Under the Recognize’s portfolio of companies, a niche product engineering firm found itself dealing with a serious risk to its business and its people as 2021 drew to a close. Some staff were based out of Ukraine, and the management team faced a series of adverse events. Since the business was growing at a rapid pace, it was easy to ignore the events and focus on core business. Understandably, many players in the technology services ecosystem within Ukraine were doing just that. However, the Recognize team in New York saw it differently and took the events and the risks to the business and its people very seriously from an early stage.

What follows is a series of lessons we learnt while leading the company’s resilience plan, working with the management and functional leaders, and putting in a robust plan that 

Believe that it will happen, and prepare for the worst-case scenario

Most business continuity plans are reasonably good, but they lack one aspect. They assume the worst case is unlikely to happen. An event with the most severe impact and a very low probability of occurrence is acknowledged but rarely respected and planned for. This leads to certain loose threads that become gaping holes when the most severe level of the peril materialises.

Of course, we hoped for the best but were prepared for the worst. We ensured that we played out all scenarios and pre-planned mitigants against risks for each one. This resulted in a solid resilience plan with less ambiguity, and no small detail was ignored

Listen more to people you disagree with

When we went through the planning exercise, there were many contrasting views. Some individuals dismissed the thought of any disruption at all. Some others who were worried about potential war-related disruptions had very specific thoughts on which perils would materialise while insisting that expansive or severe disruption was out of the picture.

Also Read- The economic consequences of the war

Engaging with a wide set of individuals can help in at least two ways. First, you will get to know the mindset of the teams on the ground and the real pulse of the company; second, you will get a broader perspective of underlying hurdles and issues that might otherwise go unnoticed in resilience planning. For example, when we went through scenario planning related to evacuating our employees and their families, we didn’t initially plan for an elderly individual with limited or no mobility or family pets.

The employees are the real decision-makers

Irrespective of how strong the resilience plan is, the mindset of individuals plays a big role. If the teams are not convinced, they will simply ignore the plan. You need buy-in from individuals to take the resilience plan from strategy to actual crisis-mode execution. Do not ignore individual mindsets and personal preferences. It’s important to stay connected, engage with the teams, and ensure that you win credibility with each of them.

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