D8. Resilience in Organizations

Example: resilience in organizations Let’s have a look at what happens when applying resilience as a central strategy for an organization. We can see the same pattern with organizations a we see in cities. For example, if a company, like most traditional companies do, focuses on maximizing profit and growth, it may succeed in doing so for a while. That is, until something unexpected happens which it did not prepare for (not unthinkable in our volatile economy), and it’ll be costly to survive the unexpected blow. The most common method that is used to try to evade this is trend analysis, a form of predicting the future through historic analysis. Based on these trends, the expected outcomes are used as a forecast to strengthen the company where it’s deemed to be weak. But, of course, reality doesn’t necessarily follow the trends, because trends cannot predict the future. Because complex systems can’t be predicted well, and can rapidly change states, this is a poor form of preparing for the future. Many companies can attest to this in the last few decade due to the economic crisis, and many can’t anymore because they’re now gone. If companies focus on resilience as a primary goal instead of growth, an entirely different strategy results. This strategy is based on how to ensure the company can use system dynamics to its advantage given any number of possible situations, by building its resilience to be healthy in the long run. This may include aspects such as having a healthy, diverse, and flexible labor force as opposed to pure efficiency or growth as a focus for ­ zation to quickly change its operations and be more resilient for rapid market shifts. Reducing its reliance on limited resources creates economic resilience, which can be achieved by for example switching to bio-based materials instead of fossil resources, taking control of the material cycle, or establishing an industrial symbiosis with supply and delivery partners. This can be done by, for example, focusing on maximizing the company’s value for society and embedding this value, so that the company becomes unmissable for society. For example, it may invest in better living environ­ ments, education, and closed loop resource flows rather than entering new markets or on saving labor costs. When a company becomes unmissable for society it has a healthier long term position, and a greater human capital base to carry it forward in rough times. This is something akin to the saying “If you focus on cost, quality goes down, but if you focus on quality, the costs go down.”.