Importance of resilience and learnings from COVID-19

The purpose of this study is to gain a deeper understanding of the concept of resilience. Furthermore, the research seeks to find how Finnish companies have presented resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic and how they have achieved it. Today’s business world is a volatile environment, where disruptions are most likely to happen in the future even more often than before. Therefore, it is crucial to seek understanding of how companies can better protect themselves and their operations from such disruptive events. This research is conducted my using explorative and qualitative methods, and moreover by utilizing secondary and primary data. A comprehensive literature review was conducted, to identify gaps in the existing knowledge and to lay the groundwork for the interviews conducted for this study. Interviews were conducted with company representatives who were able to shed a light on their company’s resilience. The findings show that resilience is created by the activities, characteristics and capabilities of companies. Especially during the ongoing pandemic, the respondents highlighted strong leadership, which leads to employee commitment, common purpose and effective communication. Moreover, efficient virtual solutions and IT infrastructure were also highlighted as important, when considering surviving the pandemic