Organizations Face Increased Complexity in Building Infrastructure Resilience

Guidehouse, a leading global provider of consulting services to public sector and commercial clients, today released a new report detailing the ways strategic investment can build infrastructure resilience and maintain physical, social, and economic viability.

Whether caused by natural disasters, worldwide pandemics, regional conflicts, physical or cyber-related attacks, the interrelated nature of infrastructure failures can escalate in the physical, societal, and cyber arenas simultaneously. The report, Future-Proofed: Protecting Infrastructure in Uncertain Times, explores the key infrastructure resilience challenges that organizations face, the need to rethink old models in favor of a more holistic and integrated approach, and how best to create a strategy that addresses resilience across every operational level.

Corporations facing challenges as decarbonization, infrastructure modernization, digital transformation, technology innovation, rapidly evolving markets, and more sophisticated cyber capabilities must balance both the opportunities to evolve their business with risks present from increased potential vulnerabilities. Combined, they drastically increase the possible threat vectors.

“Infrastructure resilience is an ongoing journey, not a static end state. Leaders need to evaluate their risk tolerance in planning, monitoring, and adapting their resilience strategies,” said Hector Artze, partner at Guidehouse. “Resilience is no longer a niche topic for business continuity specialists but at the top of leaders’ action lists - and the time to act is now.”

As noted in the report, infrastructure resilience should encompass a strategy that can account for the increasing variety of potential disruptions. Weathering these disruptions successfully will lead to more reliable and equitable access to goods and services, continuous operability, greater durability of service and supply chains, and a higher degree of adaptability in response to unpredictable changes. More robust resilience strategies can also aid rapid emergency response capabilities.

Resilience is a new corporate priority that must be embraced and integrated within an organization’s operational and cultural DNA, according to the report. Guidehouse suggests that entities that are successful at building infrastructure resilience need seven basic building blocks: flexibility, commitment, innovation, preparedness, resourcefulness, teamwork, and connectedness.

“It’s important to build resilience strategy into all of the systems, processes, and incentives that shape an organization’s day-to-day operations,” said Karen Wilson, partner at Guidehouse. “The resilience journey is not a straight path, but by investing in resilience planning now, embedding risk and resilience thinking into the organization, and working with partners with the expertise to apply risk-based approaches, it’s possible to take those steps towards a robust, resilient future.”

“Seamless collaboration among parties across interrelated infrastructure, closer alignment on priorities, and investments between public and private sectors will aid in keeping entire systems resilient as society faces down the myriad of challenges the 21^st century presents,” added Jan Vrins, partner and Energy, Sustainability, & Infrastructure segment leader at Guidehouse.

For more information, including case studies from organizations both public and private that have been successful at building infrastructure resilience, download Future-Proofed: Protecting Infrastructure in Uncertain Times.

About Guidehouse

Guidehouse is a leading global provider of consulting services to the public sector and commercial markets, with broad capabilities in management, technology, and risk consulting. By combining our public and private sector expertise, we help clients address their most complex challenges and navigate significant regulatory pressures focusing on transformational change, business resiliency, and technology-driven innovation. Across a range of advisory, consulting, outsourcing, and digital services, we create scalable, innovative solutions that help our clients outwit complexity and position them for future growth and success. The company has more than 13,000 professionals in over 50 locations globally. Guidehouse is a Veritas Capital portfolio company, led by seasoned professionals with proven and diverse expertise in traditional and emerging technologies, markets, and agenda-setting issues driving national and global economies. For more information, please visit www.guidehouse.com.

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Guidehouse

Cecile Fradkin cfradkin@scprgroup.com