According to the report, 42 per cent of decision-makers currently believe that they will face disruptions to their enterprise in the near future due to natural disasters caused by climate change. Other unforeseeable events are also expected to create challenges, such as the energy crisis, pandemics, and global conflicts.

Businesses recognise that there is a need to move from reactive strategies toward long-term planning in the shift away from recovery-oriented resilience.

Future of Enterprise report

Companies are taking resilience planning seriously with 49 per cent of decision-makers saying that their company has a well-defined strategy to handle disruptive events. Among employees, almost eight times more say they are prepared than not.

That preparation is being driven by digitalisation and automation, as 90 per cent of the companies that have well-defined resilience strategies in place are investing heavily in these areas.

However, it is important to recognise the value of proactive rather than reactive resilience, something that may not be a part of many enterprises' strategies. In essence, more work needs to be done given the current climate.

Senior researcher Patrik Hedlund, Ericsson Consumer & IndustryLab said, “War. Energy crisis. Natural disasters. Pandemics. Our world has become increasingly complex and the time to adopt resilience strategies is now. It has never been more paramount for enterprises if they hope to remain competitive and sustainable in the long term."

"Although many companies have strategies in place already, this report highlights the apparent need for a shift from short-term, redundancy-based resilience to a long-term, efficiency-based strategy,” he added.

In fact, six out of 10 decision-makers believe that AI-based services and VR resilience training implemented following disruptive events are key in handling future disruptions, highlighting the need to look at past trends when building future resilience.

There is a clear need to broaden the scope of resilience in support of sustainability and a forward-thinking business model. According to the report’s findings, two key shifts in resilience strategy will be critical moving forward:

• A move from short-term redundancy-based resilience to a more environmentally sustainable, long-term, efficiency-based resilience. Nearly 8 out of 10 enterprises say they are still increasing redundancy in their supply chains today

• Recovery-oriented resilience needs to shift towards proactive business model innovation. Today, 80 per cent of decision-makers say this is a part of their resilience strategy, and close to 60 per cent of them plan to increase these efforts in the future

The report outlines the benefits of ICT-powered concepts that will ultimately help enterprises remain resilient and sustainable when faced with disruption. It also discusses the different paths enterprises can take to become more resilient organisations.