Strategic Resilience during the COVID-19 Crisis

Diedrich et al. surveyed senior executives in Europe to understand how organizations responded to COVID-19 crisis and found that about half reported that the crisis exposed weaknesses in their strategic resilience – defined as the extent which an organization’s business model and competitive position prove resistance to disruption.

From Diedrich’s article, the actions that anti-fragile organizations undertook and the resiliency considerations suggested are already present in cooperative action- that cooperatives undertook and continue to undertake the above suggestions in response to Covid. Cooperatives changed and diversified their products, in some cases increasing their quality or finding suitable alternatives (honey and citrus in coffee, for example).

As cooperatives are embedded in their communities, they willingly cooperative within themselves and with others. Cooperatives also serve as a bulwark and support supply-chain considerations, operating model adjustments, sales model changes, and are willing to help their members develop alternate products.