Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform Ansarada has unveiled its 2024 Operational Resilience Outlook Report.
The report – based on a survey encompassing cross-industry professionals in roles spanning risk management, legal & compliance, data governance, leadership, and consulting – sheds light on the current state of preparedness and challenges faced by organisations.
The prevailing sentiment captured in the report is a shift in philosophy among companies, acknowledging the inevitability of disruptions. PwC’s 2023 Global Crisis and Resilience Survey, referenced in the report, underscored this perspective, revealing that 91% of organisations experienced at least one disruption in the last two years, excluding the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, Ansarada’s 2024 Operational Resilience Outlook Report exposes a landscape marked by varying levels of preparedness, potential contradictions, and a call for more comprehensive frameworks.
Rachel Riley, co-founder and head of GRC at Ansarada, commented on the concerning global trends impacting businesses, including ongoing pandemic implications, market uncertainty, economic volatility, supply chain struggles, talent shortages, cybersecurity, geopolitical, and climate risks.
“It’s no longer good enough to have a disaster recovery plan, ISO accreditation, and yearly audits. Today, those checks are the absolute minimum baseline. Compliance standards do not consider the specifics, such as the organisation’s business model, strategy, and value proposition. Being merely compliance-driven does not guarantee an increase in resilience, nor does it enable the build of governance processes that are fit for purpose,” she said.
The report found that only half of the respondents have a common understanding or definition of operational resilience within their organisations. Despite this, a majority rated their current operational resilience maturity as “emerging,” revealing a potential gap between understanding and implementation.
Concerns about the lack of centralised oversight for operational resilience were raised, with the report indicating that responsibility is divided among teams across organisations. This decentralised approach could hinder the efficiency and consistency of resilience efforts.
Addressing key challenges in maintaining operational resilience, the report revealed that a “lack of resources and budget constraints” was the top concern for 57.7% of respondents. “Inadequate communication and coordination between departments” and “competing priorities on other regulatory frameworks” were also high on the list of challenges.
The report highlighted cybersecurity and data breaches as the primary operational risks faced by 73.1% of respondents, followed by regulatory changes and compliance failures (57.7%) and third-party or supply chain disruptions (53.8%).
Looking ahead, respondents expect cybersecurity and data breaches to continue to pose the most significant operational risk over the next five years.
