We are increasingly hearing about the word resilience. When speaking scientifically it refers the physical property of a material to ‘bounce back’ to its original position after deformation that does not broaden elastic limitations.
Irregular change is nothing new to modern enterprises: witness the colossal changes in technology and economies as well as social and environmental developments. We are living in a world which is constantly evolving, changing and expanding. Enterprises need to respond by bolstering their suppleness and agility. We are constantly witnessing modification as these groups create ‘virtual enterprises’ in which they share key process with other businesses, they construct infrastructures which support expansion, and create environments that sustain varied lifestyles.
Agility is becoming increasingly important as is resilience. We witnessed large spread change on September the 11th as the world was catapulted into a ‘new normal’, one of indecision and unrest. Resilient organizations bounced back within a short period whilst non- resilient struggled to re-establish, and rebuild.
Agility is an offensive strategy while resilience is defensive and refers to a means of recovery from unanticipated events. Working in a variety of different industries I believe that resilient organizations are ones which have adopted it as an attitude. It is part of their corporate culture and the product of the persona of individuals in an organization. One cannot build a durable organization on the shoulders of those who don’t embrace it. If a leader has it as a character trait then followers will more than likely follow suit as they tend to adopt similar characteristics.
Resilience begins at home and has to be sustained over time.
Have you though about the vulnerabilities and areas of weakness in your own business and how to improve your level of operational resilience to address them?