Change can happen unexpectedly in today’s fast-paced world, whether technological advancements, cyberattacks, economic downturns, or pandemics. For businesses to thrive in such challenges, resilience is key. That’s why organizational resilience has become more relevant than before. Resilient companies can weather any storm by anticipating, planning for, and responding to disruptions.
To create a resilient culture, organizations must encourage employee innovation and adapt to changing customer needs. They must also overcome reputational and organizational setbacks and rise to the challenge of adversity. To nurture a resilient organization, businesses can prioritize proactive cybersecurity planning, intellectual property protection, uptime safeguards, and contingency plan mapping.
Organizations and individuals that discovered meaningful ways to practice resilience in the face of change, from remote and hybrid working to digital acceleration, proved to have an enormous strategic advantage. Cultivate a resilient culture so you aren’t surprised when disruptions occur.
Remember, if your people, processes and technologies aren’t resilient, your business will have a tough time recovering from setbacks such as downtime-induced financial loss and dissatisfied employees.
What does a resilient advantage look like?
Organizations that recover quickly from setbacks typically:
Create an environment for innovation and opportunity
An organization’s employees are among its most valuable assets. You can encourage innovation among your employees by creating a work culture that supports creative thinking and effective communication and empower them to contribute their knowledge, abilities and suggestions.
An innovative work culture ensures that everyone in the company works towards improving business practices, productivity and overall resilience. An innovative organization can quickly develop multiple strategies to deal with a crisis.
Adapt to meet changing customer needs
Global events influence consumer demands and behaviour. With that in mind, a customer-focused company must understand and adapt to changes to survive and prepare for the future.
Asking these three questions will provide organizations with perspective:
- What are our customers’ behaviours?
- Why do our customers behave that way?
- What must we alter to cater to new demands and behaviours?
Overcome reputational and organizational adversity
Almost every firm will face reputational or organizational setbacks during its lifespan. Some businesses may crumble because of their inability to prepare for and recover from change and challenges. However, the resilient ones will do everything in their power to identify the source of the setback, rectify the damage caused and make communication with stakeholders transparent.
Rise to the challenge: Turn adversity into opportunity
As you know, a resilient organization will be better equipped to stand firm in the face of severe adversity and have the means to recover as quickly as possible.
Prioritize the following tactics to nurture a resilient organization:
Proactive cybersecurity planning: This may require implementing guidelines from The International Standards Organization (ISO), The British Standards Institute (BSI) or the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Cyber Security Framework, depending on your industry and location.
Protection of intellectual property (IP): This is more of a legal and operational task, including having the right employee, contractor and partnership agreements to avoid disclosing critical organizational IP.
Contingency plan mapping
Build a business continuity and disaster recovery plan that lays out contingency plans for events like downtime, evacuations, and so on to prepare for tricky situations.
Building a resilient organization requires significant time and resources, which is challenging while running a business. That’s why partnering with an expert like CybersecurityMadeEasy can take the worry and responsibility off your shoulders.
Contact us today at www.CybersecurityMadeEasy.com, and let’s start securing your business against attacks.
