The report explores what it means to build the capacity and system to manage risk and argues that this is a more valuable ambition than seeking certainty.
After attending the Nuffield conference in 2017, I was hooked and knew I wanted to undertake a Nuffield one day. It was not until I had left my job as a trader at ADM and returned to Devon that I realised now was the right time. Succession and shifts in the operating environment had led me to ask the question: how do we build the ability to anticipate, adapt, and bounce back to manage strategic business risk?
To answer this question, the report does not look for a single solution. Instead, it explores what it means to build the capacity and system to manage risk and argues that this is a more valuable ambition than seeking certainty. The framework adopted is drawn from the Cranfield Business School: business resilience through the lens of building the ability to anticipate, adapt, and bounce back. Across ten countries and countless conversations, I sought to understand what this looked like in practice and whether it could lay the foundation not just for bouncing back but, ultimately, for bouncing forward.