Business Model &
Workforce Transformation

Efficiency and effectiveness:
Driving change across the business cycle

Operational &
Financial Resilience

Creative destruction:
Building resilience from the balance sheet up

Digital Trust
& Ecosystems

A new world of threats:
Managing cybersecurity risk in changing times

Escalation Planning
& Response

The Anatomy of a Crisis:
The right approach to crisis preparedness is a holistic one

Remediation &
Dispute Resolution

Investigations and disputes in a post-COVID world:
When will the storm hit?

Government &
Stakeholder Relations

Strength in leadership:
The new rules of stakeholder engagement

Economic Impact
& Sustainability

Resilience and Sustainability:
Two sides of the same coin?

Real-Time Data
Analytics

Data is the lifeblood of resilient businesses

Enterprise agility is the key to navigating disruption and building resilience, and it depends on the organisation’s ability to use data.

Today’s most resilient organisations have mastered the proactive use of data science to identify future risks, manage reputation and empower the workforce to perform better. They invest in data competency and embed AI into core processes across major functions to inform decision-making and shape customer experience. To these organisations, intangible, rather than physical, assets form the bedrock of their business model and operations.

More than

1 in 4

business leaders surveyed had lost customer information through cybersecurity incidents

Companies receive

the media attention in the month following a data breach

As market leaders and agile start-ups drive their growth by leveraging analytics, other organisations strive to catch up. In early 2020, 97% of business leaders were under pressure to integrate innovative technology into their business model, and more business leaders were involved in data and security at their firms (67%) than in marketing (62%) or finance (61%).

As our Q4 2020 FTI resilience data shows, the pandemic has been a catalyst for translating this pressure into action: Over 80% of G20 businesses have accelerated their digitisation since the crisis began. This drive has been enormously challenging for businesses, with over 60% saying that they have been unable to effectively ramp up from a digital perspective. The transition to a post-pandemic world therefore presents opportunities for firms which can leverage their data to drive innovation.

Data-driven businesses will also be well equipped to face future crisis scenarios. In an unstable, constantly changing business landscape, the ability to analyse threats in real time is the hallmark of resilient firms – over 90% of G20 businesses have felt forced to implement such measures as a direct result of the pandemic.

LEARNING TO PUT DATA TO WORK EFFECTIVELY AND SAFELY

The competitive drive to collaborate in new digital ecosystems and supply chains makes the adoption of “digital first” business models a core enabler of resilience.

It is concerning, however, that almost 1 in 3 G20 companies have lost customer data or significant intellectual property as a result of cyber attacks since the start of the pandemic – already a greater figure than the entirety of 2019. Safeguarding data is critical to building resilience across business processes and to protect trust. Regulatory action goes some way to ensure industry-wide protection, but this brings its own risk for firms: over 80% of firms either have been investigated on data privacy, or expect to be in the next 12 months.

In addition, companies are under pressure to ensure that data and analytics are used in a way that not only complies with evolving legislation and regulation, but is also regarded as responsible and ethical by stakeholders – including customers and the general public, who will judge “fairness” more rapidly and potentially harshly than regulators and governments. To mitigate risk, a comprehensive view of the business and its environment is required.

Democratise data access. Maximising agility depends on pervasive use of real-time data to drive decision-making. This in turn requires actionable data to be available to front-line workers and support functions, not just to users of executive dashboards.

Convert data into understanding. Data analytics can convert raw data into signals that alert the business to new behaviours or patterns, identify risks such as unprotected personal data, and highlight problems and opportunities. With the help of AI, these signals can describe the past, predict likely outcomes, and prescribe appropriate courses of action. By consolidating disparate data sets and analysis methods into a single view, businesses can understand the bigger picture.

Use all relevant data sources. Looking beyond traditional financial data can transform a business’s understanding of its competitive environment and reputation. For example, clickstream data sheds light on the customer journey, and on barriers to completing a purchase. Social media conversations reveal customer and public perceptions, as well as evolving market needs and societal trends. Open Source websites provide a window to regulatory thinking and research. Employee chat exchanges can be monitored to help the business guard against misconduct.

Introduce effective governance. Data breaches and misuse cause untold reputational damage. Information governance is the way to manage such risks. Personal or high-value data can be protected and secured, with measures like data tagging and pseudonymisation enabling safe data exploitation. Data that no longer has value to the business can be identified and removed.

of companies use AI and analytics to detect threats and trends

of firms are under pressure to integrate innovative technology in their business model

of senior business leaders are involved in Data & Security at their firms

PROTECT

To mitigate risk, a comprehensive view of the business and its environment is required. This view is achieved initially by mapping all the corporate and external data needed and implementing mechanisms to access and analyse it securely. AI can help to evolve the view over time and enable decision-making.

ADAPT

Real-time analytics can help businesses stay relevant in an unstable, unpredictable world, adapting proactively to change and navigating its consequences flexibly. “Digital first” strategies will be key to cost control as well as adaptability; these too rely on a foundation of real-time analytics.

COMPETE

The post-pandemic world will present opportunities as well as threats. Businesses whose decisions are based on accurate, timely data will be able to capitalise on these opportunities and fight off competition, including from new entrants whose businesses will be based on analytics from day one.