The six resilience characteristics of EMEA’s top performing organizations

1. Defined corporate values

The top organizations have clearly defined corporate values and an awareness and commitment to those values. These values begin at the executive level, but rely on support from all team members to succeed toward a common goal.

2. Clearly outlined risk and resilience strategy

They share a knowledge of risk culture and a clearly outlined risk and resilience strategy. This shows that organizations who have a plan in place and dedicate time to learning about risks are more likely to succeed.

3. Operationalized resilience goals

They create explicit resilience goals that are actively operationalized. The most effective organizations at managing risk don’t stop at creating a strategy, no matter how good it is. They put it into action and make changes as needed.

4. Effective risk management processes

They have effective risk management processes, systems, and methodologies, specifically including the use of early warning systems. Organizations that implement early warning systems can detect and take action on hyper-relevant risks to people, assets, and facilities faster than ever before.

5. Recruit and retain required competencies

They demonstrate a commitment to recruiting, developing, and retaining employees with the required competencies for critical event management and resilience efforts. This shows that investing in resilience is not only about technology as in number 4, but also about the development and retention of in-house talent to manage these projects.

6. Operate with risk-reducing measures

They are willing to operate with risk-reducing measures, including monitoring of operations and taking any changes to strategy very seriously. It takes a high level of commitment to change processes that took time and effort to implement, but the safety and well-being of their team members is the main vision.

How do these characteristics tie together?

The biggest takeaway is that the most resilient organizations in Dr. Vieweg’s research were not just visionaries, but rather executed on resilience goals and strategies. Several of the characteristics are linked together to detail this, in terms of actively operationalizing and committing to strategies and values. How often do organizations truly uphold the words in their mission statements? The more they do, the better the odds are of being more resilient.

The list of characteristics also shows that investing in people and technology goes a long way toward a successful resilience plan.