The Need for Organisational Resilience - Chapter 3

powerful enough to disrupt the German advance. It is all hypothetical, but more power

(combining more forces), and more agility (changing the COG from the north to the south)

might have been just enough to break through the German front line and threaten the

German heartland. Both parties would then have switched to a cat-and-mouse game,

progressively exploiting each other’s weakness. That, though, requires dynamic resources

and capabilities. The Allies tied down most of theirs in a defensive stance.

In the commercial world, a dispersion of resources and capabilities seems

straightforward; for the protection of an organisation in all eventualities or for the progressive

development of a wide ranging Schwerpunkt. However, resources and capabilities are

scarce and are subject to permanent cost-cutting pressures (at times through outsourcing).

To indiscriminately thin out resources and capabilities can generate the required cost-

savings − until a value-adding function breaks. British Airways seemed to believe that a data

centre was not its highest priority value-adding function. But once that went into meltdown,

the customers aired their voices. It is still to be seen whether this breach in their own front-

line leads to permanent damage to the company’s reputation.

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