Council Post: 13 Critical Steps To Building A Business Resilience Plan

Businesses have invested a lot of time and fund into going digital, as recent events have shown that digital is the way forward. Consumers have also adopted the new medium, and online sales have hit heights never before seen. Amidst this exuberance, there’s a feeling that something could potentially go wrong. With how quickly things could change, businesses need to have clear strategies and resilience plans in place.

These resilience plans are designed to help the business cope in the case of significant upheaval. Whether this is economic or societal, resilience plans ensure that businesses remain working regardless of external factors. To help, 13 members of Forbes Business Council discuss several critical steps to implementing a resilience plan to stave off issues from an external crisis.

1. Start From Mission, Vision And Culture

A resilience plan must start from the company’s mission, vision and internal culture. These are not just for writing on the wall or your website, but something that the whole team believes in and what drives the company forward. If the foundation is strong, the shift will be smooth. Of course, ensuring the infrastructure that is needed is in place is what managers have to take care of. – Liudas Kanapienis, Ondato

2. Embrace Tension

Embrace tension instead of avoiding it. All companies live with tensions that are focused on achieving employee happiness, customer satisfaction and meeting the numbers. If you pull on one side too much, the two other sides will suffer. To resolve this, engage in a constructive dialogue aimed at finding a resolution to a specific challenge. This builds resilience and trust. – Andreea Vanacker, SPARKX5

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3. Have A Roadmap To Your Goals

A good resilience plan starts with a roadmap for the overall vision of the company. When you have a clear understanding of what your goals are, you can develop strategies and policies to mitigate risks. When faced with an unexpected event that disrupts your businesses workflow, you need a resilience plan that involves four key components: adaptation, securities, continuity and recovery. – Michael Ligon, The Ligon Group, LLC / LigonBrothers

4. Prepare For The Unexpected

If there is one thing this pandemic has taught us, it’s that being prepared for the unexpected is vital to an organization’s success. We can’t always see what is coming around the corner, but we can cultivate a resilience mindset within our organization and ensure that our teams have both a plan and a prerogative that allows them to respond dynamically, bounce back faster and come back stronger. – Rachel Hodgdon, International WELL Building Institute (IWBI)

5. Conduct Solid Market Research

Good market research and analysis are the key inputs for creating future strategies. Moreover, fast implementation done by high-profile management is the basis for the quick digital environment we are operating in. While we live and work today, we should think about tomorrow, which is just around the corner waiting for us to react and respond to all the challenges. – Vladimir Lucic, Telekom Srbija

6. Be Organized In Your Processes

The key to building a resilience plan is being organized. That is the most important aspect of any business, especially now as we have shifted our customer experiences to digital. Have organized processes and then adapting them when circumstances change will help staff and customers adapt quickly and reduce the friction of getting the product or service to the customer. – Jane Stoller, Organized Jane

7. Focus On Enhancing Adaptability

Resilience plans are critical for business continuity, despite disruption. The key to a business resilience plan is adaptability without losing focus on your goals and mission. Plan your strategy by charting out steps to be taken to adapt to their needs, as well as your business environment, product changes, operation, competitors, etc. – Zaheer Dodhia, Logo Design

8. Focus On Customers’ Pain Points

Transparency and authenticity are key to continue exceptional customer experience, especially in a virtual world where customers might feel a bit disconnected and isolated from companies they interact with. Any resilience plan should focus on the customers’ needs and pain points as they need to see active communication and engagement from the brands/companies they love. – Silvia Mah, Ad Astra Ventures

9. Know What Metrics You’ll Measure

Establish what you are going to measure before you start. What metrics can you use to measure “success?” Is it sales? Is it your customer acquisition cost? Is it time of manufacturing or something else? Then, test, listen to the data, adjust and do it quickly. Before you know it, you’ll have your own formula for success. – Brandon White, File Finder

10. Treat It Like A Fire Evacuation Plan

Approach it similar to how you would look at your office (or home) and the risk of a fire breaking out. Make a list of all your operations and key assets. Identify which are mission-critical, what would happen if there was a problem (or attack) and carry out a risk assessment. The risk assessment would include the likelihood of the event happening plus possible risk mitigation options. – Maurice Castelijn, The Health Sciences Academy

11. Take An Iterative Approach 

An iterative approach is best. Anticipate what is happening in the environment (e.g., customers, competitors, etc.) and develop a plan of action. Implement that plan by mobilizing your workforce. Finally, assess progress and adapt as needed. Perfect foresight doesn’t exist, so you need a starting game plan, which you will have to adapt and then learn from your experiences. – Sindhu Kutty, Kuroshio Consulting

12. Give Staff Access To Needed Tools

From a technology perspective, resiliency starts with planning and providing employees with access to the content and technology they need, whenever and wherever. An IT resilience strategy is not one-shoe-fits-all initiative; it is customized based on your technology infrastructure and culture. This past year has given organizations valuable time to focus on continuity. – Edward Tuorinsky, DTS

13. Focus On Employee Training

Crisis does not adhere to a template. When developing a resilience plan, ensure that you focus on employee training and gaining their trust. You can have all plans in place, but they’ll come to naught unless employees know when and how to put them into action. Plans must leave room for flexibility, empowering employees to be creative to best serve the interest of company, customers and partners. – Pankaj Srivastava, Practicalspeak