Organisational Report

Foreword Howard Kerr, Chief Executive, BSI

In 2014, BSI produced guidance on anticipating, preparing for, responding and adapting to today’s volatile business climate. It represents collective best practice thinking, created by industry for industry, the world’s first standard on Organizational Resilience, BS 65000. Little did we suspect how valuable such work would become to a global business community that continues to experience unprecedented economic and political uncertainty, and senior executives were keen for further detail on this subject. We independently assessed their attitudes in 2015 with a global study of business leader opinion, which found that almost nine in ten saw resilience as a priority for their business, while eight in ten believed it to be indispensable for long-term growth. This original study, carried out in partnership with the Economist Intelligence Unit, revealed that just a third of CEOs were confident their organization possessed the resilience to survive long term. With this new report, we have commissioned one of the world’s foremost management schools to address that capability gap, consolidating 50 years of management theory into a single report. Striving for excellence requires business leaders to challenge complacency, promote vigilance and embrace the need for continual improvement. This report reveals that many organizations are instead sleepwalking to disaster through complacency of processes and practice. This report highlights that ‘waiting out a storm’ is no longer an option. Rather, leaders must face the paradox of embracing risk if they are to succeed. Doing so requires them to prepare their businesses to react to threats as opportunities, adapting to survive and prosper. For those of us at BSI, this is the true meaning of Organizational Resilience. That a resilient organization is one that not merely survives over the long term, but flourishes. We believe that mastering Organizational Resilience offers the best opportunity to pass the test of time, unlocking future prosperity and securing longevity. Those that learn to spring forward and not back, reap dividends for their company, employees, investors, customers and society in general. My hope is that this paper provides leaders with the insight to recognize the need to lead their organization in taking measured risks and in doing so master Organizational Resilience.

“Nine in ten saw resilience as a priority for their business, while eight in ten believed it to be indispensable for long-term growth.”

Howard Kerr, 2017

6

Organizational Resilience | BSI and Cranfield School of Management