Future-Proofing Enterprises: Building Resiliency With Efficiency in Mind

Organizational resilience has been a trending business topic since the beginning of 2020, as the past year has disrupted organizational workflow, development and communication. And, many companies were not prepared. Heath Anderson, director of information security and technology at LogicGate, believes many companies were unprepared and vulnerable because C-suite leaders and risk teams focused on efficient processes rather than resilient ones. What does this mean for the year ahead and the future of organizational resilience?

The COVID-19 pandemic tested companies to the extreme. While many were forced to call it quits, others survived — even thrived. Resilient companies have adapted to a new world of remote work. They understand where technology is important, where people are needed, and what to do if one of those two fails. 

But does that make the case for resiliency over efficiency? Internal and external scenarios often require a business to favor one over the other. Like a pendulum, the need for more efficiency or resiliency swings back and forth constantly. It isn’t always a choice between the two, either. To find an ideal balance between efficiency and resiliency and better prepare for future disruptions, companies can use risk management processes, software and teams to create quality measures of resilience. 

Risk Involved With Efficiency

Companies can implement and measure efficiency fairly easily — as they’ve done since the Industrial Revolution. Executives can test and remove redundancy as they see fit, workforces can be automated to produce more results with fewer resources, and as they specialize or expand, companies can shrink or eliminate departments. In practice, efficiency allows teams to accomplish more with less.

By all means, efficiency sounds like the best option for any company looking to grow with as little resources as possible. 

The problem with too much focus on efficiency, is that it’s constantly at risk of catastrophic failureOpens a new window . When it comes to business risk management, efficiency should always be a priority but companies should never rely on efficiency as the only measure used to determine a business model’s success and effectiveness. 

To borrow a financial metaphor, resilience operates like debt. Sometimes it’s reasonable to accept more debt to increase efficiency. But businesses need debt/resilience management to avoid taking and having to pay on a bad loan. 

Learn More: Rise in Digital Risks Call for a Smarter Approach to Risk Management

Building Resiliency With Efficiency in Mind

Resilient organizations share some common traits. According to DeloitteOpens a new window , successful companies in 2020 showed adaptability, preparedness and responsibility, among others. Active efforts put forth by executives will help teams across the board move forward and prepare for future challenges. At its most basic level, resiliency means understanding and predicting the likelihood of what could go wrong and — depending on the scenario — deploying countermeasures to prevent or respond to it.

In IT, for example, increased data centralization within a company, third-parties and other digital risks have driven resiliency to overtake efficiency. Companies need tools to respond and recover quickly from impacts to data availability (an inability to connect remotely) or confidentiality (data breach) of their centralized data.  

Businesses that practice these traits have a stronger safety net to grow even when others are flailing and shutting down. 

Since organizations function in such complex, interconnected waysOpens a new window , one small change in an unrelated department could negatively affect another. The question becomes how risk managers can measure and counterbalance resilience to achieve operations and process efficiency. Enter risk quantification and management. By deploying resiliency measures aligning the potential for something to go wrong, measuring it and identifying how to accept the risk (with insurance or less expensive protection) or reduce it (pay a vendor to support backup operations), organizations can determine whether those risks are good or poor.

Learn More: Why Cyber Risk Management Is Key To Uncovering Security Holes in Your Network

Meeting in the Middle for Growth — The Risk Benefit

Resiliency is in the spotlight now. Even after the pandemic, tech companies will see resiliency take the top spot from efficiency. Businesses that thrived during the pandemic are in a unique position above others — making it an ideal time to look at the current situation as opportunistic. Businesses successfully accounting for not deploying resiliency measures can push forward with new acquisitions. They can expand into new territories and fields with a solid, tested plan and approach.

New technology has created a space where companies can achieve efficiency with far less human intervention. Businesses that understand where to add employees and where to implement technology are that much closer to achieving resilience. Risk management software and risk teams help provide measures that can balance the two. They analyze a business’s key areas to identify when to prioritize reducing debt of a fragile process over an efficient process. Though pushing for more resiliency can appear to cost more like debt that eventually comes due, the pandemic has proven that managing resiliency allows businesses to adapt and stay afloat during times of uncertainty.

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