Roads to Resilience

Challenges for boards on achieving resilience

The risk professionals at the case study organisations have guided and supported their own board members and senior executives along their chosen road to resilience. These risk professionals also identified what they regarded as the key points for board members and senior managers 3 . They discussed the role of the risk professional in achieving organisational resilience and the need for them to advise board members on the potential impact and consequences of failure to manage risk. It was agreed that there is a need for risk management activities to become transparent and for the board and senior executives to recognise the importance of culture.

The risk professionals suggested the following three main implications for boards: • Potential impact of risk: the need to recognise the potential impacts of risk on the business and brand and this was articulated as “understand the strategic and brand / reputational implications of operational failures” • Recognise the cultural issues: the need for the board to recognise the cultural issues: “ Recognise it is more about culture than process” and “Recognising the need to create / maintain a culture – embedded in all staff rather than … an enforcement function” ; and • Need for communication: the need to communicate and make risk management, crisis management and resilience transparent: “Risk management must

be used as an integral part of the management of the business and not a tick-box exercise”

Table 8.6 Organisational resilience and associated outcomes

Prevent, Protect and Prepare

• optimal utilisation of resources and assets to take advantage of opportunities • supportive relationships and networks to build successful brands and reputation

• controls in place for the expected risks, as described in the risk register • robust risk awareness to assist with design and implementation of strategy

Respond, Recover and Review

• crisis plans to respond successfully to adversity and achieve enhanced profile • identified lessons and amended business model to gain competitive advantage

• ability to respond to a crisis, cope with the unexpected and learn lessons • knowledge of emerging risks

to help develop and test crisis management plans

3 The ideas and quotes presented here are based on the discussions at the workshop held at Cranfield School of Management on 11 July 2013. Further details of the outcomes of this workshop are given in Appendix B.

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Section 8: Implications for Board Members