How to Strengthen Business Resilience in your Company

For a business to succeed in both the short- and long-term, you must strengthen the company’s business resilience. as outlined in this article

Strategic Implementation of Business Resilience

Resilient companies respond quickly to difficult times and global challenges such as the COVID-19 crisis. They ensure business continuity and even develop strategies to emerge from the crisis stronger and more resilient, giving them a competitive advantage and securing the long-term future of the business.

Risk Identification and Risk Assessment

Organisations seeking to build resilience first address potential risk factors. Individual risk factors sometimes lead to a wave of damage that affects an organisation in many ways. Identifying and assessing exposures is necessary to minimise the likelihood of crises and limit damage as part of risk management.

Data is used to identify and monitor potential crises. On this basis, successful companies derive opportunities and risks and develop strategic approaches to minimise risks. Possible risks that could threaten a company's business include:

• Market risks: changing customer needs, demographic change, new trends
• Financial risks: currency or interest rate changes, fluctuations in commodity prices, energy prices and stock prices
• Operational risks: IT failures and disruptions, human error, employee illness, work accidents, process errors, failure of partners or suppliers
• Strategic risks: use of new technologies, entry into new markets, uncertain company succession
• Business risks: bad decisions, negative press, fraud, manufacturing defects 
• Environmental risks: bad decisions, negative press, fraud, manufacturing defects

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How can Resilience be Strengthened in Different Areas of Companies?

Strategic measures to implement business resilience are used in different areas of an organisation. These strategies help to adapt quickly to economic or political changes, respond flexibly to future challenges and strengthen resilience holistically.

Business resilience can be implemented in the following areas:

1. Technological Solutions

Investing in new technologies and digital innovation pays dividends in keeping a business agile and responsive in times of crisis. Organisations that invest in high-quality data are better prepared to deliver projects safely, on time and on budget. They are also able to develop an effective disaster recovery plan to prevent downtime and ensure data backup and recovery in the event of an emergency. For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, companies with the necessary technology were able to continue working from home and maintain critical business functions. At the same time, it is important to make the systems more resilient and to ensure the necessary security to ward off cyber-attacks, for example.

The disaster recovery plan contains methods for dealing with IT disruptions of computers, networks, servers and mobile devices. These plans were used, for example, during the Corona pandemic and enabled these companies to quickly move to the home office.

2. Financial Stability

It is not only short-term returns that are relevant, but above all monitoring long-term financial risks. The goal is to increase the sustainable ability to pay debt service. Therefore, it is important to know the exact financial situation of a customer and whether they are likely to pay on time.

D&B Finance Analytics helps companies identify financial risks, increase operational efficiency and reduce costs. Information on millions of companies can be found in Dun & Bradstreet's database. The web-based solution D&B Finance Analytics allows users to view key financial figures of business partners worldwide.

3. Supply Chain Resilience

Another effective measure is to develop supply chain resilience. This is the ability to identify and resolve problems in the supply chain at an early stage, thus increasing the resilience of the supply chain. Interruptions can potentially have a significant impact on business processes.

D&B Risk Analytics, an AI-powered solution for supply and compliance teams, makes supply chain risks transparent. Connected to the Dun & Bradstreet Data Cloud, D&B Risk Analytics enables supply chain managers to audit suppliers, actively monitor risks, significantly simplify reporting processes and increase operational efficiency. Dun & Bradstreet enables supplier auditing using sanctions and watch lists as well as negative media coverage. In addition, supply chains can be made more efficient by having supply chain managers analyse environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks in suppliers.

7. Competitive and Customer Resilience

Economically, it makes sense to get constant feedback from customers as well as other stakeholders and to take their wishes into account in product development. This can be done, for example, through customer experience programmes. Companies should be open to change, listen actively and take responsibility for their actions. This also makes their reputation more resilient.

While keeping an eye on potential competitorsit is important to strengthen one's own position in the market and to decide which core competencies will gain in importance in the future. In the area of marketing and sales, companies use Dun & Bradstreet's sales intelligence platform  D&B Hoovers to identify potential customers and build a resilient sales pipeline. With the help of the world's largest company database, prospects can be identified and converted into customers more quickly. They identify stakeholder needs and adapt marketing strategies accordingly.

5. Organisational Resilience

Organisational resilience includes employee recruitment, satisfaction, and retention. Resilient organisations promote diversity, inclusion, an open organisational culture of continuous learning, and the retention of talent. This enables them to deal more flexibly with change, such as employee turnover.

6. Employee Resilience

An organisation is only as resilient as its employees. it pays to invest in developing resilience in the workforce. An open, trust-based organisational culture is the foundation for strengthening employee satisfaction, as well as team collaboration and communication.

Continuous improvement and creative developments enable employees to expand their skills. This helps them to find solutions quickly in the event of a crisis. Training and testing ensure that the business resilience plan is constantly checked for errors and adapted to the current situation.

7. Leadership Resilience

Leaders of a resilient organisation think ahead, make quick decisions and deal with tomorrow’s challenges today. Developing business resilience is a clear goal for leaders. They should not shy away from necessary investment and innovation..

Strategies for Business Resilience

.To build business resilience in the various areas, leaders should consider the following points:

• Only strategies that are reflected in the processes and behaviour of employees are effective and focused.
• Companies should focus on product portfolio diversification. Resilience is achieved by constantly reviewing new business models and opportunities rather than focusing on one area.
• Businesses should actively monitor the systems that surround and influence them. Analysis of the environment helps to create an early warning system.
• Resilient organisations reduce complexity by simplifying outdated processes and breaking down bureaucratic barriers.
• Organisations should build resilience by investing in resilient people and an open culture.
• Established resilience strategies need to be regularly reviewed, tested, and adapted to changes within the organisation.

Many companies lack the time and resources to thoroughly analyse changes in their environment and take effective action. Dun & Bradstreet provides data and analysis on customers, suppliers, business partners, and competitors. This enables companies to successfully strengthen their business resilience

For a comprehensive insight into how other mid-market companies are approaching business resilience, download our free report here.