Why Operational Resilience Is Under the Spotlight

Operational resilience regulations aim to protect customers and markets from disruption. However, many firms still approach resilience as a compliance exercise rather than a strategic capability.

True resilience focuses on maintaining critical services—even during severe stress.

Shifting the Focus to Important Business Services

Resilience starts by identifying important business services from a customer perspective:

• Which services matter most to customers?
• What level of disruption causes harm?
• How quickly must services be restored?

This approach often challenges internal assumptions and exposes hidden risks.

Mapping Dependencies End to End

Service delivery relies on interconnected resources:

• People: specialist skills and decision-makers
• Technology: applications, infrastructure, and data
• Third parties: vendors, cloud providers, and outsourcers

Mapping these dependencies reveals concentration risk and single points of failure.

Scenario Testing That Drives Insight

Effective scenario testing goes beyond checklists. Severe-but-plausible scenarios should test:

• Concurrent failures
• Third-party outages
• Data integrity loss
• Extended recovery periods

The value lies in identifying weaknesses before real disruption occurs.

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