Every day, we are inundated with information about the economic situation, geopolitical conflicts, natural disasters, and the effects of climate change. These situations have a potential impact on us, the companies we work for, and society. Are companies aware of the magnitude of these impacts and prepared to respond in a resilient and strategic manner?
Let's recall the COVID-19 pandemic, a challenging and atypical period for everyone. However, was it an unimaginable scenario? We know it was a period that affected society across the board, and because it was so global, we benefited from widespread solidarity and empathy. But what if a situation affects only one sector or specifically our company? A supply chain disruption, a cyberattack, or an operational failure – will we have the same level of understanding from customers and stakeholders?
What if the disruption escalates to a point where existing contingency plans are insufficient? Is there a tested and operational crisis management and communication plan?
This is the challenge that business continuity teams continuously embrace: preparing organizations for disruption scenarios that are typically low-probability but high-impact. To do this, they work in a multidisciplinary manner to address key questions: What are the critical activities? What resources do they depend on? What is the supply chain? What redundancies and plans are in place? What are the legal implications of a disruption or the decisions to be made in a crisis context?
We know that the definition of corporate strategies and respective decisions are naturally driven by economic-financial rationale, increasingly aligned with ESG principles, aiming to create a positive impact on society and the planet. Therefore, boldness and innovation are increasingly necessary ingredients. Thus, to strengthen this strategy and bolster confidence among our customers and stakeholders, it becomes even more urgent that this strategy is also supported by business continuity, crisis management, and consequently resilience as pillars for success, even in unknown and uncertain contexts.
To this end, three possible action axes for reinforcing investment in organizational resilience are highlighted, which should naturally be adjusted to the size of the business and applied progressively:
» Culture: the creation of training and awareness programs, adapted to different target audiences within the organization, is fundamental to ensure the necessary preparation, proactivity in detecting potential incidents, and response.
» Implementation of a business continuity management system: the organization should regularly establish its context, identify critical activities through impact analysis, assess and manage the risks associated with these activities in alignment with existing risk policies, define continuity strategies and plans, conduct drills to test these plans, and monitor the results for continuous improvement.
» 360-degree approach: involve the entire organization and external entities, and promote information sharing, joint training, to ensure the organization's necessary capacity to adapt to change and effective coordination among all parties.
The path is challenging and takes time to implement, so, conscious of the essential service we provide, at EDP Group we have been strengthening this approach as a cornerstone of our decarbonization strategy. Thus, I leave here the reflection and challenge to the business fabric and society: on which "side of the coin" do you position yourself in a disruption situation, survival or overcoming? Investing in resilience can be a differentiating factor in the market, driving boldness and innovation, and above all, it can make a difference for the continuity of operations and to elevate the confidence of our stakeholders.
Article by Sandra Garrido, former student of the Postgraduate Programme in Business Administration and Specialist in Business Continuity and Crisis Management at EDP Group.
