Agility | The benefits of Business Resilience

Challenging Times Call for Resilience

New research by MHR International, the HR, payroll and finance experts, has highlighted the challenges facing mid-size UK and Ireland companies in today’s VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) world as they compete with the power of the multinationals and the agility of start-ups.

MHR surveyed over 500 senior leaders from businesses employing between 500 and 5000 people to discover how resilience is key to navigating change and challenges. These businesses face similar challenges – three quarters regard stakeholder expectations around growth as a major challenge, while over 70% are concerned about staying ahead of competitive start-ups.

Turbulent Times

Challenges come in different colours and shades. The early 1990s recession coincided with the threat of war after Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. The 2008 Global Financial Crisis (GFC) destroyed thousands of businesses and even brought some financial institutions to their knees. Running, steadily, through all of this was the take-up of new technologies – changing workplaces forever.

In 2020 and 2021 we experienced an unprecedented crisis. No one alive had ever been through a global pandemic of this scale before. Governments, society and businesses faced a challenge unlike any other – the situation further exacerbated by the cost-of-living crisis and war in Ukraine.