Strategic Resilience

Resilience to market dynamics

Strategic Resilience Background

The topic of strategy and disruption are so common lately that continuous disruption is now considered a strategy. According to some think tanks, digital transformation is outdated. Apparently, we’ve moved on to digital reinvention. Regardless of your strategy for strategy, there is a common underlying reality - markets are changing at an accelerating rate and not keeping up can quickly become an existential crisis.

It’s rarer for companies to investigate unfamiliar disruptive forces in advance and to incorporate that research into strategy.

Amy Tan MIT Sloan Review March 10, 2020

The dynamic environment we operate in requires a new, broader approach to identifying disruptors and planning to deal with them - one that incorporates “weak signals” as a way of avoiding the narrow analysis trap companies often fall into. Having an explicit way to track and evaluate factors beyond the core business will keep your company not just ready fo the next disruption, but possibly the instigator of it.

Strategic Resilience Key Points

Ensure strategic planning takes a broad view of potential disruptors that includes “weak signals”
Incorporate customers, partners, and suppliers in strategic planning to identify new product ideas, operational efficiencies, and business models
Evaluate strategic planning effectiveness using metrics tied to execution outcomes
Establish emergency response plans as a part of strategic plans and include as part of operational testing
Create feedback mechanism for front-line employees to provide input on early indications

Strategic Resilience Resources

COVID-19 Action Guide - IBM Institute of Business Value
The 11 Sources of Disruption Every Company Must Monitor - MIT Sloan Review
The strength of “weak signals” - McKinsey
Disruption 2020: What it will take to innovate and compete over the next decade - Deloitte