Resilience and risk management may have different definitions but they intersect at many points. While resilience concerns the continued functioning of systems, procedures and processes after a negative event, risk management tries to identify and understand what created the event to begin with, and helps to put mitigative measures in place to prevent a recurrence and to cushion its impact to ensure the organisation can continue to achieve its objectives.
So how should businesses move to operational resilience in the new normal? Firstly, they should accept that the environment will never be “normal” in the same sense as it was before. There will be more disruption and uncertainty to contend with, and the key to survival may lie in an organisation’s agility, flexibility and ability to pivot when confronting challenges. They may want to conduct an operational resilience gap analysis to identify where their shortfalls lie, and address those first. The results of this may indicate the direction they should take; they should compare this against existing strategy and make adjustments where necessary.
The pandemic has been a learning experience for everyone; it has become evident that rapid decision-making is a must – but this has to be supported by robust data and information systems. Businesses may want to put in systems which provide such information, or automate parts of their operations to enable the supply of reliable data. Automation may also be applied to indicate when certain mitigative measures must kick in, so that the organisation remains resilient, and business is not paralysed by disruption. Information also has to be complemented with insight, applied through human intervention and awareness gained from prior experiences.
Businesses may find that their efforts to achieve operational resilience can be matched with a number of elements in risk management frameworks. These frameworks generally cover the measures which will anticipate, prevent or mitigate threats before they occur, while resilience is connected to recovery after the event, which necessitates the ability to prepare for and adapt to changed or changing conditions. Businesses will find that they have to do more with less, in the New Normal – something that will further test their resilience. Those that emerge from the pandemic may be battered, but their survival will be a testament to their resilience, and they may find their value, competitiveness and sustainability significantly increased.
17 The IERP® Monthly Newsletter September - November 2021