Latest News | Report Finds Increase in Biz Leaders Confidence in Organisation Resilience

New Delhi, Mar 15 (PTI) Despite the challenges of 2020, business leaders' confidence in the resilience of their organisations has risen, according to a report.

The British Standards Institute released their latest Organization Resilience Index report on Monday, which surveyed 500 senior leaders across the globe.

"The index found that leaders remain cautiously optimistic, with more than half (57 per cent of businesses in the UK, US and India expecting their financial performance to improve this year," a release stated.

The concept of Organizational Resilience refers to an organization's ability to anticipate, prepare for, and adapt to both incremental change and sudden disruptions in order to survive and thrive - capabilities that have been put to the test in the past year owing to challenges arising in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.

As a whole, perceived Organizational Resilience across organizations globally rose in 2020, with a third of firms (33 per cent) fully confident in the resilience of their organizations - 5 per cent more than in 2019, found the report.

Susan Taylor Martin, Chief Executive of BSI said, "It is encouraging to see cautious optimism about the future as business leaders focus on building back better and organizations clearly recognize the value of prioritizing the health, safety and wellbeing of employees, clients and communities".

However, whilst global recovery will be variable and take place at different rates around the world, the index found that financial security and confidence is not evenly spread globally.

According to the report, despite businesses in Japan and China reporting similar financial setbacks in 2020, only organizations in China expect a better year in 2021. Respondents suggested that this slower return to confidence in Japan is reflective of business culture rather than market conditions.

Besides, business leaders in India, the US and the UK are looking ahead with relative optimism, with future confidence in their organizations either doubling or trebling, despite nearly half of organizations reporting worse year-on-year financial results in 2020.

India's perceived Organizational Resilience fell slightly from 8.3 to 7.9 in 2020 because of businesses' inability to adapt to change and the sudden disruption caused by the pandemic.

Nearly half of the respondents (46 per cent), reported worse business performance in 2020 compared to 2019.

However, 64 per cent of leaders are optimistic of a better performing year in 2021, with just 9 per cent expecting a worse one.

The environment continues to be a priority within ESG (Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance) with more than 50 per cent of the organizations focusing on it as a part of their corporate responsibility.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)