UST Global: Building a Resilient Enterprise

As COVID-19 spread throughout the globe, the pandemic made two things clear for UST Global:

1. Predicting the future is impossible
2. More disruptive events will continue to occur in the future

In the last decade, it has become obvious that all organisations are vulnerable to disruptions that can present risks to their business. 

While no business is free from risk, some are more resilient than others. By transforming through technology and human-centred design, businesses can adapt when a crisis presents itself. 

“Any advantage in responding to disruption is exponentially more valuable during a pandemic [and beyond]. In the wake of the traditional enterprise arises the resilient one.”

Now is the time for organisations to examine their systems for enterprise agility and begin to make systematic changes that are long overdue,” says UST Global.

What Makes a Resilient Enterprise?

Yossi Sheffi coined the term Resilient Enterprise in 2007, highlighting how companies that build resilience into their operations - from supply chain to technology and talent - could gain a competitive advantage over their competitors. He said:

“Companies that can respond to external or internal threats and thrive nonetheless are generally considered resilient enterprises. Few organisations were created with resilience in mind, so it becomes critical to transform those structures that don't enable modularity, flexibility, and adaptability. Think of digital transformation as what an organisation needs to do to become a resilient enterprise.”

In order to build resilience against disruption, UST Global highlights three elements that must be assessed:

1. Probability (low to high): determining the cause and likelihood of disruption.
2. Consequences (low to high): preparing mitigation options and drills.
3. Detectability/lag (short-term to long-term): detecting an organisation’s ability to act, and having the right decision rules to do it.

In order to measure the above points, insights from data are critical. Organisations will need defined alerts and a combination of cybersecurity and data analytics to handle all types of disruption in the current digital age.  

Following detection of potential threats, the next critical requirement is a set of decision rules on how to act. Once disruption happens, it is too late to create a combat scenario.

“To be resilient takes investment and a long-term mentality. As the world’s complexities increase - resilience has gone from a competitive advantage to a necessity. Most organisations are still reliant on business continuity planning (BCP) while looking at digital transformation,” says UST Global.

To find out more about building a resilient organisation, click here.