Tag: business resilience

A closer look at businesses who managed to pivot, highlighting the true resilience of South Africa’s SMEs. It has been more than a year since South Africa’s nationwide lockdown was implemented in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic.

The normalisation of remote working and increased business adoption of cloud technologies have significantly increased the cyberattack surface putting every company at risk of compromise. With more than 10% of internet user computers worldwide experiencing at least one malware-class attack last year and Kaspersky solutions blocking over 665 million attacks launched from online resources in various countries, cybersecurity skills are now more in demand than ever.

As the health and humanitarian impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic evolve, so do the business and economic challenges. Organisations looking to balance their immediate needs with longer-term opportunities will see the trade-offs play out across three waves of impact – the Now, the Next, and the Never Normal.

If businesses have learned one thing during the pandemic it is that resilience, rather than being a tactic to respond to crisis, is a discipline cultivated over time. Today, to not have a digital strategy is to not have a strategy. To build resilience at work, organisations need to start thinking about virtual and remote models, provision of tools that enable collaboration from anywhere, and strategies to look after their peoples’ mental health and wellbeing.

Without rapid immunisation, many experts believe that South Africa will experience a third wave of COVID-19 by the coming autumn or winter. Although there is no clear-cut definition of what could constitute this surge it will become evident as we start to observe a continuous rise in new cases. 

The lockdown has highlighted the importance of cybersecurity as an integrated business process especially given the normalisation of remote working. While the focus has been on safeguarding employee devices, email security has fallen by the wayside.

2020 started off with significant economic and geopolitical uncertainties, and then the pandemic upended everything, for everyone. Many unknowns remain, not least as to the true extent of the long-term economic damage, and as to who will be the winners and losers when the world properly emerges from lockdown.

2020 has seen more people speaking of 'resilience' than ever before. While some organisations are well underway on their resilience journeys, others still ponder what resilience really means and how to start building it. Amidst global economic pressures, many organisations do not have the funds, resources and time available to develop and implement comprehensive programmes to enhance resilience.

Entrepreneurial businesses both small and medium have been particularly hit hard in these challenging times, and many are now facing an existential threat. However, there are ways to rethink their business models and adapt to a world which is unlikely to return to its old habits. 

Business resilience remains one of the most important and relevant ways for organisations to bypass legacy challenges and to explore new opportunities. The recent months have likely been the biggest challenge for all organisations across the continent.