What did 2020 teach us about the value of organisational resilience?

The ongoing pandemic has severely tested resilience across organisations great and small. But what has that done to the confidence of those organisations to anticipate, prepare for, respond and adapt to disruption?

Interestingly, BSI’s latest Organisational Resilience Index finds that business leaders’ confidence in the resilience of their organisations has actually risen in the last 12 months.

Confidence is up for a third of leaders

33% of the 500 senior leaders surveyed worldwide reported being fully confident in their organisations’ resilience. That’s 5% more than in 2013.
Meanwhile, over half of those in the UK, US and India are cautiously optimistic for the year ahead, predicting an improved financial performance in 2021.

Sector differences are clear

The COVID-19 pandemic seemingly affected some sectors more than others.
Aerospace is an excellent example. As travel corridors were closed intermittently throughout the year and aircraft orders plummeted across the globe, aerospace companies suffered. 39% of those surveyed in the Index reported severe impacts as the market declined dramatically. However, while many feared that such businesses would fall beyond recovery, the majority are now confident of bouncing back.
Disruption to supply chains and fleets being grounded naturally affected the industry. Yet they serve to illustrate that any business – no matter the sector – can use organizational resilience to help overcome adversity.

Permanent change for some industries

We cannot ignore the devastating loss of life, as well as the huge disruption to our lives that COVID-19 has caused in the last year.
Moreover, despite some businesses emerging stronger from the situation having learnt to adapt and overcome, many industries will be forever changed as a result of the pandemic.
Yet, while in the midst of a global crisis, it is positive to see optimism and stories of commercial durability, with a greater lesson still to be learnt – the value of embedding true organizational resilience.
Explore BS 65000:2014 for guidance on how that organisational resilience can be embedded.

Not just survive, but thrive

Like you, we hope that there is never again such an extensive global test of the practice of organisational resilience as there has been in the last 12 months.
Yet if such a test occurs, the latest Index identifies a clear link between holistic organizational resilience and financial performance. This is more evidence that the strategic implementation of key principles can help companies not only to survive unexpected circumstances, but also to prosper in the long-term.

How does your organisation rate?

If you want to find out how your organisation ranks across 16 elements of organizational resilience, complete our benchmark questionnaire. Once completed, you will be given an initial assessment of your organisational resilience ratings — compared with 1,250 other organizations.
Resilience has never been a more important quality. COVID-19 has been its greatest test. However, with well-considered and thorough preparation, companies can do more than simply survive.