How to Build Business Resilience During Uncertainty

"Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth." — Mike Tyson In complex business management, the unexpected is inevitable. Challenges will arise when navigating a major transition, market shift, or critical carveout. While you can’t predict every issue, you can prepare for them with strategic contingency planning. Contingency planning is more than just a safety net; it’s essential for mitigating risks and ensuring resilience. The process begins with identifying critical processes—those functions that must continue regardless of circumstances. This includes operations like payroll, IT systems, and customer service. Next, assemble a planning team with diverse expertise from finance, operations, HR, and IT to ensure a comprehensive approach to risk management. Assess your business's most significant risks and develop targeted strategies to address them. This might involve creating backup systems, cross-training employees, securing alternative suppliers, or establishing clear communication protocols for crises. Once your plans are in place, you can rigorously test them through simulations and drills to identify weaknesses. Update and review your contingency plans regularly to keep them relevant. Adjust your strategies to reflect new risks or priorities. In high-stakes situations like corporate carveouts, where continuity is crucial, robust contingency plans are vital. Ensuring that critical operations are covered gives you peace of mind and prepares you to face the unexpected confidently. No plan can account for every scenario, but by focusing on what can be controlled and preparing for likely risks, you position your organization to handle surprises with agility. So, what events would cause you the most concern? How prepared is your business to navigate them? Solid contingency planning will mitigate risks and build a more resilient organization. #RiskManagement #BusinessStrategy #Leadership #ContingencyPlanning #CrisisManagement #Execution

🚀 The Evolving Role of Tech Leaders: From Protectors of Technology to Guardians of Business Resiliency 🚀 Cybersecurity alone isn’t enough. Today’s tech leaders must protect the entire enterprise—from revenue and continuity to digital trust—to counter today’s rising risks. With AI, interconnected systems, and legacy tech in play, securing just the IT infrastructure won’t cut it. The stakes are high: $10.5 trillion in potential global cybercrime costs by 2025, and $400 billion in annual downtime losses for top companies. A lack of holistic protection leaves companies exposed to fines, reputational damage, and lost customer trust. Protecting the whole business isn’t just smart—it’s essential. Strategies for Building Business Resilience 🔍 Prioritize Critical Assets Not all assets are created equal. Focus on the 30% of assets that drive 70% of business impact. By securing the core, tech leaders can dramatically reduce risk across the enterprise. 🛠️ Shift Security Left Embed cybersecurity early in the development process to reduce risks down the line. Adopt “policy-as-code” practices to ensure security is a foundational part of every product or service, resulting in fewer vulnerabilities and a more resilient product lifecycle. 🔐 Build Digital Trust Digital trust goes beyond compliance. Be transparent with customers and address third-party risks proactively. Today, only 30% of companies follow best practices for cybersecurity and digital trust. Companies that prioritize this build both customer confidence and regulatory resilience. 🌐 Take an End-to-End View of Resilience Don’t just look at technology—analyze the entire business function. Partnering with other business units can help tech teams identify weak points across processes, people, and systems, rather than focusing solely on the technology stack. ⚙️ Address Technical Debt Tech debt is the “silent killer” of modernization. Right now, 20-40% of IT budgets go toward servicing tech debt instead of innovation. Proactively tackling this debt enables modernization without paying the hidden tax of past issues. 🧩 Test and Scenario Plan for Continuity Regularly simulate incidents with key stakeholders and vendors. This ensures that 50-60% of downtime, which is often due to process issues rather than technical failures, can be mitigated before it impacts the business. Planning isn’t just preventative—it’s protective. In a world of growing digital complexity, evolving from tech protector to business guardian is essential. Is your team ready to embrace resilience beyond cybersecurity? #CyberSecurity #BusinessResilience #DigitalTrust #EnterpriseTech #TechLeadership #AI #RiskManagement #DigitalTransformation

Leading in uncertain times is a hot topic today in business as we face a compounding set of unknowns: tariffs, inflation, volatility in our financial markets, the ongoing climate crisis, supply chain disruptions, global conflicts, and the advent of AI to name just a few. Whether you are an operator, investor or board member, I wanted to share a few of my approaches to dealing with the reality we are facing, and I would love your thoughts in response: 1. First, for me, is to remain consistent and committed to our company values. At PSP Partners, we express ours as IDEALS--Integrity, Diversity, Excellence, Alignment, Leadership and Service. Your teams want to know that during uncertainty you will make hard decisions that are grounded in your core values. 2. Radical honesty is critical. Bringing your leadership team to a point of embracing the reality of the landscape that your organization is facing is an essential foundation to then figuring out the vulnerabilities. 3. Ensuring that your balance sheet is strong to weather the difficult periods as well as to have the opportunity to play offense is more essential than ever. 4. Regular scenario planning and pressure testing various outcomes is essential to manage and mitigate risk; it is all the more important right now. This is also known as “red teaming” and it’s a critical thing to do. 5. Being curious about your blind spots and institutional biases will help create an environment where you and your team can safely challenge assumptions. 6. Overcommunicating with your management team and to your company as a whole have never been more needed. Remember it takes about 7 times for a message to break through. Don’t be afraid to repeat it over and over. 7. Embracing the idea that challenges also create unique and unexpected opportunities is so important. During uncertainty the best companies create extraordinary opportunity and returns for the long term. 8. A strong, innovative and resilient culture is always foundational and especially essential to navigating the current challenges. The CEO and your leadership team have to set the example.