How Boards and Executives Can Prepare for Disruption Beyond Their Control

“Sudden disruption is no longer a remote possibility—it is a leadership reality.”

From geopolitical shocks and trade disruptions to cyber events, government shutdowns, and infrastructure failures, organizations today face an alarmingly high risk of being disrupted at a moment’s notice. Many of the most consequential disruptions do not originate inside the organization at all. Instead, they emerge from failures in external systems—ports, power grids, financial networks, internet infrastructure, transportation systems, and regulatory regimes—that lie well beyond any single organization’s control.

In this thought leadership article, Mark Beasley, Alan T. Dickson Distinguished Professor at NC State and Director of the ERM Initiative, examines what this new reality means for boards and C-suite leaders—and how organizations can build the resilience needed to withstand and adapt when disruption strikes.

Why Planning for Organizational Resilience Must Evolve

Traditional risk management approaches often focus on risks an organization believes it can control. But today’s most destabilizing events frequently originate in the broader ecosystem. When governments impose restrictions, supply chains seize up, financial systems wobble, or critical infrastructure fails, even well-run organizations can find themselves suddenly immobilized.

Research consistently shows that many organizations remain underprepared for these types of system-level disruptions. Too often, leaders respond reactively—making decisions under pressure without having previously examined their external dependencies, single points of failure, or contingency options.

The image shown in this section links to a downloadable PDF thought piece that challenges leaders to rethink resilience as a strategic capability, not merely a crisis-response exercise. An accessible Word version of the thought piece is also available for download.

What Executives Will Gain from This Article

Strengthening Your Organization’s Resilience Muscle (PDF) provides boards and senior executives with a practical, systems-oriented lens for preparing for the unexpected. Key insights include:

• Why low-probability, high-impact events deserve greater leadership attention
• How dependence on government- and industry-controlled systems heightens organizational vulnerability
• The importance of shifting from organization-centric risk thinking to systems-level awareness
• Ten concrete actions leaders are taking to improve operational resilience, agility, and adaptability
• How resilience planning can help organizations not only survive disruption—but emerge stronger

Rather than offering abstract theory, the article outlines specific, actionable steps organizations are using to anticipate disruption, reduce exposure, and improve response capability.

Who Should Read This

This article is especially relevant for:

• Board members and board risk committees
• CEOs and C-suite executives
• Chief Risk Officers, CFOs, and Chief Audit Executives
• Strategy, resilience, and enterprise risk management leaders
• Executives operating in highly regulated, global, or infrastructure-dependent industries

Download the Full Article

The full article expands on these themes and provides a clear, executive-friendly roadmap for building resilience in an increasingly unpredictable world.

The full article expands on these themes and provides a clear, executive-friendly roadmap for building resilience in an increasingly unpredictable world.

About the Author

Mark S. Beasley, CPA, Ph.D., is the Alan T. Dickson Distinguished Professor of Accounting and Director of the ERM Initiative at NC State University. He specializes in the study of enterprise risk management, corporate governance, financial statement fraud, and the financial reporting process. He completed over seven years of service as a board member of the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO) and has served on other national-level task forces related to risk management issues. Currently, he is a member of the United Nation’s Internal Control Advisory Group. He consults with boards and senior executive teams on risk governance issues, is a frequent speaker at national and international levels, and has published over 100 articles, research monographs, books, and other thought-related publications. He earned his Ph.D. at Michigan State University.

For more tools and templates, visit our ERM Resource Center.