In response to changes in customer and employee behavior throughout the pandemic, many organizations have begun or accelerated a digital transformation. While useful for managing vulnerability, uncertainty, and complexity, digital transformation also increases the level of risk.

Crises can affect the entire enterprise, so solutions must reach every aspect of it; any modern enterprise, Wright says, must consider the gamut of external (or internal) risk. Predicting every potential risk is impossible, so organizations must learn how to respond to disruption quickly and resiliently.

However, because many organizations view risk from departmental silos, business leaders often can’t achieve holistic views of an adverse event’s impact on the organization, or what a proper response to it should be. COVID, for instance, sent employees home, quickly adding a technology challenge to a massive HR disruption. To mitigate organizational risk, Wright argues that leaders must take steps to break down silos. Resilience has to occur at the organizational level and incorporate people, processes, and technology.