Global Leaders' Confidence in Resilience of their Organizations on Rise

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Despite the challenges of 2020, business leaders' confidence in the resilience of their organizations has risen, according to BSI’s fourth annual Organizational Resilience Index report, which surveyed 500 senior leaders across the globe.</span> <span style="font-we

BY Realty Plus
Published - Mar 16, 2021 4:47 AM

Share It

Despite the challenges of 2020, business leaders' confidence in the resilience of their organizations has risen, according to BSI’s fourth annual Organizational Resilience Index report, which surveyed 500 senior leaders across the globe. The index found that leaders remain cautiously optimistic, with more than half (57%) of businesses in the UK, US and India expecting their financial performance to improve this year. The concept of Organizational Resilience refers to an organization’s ability to anticipate, prepare for, and adapt to both incremental change and sudden disruptions in order to survive and thrive - capabilities that have been put to the test in the past year. As a whole, perceived Organizational Resilience across organizations globally rose in 2020, with a third of firms (33%) fully confident in the resilience of their organizations - five per cent more than in 2019. Encouragingly, many of the organizations interviewed felt that the measures they had in place prior to the pandemic were successful and helped them survive, stabilize and begin to rebuild, boosting their confidence for the future. While 2020 was a difficult year for most, many organizations emerged more confident from the test of the pandemic. Within the study, there is a clear association between those reporting a stronger financial performance and those with stronger perceptions of their own Organizational Resilience. Business leaders in India, the US and the UK are looking ahead with relative optimism, with future confidence in their organizations either doubling or trebling, despite nearly half of organizations reporting worse year-on-year financial results in 2020. India’s perceived Organizational Resilience fell slightly from 8.3 to 7.9 in 2020 because of businesses’ inability to adapt to change and the sudden disruption caused by the pandemic. Nearly half of the respondents (46%), reported worse business performance in 2020 compared to 2019. However, 64% of leaders are optimistic of a better performing year in 2021, with just 9% expecting a worse one. The environment continues to be a priority within ESG (Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance) with more than 50% of the organizations focusing on it as a part of their corporate responsibility. Japan had the largest proportion of organizations reporting a worse year in 2020, and is forecasting the weakest recovery with only 38% expecting a better year in 2021. In contrast, US firms were the least likely to report a reversal of fortunes in 2020, and, alongside India, are the most likely to forecast growth with 64% expecting a stronger 2021. The report identifies that the Aerospace industry is least confident of its Organizational Resilience following the upheavals of 2020; just 43% expect an improvement in 2021 in contrast to 67% of business leaders in the Built Environment, 61% in Healthcare, 57% in Food and 56% in Automotive. Despite the upheaval caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Diversity and Sustainability continue to remain high on the agendas of organizations worldwide. The report found that - rather than shifting down the priority list due to the emergence of matters that were perceived to be more urgent - looking after the wellbeing of employees, customers and communities was vital for rebuilding Organizational Resilience.