Terese Fernandez is Chief Marketing Officer at Fusion Risk Management.
What were the key theme(s) for your business in 2021?
As the world continues to face ever-changing circumstances and disruptions related to the pandemic and more generally, the need for Fusion’s operational resilience solutions was more apparent and necessary than ever before. Our mission of “keeping businesses in business”, i.e., operational through any disruption, was more critical than ever. Every single business had their own set of challenges; being able to address their needs with best practices fit for their purpose defined our 2021. From financial services organizations needing to address new regulatory requirements to technology providers and manufacturers managing global operations, the ability to identify critical operations and suppliers allowed businesses to keep delivering their brand promise.
What was the highlight of 2021?
Being able to meet the growing need for our customers’ organizations to be resilient! Delivering a solution right at the center of the bullseye of what organizations need right now and maturing their abilities to recognize critical disruptions to their business and how to address them to keep them operating. Moreover, being partners with our customers, working alongside them, as they elevate their ability to respond has been a 2021 highlight.
What surprised you in 2021?
The surprise of 2021 is no longer a surprise… change is more frequent than ever before. And in new and unexpected ways. 2021 further demonstrated you can’t prepare a plan for every occurrence. But, you need relevant information to make informed decisions and the capability to do this too. The rapid acceleration of change continues to challenge companies and the value of being operational resilient has never been more important than it is now.
What are your expectations for 2022?
The world will continue to change in new and unforeseen ways. As such, Fusion is engaging with the c-suite and board of directors in new ways given their interest and compliance requirements to address resilience. Fusion will continue providing the framework and ability to provide operational intelligence to help customers mature their management of the ability for organizations to stay in business.
What trends are getting underway that people may not know about but will be important?
There are several trends we see as being important and directional. Two key ones to highlight are:
1. The exponential growth of available data. The focus is not on the amount of data (which can be overwhelming if not handled correctly) – nor being only able to collect data cross-organizational but, more importantly, being able to determine what is most important and where to focus. Fusion has focused on resilience and continuity activities ever since we were established 15 years ago and seeing how companies are elevating these conversations and recognizing the impact in a larger way on their organization is critical. It is rewarding to be an industry-leading solution helping companies worldwide.
2. For regulated industries, we see a proliferation of guidance and requirements. This focus may be seen as onerous and not always the “fun” part of roles but also demonstrates the criticality to businesses to remain operational and resilient. In this instance, regulations are forcing many businesses to be smarter about their approaches, even as the execution to do so is challenging. For those in industries without the same formal regulatory guidance, we see a significant appetite to look at the guidelines to define what is best practice, how to approach this and ensure they are ready for whatever the world may next throw at them. We are all better off living in a more resilient world.
What are your customer’s pain points and how have they changed from 1 year ago?
Customers recognize that the previously established ways are no longer adequate. Static business continuity plans that are completed and updated annually are so far from adequate. Building a dynamic framework to identify the most critical threats to a business is now the focus. Seemingly unconnected activities can have a compounding effect on your ability to conduct business. In an increasingly connected global economy, this is a significant point of interest. We see the headlines daily and our customers have experienced it every day. Working with them to stay ahead of issues and being able to formulate responses in real time is the critical need now – and we are gratified to be part of that solution.
