation, but also provides the ability to reimagine customer behavior. Decision-makers increasingly use advanced analytics to test and optimize their customer journey. By reimagining their customer experience, they can stay agile to meet changing needs and nurture loyalty when it matters the most.

Moreover, being digital technology savvy enables an enterprise to survive uncertainties. As per the IDC’s "Digital Transformation in Times of Change: What Intelligent Enterprises Need from Their ERP Systems, digitally transformed businesses have eight times more revenue and two times more profitability than those businesses that don’t have any digital strategy yet. SMBs are more likely to report double-digit growth and higher profitability, the report noted.

Flexibility is the key to remain resilient. Organizations that have effective business resilience plan have secured their mission-critical and time-sensitive business functions credited to their least flexible nature. Flexibility allows a leader to determine which functions, resources and personnel are needed to keep in business.

In any uncertain scenario, financial resilience is also critical, but continuity relies on an organization's governance, culture, strategy, risk and crisis management stance.