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BSI defines organisational resilience as ‘the ability of an organisation to anticipate, prepare for, respond and adapt to incremental change and sudden disruptions in order to survive and prosper’.
In today’s fast changing and globally connected marketplace, organisational resilience is the ultimate backdrop to any successful business. It extends way beyond risk management towards a more holistic view of business strength and long-term success. A resilient organisation is not one that simply survives, but one that will prosper and build for the long-term.
Developing organisational resilience requires the adoption of ‘excellence’ through continuous improvement and innovation, thereby increasing competence and capability across all aspects of an organisation. This allows leaders to make better decisions with confidence, defending against threats, and making the most of the opportunities as they present themselves.
The science behind organisational resilience is still emerging, particularly in differing contexts, and Project Five Consulting is at the cutting edge of its development for the UK construction sector. In 2019 our lead expert, Tim Whitehill, began a doctoral programme of research at Liverpool Business School where he is using design science research methodology to develop new solutions to operationalise organisational resilience for in UK construction sector firms, which are now coming through in our consultancy approaches.
In March 2018, in partnership with Constructing Excellence we released the report The Organisational Resilience of the UK Construction Industry which identified weaknesses in the makeup of firms in this sector. Most notably our report highlighted that UK construction firms are more vulnerable to the risk of failure compared with other sectors, resulting in a disproportionate number of insolvencies each year. Our report was based on data gathered in 2017 ahead of the high-profile collapse of Carillion in January 2018, further highlighting the importance of this agenda.
Following on from this, in 2019 we partnered with the National Federation of Builders to launch a CITB funded programme of support called BeResilient aimed at helping companies in the construction sector to implement working practices in accordance with the British Standards publication, BS 65000:2014 Guidance on Organizational Resilience.
