Businesses are operating in a fundamentally different risk environment from the one for which many of today’s strategies and risk-management systems were designed. Climate extremes, geopolitical tensions, technological disruption, supply-chain vulnerabilities, biodiversity loss and social instability increasingly interact and cascade across sectors and geographies. 

Against this backdrop, the roundtable organized by Stockholm Resilience Center, Wallenberg Investments and Investor will bring together business leaders, investors, researchers and policymakers to explore one central question:

How can businesses build the capacity not only to withstand disruption, but to adapt, transform and continue creating value in an increasingly uncertain world?

Drawing on insights from Resilience Science, the discussion will explore what resilience means for business strategy, investment and governance. Resilience science suggests that efficiency, optimisation and risk avoidance alone are not enough. Navigating uncertainty requires the capacity to cope with immediate shocks, adapt to changing conditions and transform when existing structures or business models are no longer fit for purpose.

Importantly, no company is resilient in isolation. Businesses depend on supply chains, infrastructure, ecosystems, communities and public institutions. Building resilience therefore requires looking both within the organisation and at the wider systems on which long-term value creation depends.

The discussion

The roundtable will focus the following hypotheses: Resilience is not only about protecting the business from disruption. It is about building the capacity to cope, adapt and transform, while strengthening the systems on which long-term value creation depends.

To support the discussion, the roundtable will be structured around the following questions:

• What does the new interconnected risk landscape mean for business strategy, investment and governance?
• What capabilities enable my company/organization to cope, adapt and transform?
• How can companies strengthen resilience not only within their organisations, but across the value chains and systems on which they depend? For example necessary investments, partnerships and decisions
• The ambition is to move beyond identifying risks towards what businesses can do differently in practice.