There are business buzzwords, and then there are important business concepts you cannot afford to ignore. Resilience is one of the latter.

Resilience emanates from effective risk management. If you don’t have a viable and ongoing risk management process, start there.

In risk management, the first steps are always to identify the majority of risks, assign each probability and severity, and through that scoring list them in order from highest to lowest. That guides the priorities of risk management.

Resilience is not about being reactive, but rather about executing plans already in place to mitigate damage and get back on your feet quickly and effectively.

For example, succession planning will make an organization more resilient; replacement planning does not. The distinction? Succession planning is a process to reduce or eliminate significant downside of a key person leaving. Replacement planning means once an employee leaves you tell HR to find someone to take their place.

The former involves effective planning to minimize negative impact in advance of a risk occurring; the latter is a reaction to something that has occurred. The former is evidence of a more resilient organization, the latter of a reactive organization.

Resilience is not a magic elixir. It is easy to observe before it is needed. It is part of running a healthy and enduring business.

For you former Boy or Girl Scouts, it is simply: Be Prepared.

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