Business Leaders Overestimate Preparedness for Disruption

PwC’s bi-annual Global Crisis and Resilience Survey reveal organizations and business leaders overestimate their resilience despite operating in an age of disruption. Data from 1,812 respondents worldwide provides insights into how business leaders are preparing for - and responding to - this new world.

When asked where resilience falls on the list of corporate priorities, nine in ten (89%) respondents said resilience is one of their most important strategic organizational priorities - indicating organizations are creating a resilience revolution. After a tumultuous start to the decade, it is unsurprising that nine out of ten (91%) organizations report that they have experienced at least one disruption other than the Covid-19 pandemic.

On average, organizations experienced three-and-half disruptions in the last two years. Three-quarters (76%) said their most serious disruption had a medium-to-high impact on operations - disrupting critical business processes and services and causing downstream financial and reputational issues.

The top five reported disruptions include the global Covid-19 pandemic, employee retention and recruitment, supply chain, technology disruption or failure, and cyber-attack. Excluding the pandemic, supply chain disruptions had the greatest impact on organizations - monetary or otherwise - and they have doubled since 2019, according to the report. More than half (60%) of organizations whose most serious disruption was supply chain related, were most concerned about experiencing a similar disruption again.

“Business leaders face an unprecedented level of disruption and uncertainty in today’s rapidly changing environment. Organizations are contending with external macro forces and internal business transformations, and it is against this backdrop that resilience has become one of the most vital strategic priorities in the corporate world,“ said David Stainback, Co-leader of PwC’s Global Center for Crisis and Resilience at PwC US.

While 70% of business leaders express confidence in their ability to recover from various disruptions, the survey data shows that many organizations lack the foundational elements of resilience they need to be successful. This confidence gap puts organizations at risk of being exposed - particularly when the disruption spotlight is solely on them - as opposed to broader global or sector challenges.

The survey data revealed three significant trends driving, what PwC has called, a resilience revolution:

Integration: An integrated resilience program is essential for today’s organizations. It is no longer sufficient for organizations to work in silos as they address today’s complex and interconnected risks. Businesses are actively moving to an integrated approach to resilience, centrally governing and aligning multiple resilience capabilities around protecting what matters most and embedding the program into operations and the corporate culture.

Leadership: Thriving in a permacrisis requires an executive leader and upskilled teams. A successful resilience strategy and program needs: (1) executive sponsorship from the C-suite, (2) a program leader with clear responsibility, and (3) a skilled team to do the day-to-day work.

Program approach: Building operational resilience around what matters most. Organizations must build operational resilience (OpRes) and ensure that enterprise planning and preparation are part of a broader continuous cycle. As more businesses integrate their resilience programs, many are adopting the core principles of an OpRes approach, focusing on protecting what matters most and prioritizing investment based on what’s critical to their organization and stakeholders. This allows organizations to manage risks with high reliability and drive efficiency.

Those who have moved to an integrated resilience program are significantly further ahead in many of the core elements of OpRes, including risk and threat assessment processes, exercising and testing, and service and process dependency mapping, enabling companies to build a robust corporate immune system where an organization can adapt, flex, and move forward stronger.

“The ability to adapt and respond to disruption is vital to maintaining trust built with stakeholders and protecting shareholder value and reputation - all at a time when the expectations for the resilience of businesses and government have never been higher. To build a trusted and agile organization, it is vital that business leaders invest in resilience across functions and people, and focus on an integrated approach, supported by technology to enable a panoramic view of their risk and resilience landscape,“ said Bobbie Ramsden-Knowles, Co-leader of PwC’s Global Center for Crisis and Resilience at PwC UK.