The World Economic Forum (WEF), in collaboration with McKinsey & Company, released Resilience Pulse Check: Harnessing Collaboration to Navigate a Volatile World (January 2025). The report emerges from the work of the Resilience Consortium and is based on a survey of more than 250 leaders from the private sector, assessing companies’ resilience preparedness and gaps in readiness.
Human Level’s Take:
On the heels of the World Economic Forum in Davos and the publication of the annual WEF Global Risks Report (read Human Level’s summary of the report here), company resilience to global challenges is rising to the top of the conversation.
WEF and McKinsey find that many companies are not prepared to take on the complex and interconnected challenges facing the world today, such as geopolitical tension and armed conflict, social and human rights risks, climate and environmental impacts, technological disruption and beyond. What’s more, few companies are taking a long-term approach to tackling these issues, with most companies focusing only on immediate risks and changes.
Companies are especially overlooking long-term resilience to societal and environmental risks, despite these issues sitting among top risks identified by leaders over the long term.
The report suggests that building capacity for forward-thinking scenario planning and increasing diverse perspectives in company decision-making is a key approach. This should be fostered at every level of the business, from boards to executives to functional teams and individuals. It also highlights the important role for stakeholders outside the company, including the public sector and international organisations, to foster collective action on complex challenges.
From our view, the report’s findings echo key considerations for companies digging deeper on complex human rights and environmental challenges — and present opportunities to address business resilience and risks to people and planet at the same time. For one, embedding knowledge of human rights and environmental topics throughout the business, starting with leadership, can build capacity to monitor and address risks holistically. In addition, gathering perspectives from key stakeholders — including rights holders — can be an essential way to learn about the nuances of macro-level challenges on the ground. And, collective action with different partners is essential to tackle cumulative and systemic issues.
Some key takeaways:
Resilience is taking on a growing urgency: Organisations are facing increasingly complex risks driven by geopolitical tensions, societal instability, climate change and technological vulnerabilities. The top 10 short-term risks for 2025, as identified in the Global Risks Report, are: geopolitical concerns (armed conflict, geoeconomic confrontation); societal issues (polarisation, economic opportunity, human rights); environmental risks (extreme weather, Earth system changes); and technological threats (misinformation and disinformation). Companies are struggling to prepare for rising threats and uncertainties in a volatile environment. As risks compound, leaders are starting to focus on adapting to macroeconomic and geopolitical dynamics, and are investing more in proactive future preparedness ("offence moves") to build resilience. Despite growing awareness of resilience, 84% of companies report feeling unprepared for current and future disruptions. In practice, many organisations prioritise short-term defensive measures (e.g., financial and digital strategies) over long-term resilience planning, leaving critical gaps in foresight and disruption readiness.
Long-term strategic thinking is needed: To meet the increasing complexity of global challenges, organisations must integrate resilience into long-term strategic planning. However, only 13% of companies currently include resilience KPIs comprehensively in their strategies. Another 55% of companies partially integrate resilience KPIs, and nearly 20% don't integrate them at all, treating it as a secondary concern. The report offers a private sector resilience framework to help companies think long-term. It covers six dimensions of resilience addressing distinct aspects of business stability, adaptability and alignment alongside external and internal pressures: financial resilience, operational resilience, market position and demand, societal alignment and purpose, digital and technological resilience, and organisational resilience. The framework layers on four capabilities that will allow companies to act effectively within each dimension: crisis response, strategic reorientation, foresight and preparation. The survey indicates that societal alignment and purpose is the most overlooked dimension and only 15% of companies feel well-prepared in this area. In addition, environmental risks seem to be a weak spot for organisations. Yet the Global Risks Report found that seven of the top 10 risks for the future are in the societal and environmental categories—suggesting that more long-term attention is needed from companies here. Companies can start to bridge gaps through three approaches: granularity, enabling organisations to break down complex issues into smaller pieces; stage-gate processes, which facilitate periodic evaluations of risk at key decision points; and adaptability, ensuring that companies are able to pivot with agility.
A need for leadership and collaboration: The report points out that building resilience requires unified leadership across CEOs, boards and policy-makers, with a focus on diverse perspectives, faster decision-making and fostering trust and autonomy within teams. In addition, addressing resilience challenges effectively requires collective action to mobilise resources, leverage expertise and drive innovation at scale. The public sector and international organisations can help companies to bridge gaps in their long-term resilience. Collaborative initiatives could focus on a few core themes. First, access to capital: leveraging public funding to secure private investment. Second, macroeconomic stability: creating a positive operating environment through policy, long-term investments and fiscal health. Third, sustainable investments: incentivising sustainable practices and behaviours to foster green growth and the energy transition. Fourth, workforce preparedness: helping workers to upskill or reskill to meet tech and workplace changes.
