The topic of resilience is an increasingly topical one, given the challenge that responding to the pandemic has been. I think its fair to say that few organizations had identified COVID-19, or even the possibility of a major pandemic, and had to find a way to respond quickly.
While management has been fighting the fire, boards have had to consider not only their role in this crisis, but how they can help their organization be prepared for future ones, both known and unknown (with a timely tribute to Donald Rumsfield).
McKinsey have shared a number of articles very recently on this topic.
In the first, three McKinsey partners shared their views of The role of boards in fostering resilience.
Here are some of their more interesting points, with my highlights:
- Broadly speaking, resilience refers to a company’s ability to weather a crisis well. That means being prepared to deal with an unforeseen event such as an accident or, more commonly now, a major global health or economic crisis. [Amended later to include foreseen events.]
- Companies aware of how various types of events would affect their economics are generally better prepared.
- During this crisis, share price changes of the companies on whose boards I sit have ranged from a 50 percent decline to an increase of 200 percent, and the biggest difference has…
