Building a culture of change, that is to say developing an organisation that is relatively comfortable with the new and unknown, can be a challenge. However, this culture of change and innovation is precisely what will help position organisations to evolve and react in the face of disruption.

The pandemic has meant that for the first time, many businesses have seen their resilience and flexibility tested, and many have been found wanting. This is not just something to note for future improvements; for many a lack of planning and resilience has been the defining factor between surviving or sinking under the challenges with which we have been faced. Indeed, 96% of respondents in a recent study experienced some form of change in their organisation during the pandemic with the changes coming faster than most anticipated.

“…companies that have purposefully developed capabilities to tackle ambiguity and unpredictability—in a word, resilience—are most likely to thrive.” BCG

The pressure on business leaders to deliver short-term success is higher than ever: 65% of leaders in a recent study say the pressure has steadily increased over the past 5 years. This is understandable – leaders have been faced with one short-term challenge after another – but it shouldn’t mean that long-term goals are abandoned. Global uncertainty has been growing steadily through the 20^th century, as tracked by the IMF, and the 2020 pandemic has been the cherry on top of this trend.

In the past, organisations may have spent time and resources on building large-scale disaster recovery strategies that were never used or needed, and it can be a hard sell to stakeholders and shareholders to move resources and focus away from revenue generation. So how can you build a resilient organisation and make business continuity and flexibility a central component of all processes and operations?

Resilience should not be reactive; it is not just about dealing with immediate threats or planned-for disruptions. Instead, it should be pre-emptive; it is about creating a sustainable, flexible and adaptable business model that is digitally equipped and positioned to weather storms and recover quickly.

To this end, leaders should be taking a much longer-term view when developing business strategies, thinking in terms of years rather than months. This means analysing potential risks on a wider scale as well, considering everything from local challenges to global market shifts. This type of early anticipation can provide a significant competitive advantage to businesses, and new research has shown that is pays off in financial terms as well – companies operating with a long-term mindset consistently outperform industry peers since 2001 across almost every financial measure., and average revenue was almost 50% higher.

And it is risk that should be determining an organisation’s priorities, rather than growth. By building an understanding of the areas of highest risk, and importantly, developing strategies to mitigate these, businesses can ensure that business-as-usual is as protected as possible. This means leaders must be fully embedded in the day-to-day workings of their organisation, with a handle on processes and systems, as well as data management and retention approaches, something that is more important than ever before, as businesses come to rely upon technology solutions.

It may seem obvious, but by understanding how a process or system works, leaders are in a better position to tweak or pivot that process in the face of a crisis. Building a culture of change within the organisation – a culture where people feel involved and empowered to make suggestions for innovations and improvements – takes this a step further. Incorporating innovation and ‘transformation’ so that they are central to strategic thinking helps businesses become more agile. It is precisely by building this type of flexibility into the business model that organisations can become more resilient.

It is important to remember that business continuity and resilience is not a one-size fits all strategy that can be drag-and-dropped into an organisation., IT needs to be developed based upon the people, processes, and culture of a business, and is not necessarily only focused on the infrastructure, but about things that are business critical to each organisation. Business resilience is the strategic foundation upon which all business continuity and crisis management are built. Once leaders have this foundation in place, strategies for business continuity can be developed, encompassing processes required to keep business running during an incident, and a framework for crisis management.

Consider the following areas when constructing continuity strategies:

• Leadership

This is never more important than during a crisis. Ensuring leaders understand their role and communicate this clearly to their teams is vital and can help maintain calm even in the midst of chaos.

• People

People are the key to every organisation. Empower your employees to get involved, offer feedback and present suggestions for process and system improvements. Make sure everyone understands their role, and the actions required should any incidents occur. Keep communication channels clear and open and keep everyone updated on a regular basis.

• Systems

Systems should be reviewed regularly, from both a process and security point of view. This also allows companies to streamline their systems, update processes and make sure they are getting the most from the technology. Categorise systems according to whether they are business critical and required for minimum necessary activity and make note of whether they have offline availability. Vitally, be sure to document how data is accessed, and how (and how often) it is backed up.

Finally, leaders should be thinking about their business resilience strategy as an ongoing project. Once the business resilience policy has been documented, and procedures have been outlined for working during a crisis and building back in the aftermath, these should be communicated and made available throughout the organisation. Reviewing and updating these policies and procedures should be a standard task across the organisation, and implementing training on a regular basis can help instil a culture of risk awareness and early identification of any future challenges.

By looking to the future and making strategy decisions for the long-term, business leaders can help build resilience into the core of their organisation, ensuring continuity in a crisis, and improved performance over time, developing companies that not only survive, but thrive.