Roads to Resilience

Section 7: Implications for risk professionals

Overview of the implications for risk professionals

opportunity, adverse event and near-miss incident is reported and analysed, so that the organisation can decide what actions should be taken to learn and benefit from the experience. This approach is not limited to operational risks and resilient organisations seek to review changes that indicate that strategy and/or tactics should be adapted to achieve greater success.

Review and adapt is the resilience principle that indicates that an organisation is willing to learn from adverse events, circumstances or near-misses and adapt processes and structures accordingly. Learning from experience is a core value of the resilient organisation and can equally apply to learning from success to achieve greater success next time. To support the achievement of this principle, resilient organisations have a strong desire to achieve a constant improvement in performance. Every

Introduction to implications for risk professionals

Previous sections of this report describe each of the principles that ensure the achievement of increased organisational resilience, with examples from the case study organisations. This section provides a consolidated view of the implications of the research, written from the perspective of risk professionals. It analyses how the five principles can be achieved and describes the relationship between them. To support risk professionals on their road to resilience, this section also gives examples of the practices observed in the case study organisations that enable them to achieve the five principles of resilience. Finally, it summarises the advice of the risk managers at the case study organisations that emerged from a resilience workshop held at Cranfield School of Management on 11 July 2013.

Based on the results described in Sections 2 to 6, the components of each resilience principle are shown in Table 7.1. It is important to note that the research identified that each of the principles needs to be present, albeit to differing degrees, in order to achieve resilience. As the principles support each other and are inter-dependent, resilience cannot be achieved if only one or two of the principles are in place. Resilience includes, but goes beyond, seeking to avoid adverse events and ensuring rapid restoration of normal activities after a crisis. It can also facilitate innovation and enhance business performance, thereby helping the organisation seize opportunities. In addition to identifying the five principles, the research developed the following definition of resilience: “Resilient organisations are discerning about risks they take; identify the importance of emerging trends; manage the impact and consequences (both beneficial and detrimental); cope with unexpected adverse events; rapidly bounce back stronger from a crisis; constantly adapt to change; and embed the lessons learned into their business enablers”

Nature of ‘Resilience’

There are five principles that need to be achieved for an organisation to increase its resilience. These can be summarised by the five Rs, in that resilient organisations:

1. have exceptional risk radar

2. have resources and assets that are flexible and diversified

3. value and build strong relationships and networks

4. have the capability to ensure decisive and rapid response

5.  review and adapt to changes and adverse events

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Section 7: Implications for risk professionals