Resilience at the forefront

Global Crisis and Resilience Survey 2023

PwC’s Global Crisis and Resilience Survey 2023 delves into how organisations are directing their resources, efforts, and investments toward building resilience to thrive in a state of permacrisis. The data from global respondents demonstrates confidence and positivity and business leaders have recognised true resilience as a core competitive advantage.

Between September and November 2022, 1,812 decision-makers from 42 countries and various industries and business areas took part in the survey. In Australia, the data is based on a survey of 87 participants. This is PwC’s third study to analyse data on corporate crises and resilience.

In today’s rapidly changing environment marked by intensifying disruptions and uncertainty, having built in resilience is crucial to both survival and having a strategic advantage. The challenges, whether arising from the persisting COVID-19 pandemic, geopolitical unpredictabilities, climatic disruption, supply chain interference or cyber threats, are becoming more complex, recurrent and varied.

44%

of Australian respondents have challenges in maintaining and maturing their resilience program

2023 Global Crisis Resilience Survey

The current global business climate is characterised by a continuous cycle of change and disruptions, and there are no indications of this trend decelerating. Similar to other countries, Australian organisations have encountered their share of challenges. In our survey, 100% of organisations have reported experiencing some type of disruption within the last two years. Organisations are grappling with the ongoing environment of permacrisis, marked by unceasing disruptions, as they endeavour to initiate comprehensive business transformations in order to adapt and address each of these challenges.

Given the increasing interconnections between risks and the ecosystems it impacts, it is essential for organisations to consider enterprise resilience not only to manage disruptions but also to maintain stakeholder trust. Irrespective of the nature of disruption, more resilient organisations have the capability to adapt to changes swiftly, generate worth and unlock newopportunities. With a structured approach and framework that comprehensively considers factsimpacting the organisation, a balance between resilience and agility can be achieved.

54%

of Australian respondents consider resilience to be one of the most important corporate and strategic organisational priorities

2023 Global Crisis Resilience Survey

What were organisations in Australia concerned about for the past two years?

Employee retention and recruitment

Employee retention was ranked as the top most serious disruption with 39% of the Australian respondents reporting that they faced it in the past two years. Globally, only 30% of the respondents reported this as the most serious disruption.

Factors contributing to this include:

pandemic-related disruptions, including remote work, changing job preference and potential skill gap
changing skill requirements with emphasis on skills with high demand •
generational shifts i.e. younger generation entering workforce prioritises different aspects of job, such as work-life balance, professional development and company culture

Supply Chain

32% of the Australian respondents reported supply chain as one of the top three most serious disruptions. (global: 28%)

Factors contributing to this include:

global disruptions caused by the pandemic highlighted vulnerabilities in Australia’s reliance on international suppliers
geopolitical tensions and trade disputes which can disrupt the flow of goods and increase costs
growing demand for sustainable and environmentally friendly practices throughout the supply chain
rapid advancement of technology, such as automation, artificial intelligence and data analytics

Technology disruption and cyber attack

Technology disruption and cyber attack was ranked as one of the most serious disruptions with 26% (technology disruption) and 20% (cyber attack) of the Australian respondents reporting that they faced it in the past 2 years. Globally, nearly 23% of the respondents reported this as the most serious disruption.

Factors contributing to this include:

global disruptions caused by the pandemic highlighted vulnerabilities in Australia’s reliance on international suppliers
geopolitical tensions and trade disputes which can disrupt the flow of goods and increase costs
growing demand for sustainable and environmentally friendly practices throughout the supply chain
rapid advancement of technology, such as automation, artificial intelligence and data analytics

Four key takeaways for Australian organisations

Executive Sponsorship

Leading organisations have a visible senior leader responsible and accountable to evaluate overall resilience program performance, help identify gaps where the program doesn't align to their organisational objectives and defined critical operations.

Supply Chain

An organisation's enterprise resilience approach should consider third party providers and service providers in an organisation's supply chain.

Operational Resilience

Leading organisations are adopting an operational resilience approach and leveraging technology to enable a panoramic view of their operational risk and resilience landscape.

Integration

An integrated resilience program is essential – and if you are not developing a strategy to move in that direction, you are falling behind.

Operational resilience when faced with disruption

Australian organisations had the greatest overall impact on the operational aspects of their business when faced with serious disruption

41%

of the Australian respondents said that their most serious disruption had a high impact on operations (disrupting critical business processes or services).

Operational resilience is defined as the capacity and capability to predict, prevent, manage and respond to disruption to critical operations. Operational resilience focuses on building and consistently maintaining key elements of non-financial aspects of resilience, informed by a strategic view of what is most important to the organisation and its stakeholders.

_{Source: Global Crisis and Resilience Survey 2023 (Australia)}