The world is changing fast. From daily headlines to boardroom conversations, the message is clear: the way we’ve always done things is no longer good enough. Whether it’s cyberattacks crippling supply chains, the ripple effect of AI-driven misinformation, increasingly intense weather events, or the pressure of global political instability, the risks we face today are layered, complex, and evolving at a blistering pace.
As business continuity professionals, we’ve always been tasked with preparing our organizations for disruption. Today, that job looks different. We can’t rely on old frameworks, templates, or ways of thinking. The playbooks written a decade ago can’t keep up with the velocity and unpredictability of today’s threats.
It’s time to shift our focus fully and intentionally toward operational resilience.
What’s the Difference?
Business continuity, as we’ve known it, has done a great job ensuring organizations have plans in place to resume operations after disruption. Operational resilience goes a step further. It’s not just about recovery. It’s about withstanding, adapting, and growing stronger through disruption. It’s a mindset shift, and more importantly, it’s a business shift.
Operational resilience is about building organizations that can bend without breaking. It means embedding agility, flexibility, and sustainability into how we design systems, train teams, and make decisions.
DRJ’s Role in the Shift
At DRJ, we’ve made it our mission to help professionals not only keep up but get ahead. Our events, publications, and partnerships are centered on pushing the boundaries of what it means to be prepared. That’s why, in close alignment with our strategic partners at The BCI, we are championing the move from continuity to resilience. Together, we’re working to help planners translate risk into the language executives understand so resilience becomes a business driver, not just a compliance checkbox.
We’re also focused on helping professionals elevate their internal value. If your organization sees you as the “plan owner” or the “disaster recovery person,” you may not have the influence you need to shape true strategy. But if you can position yourself as the voice of resilience—someone who helps protect brand, revenue, and reputation—you raise your stock across the organization.
The Modern Risk Landscape
Today’s risks require new tools, new partnerships, and a new mindset.
Cybersecurity is no longer just an IT issue. A major cyber incident is a business crisis. Cyberattacks are the new natural disasters, and we must treat them as such. That’s why more organizations are realizing the need to close the gap between cyber response and traditional disaster recovery. We can’t have parallel systems anymore. These functions must work hand-in-hand.
Another major shift is the role of artificial intelligence. AI is now helping organizations forecast risk, automate response, and even recover faster. But it also introduces new vulnerabilities. If we’re not actively incorporating AI into our planning and testing processes, we’re already behind.
Similarly, zero trust architecture has emerged as the future of data protection. For resilience teams, that means a new level of collaboration with security and infrastructure leaders to ensure sensitive systems are protected without creating bottlenecks in crisis response.
Strategic Resilience Is the Goal
At DRJ, we’re seeing more professionals embrace what we call strategic resilience. It’s the idea that resilience is not just a technical exercise. It’s a strategic advantage. Resilient organizations can recover faster, serve customers better, and maintain trust in the face of chaos. They can pivot, respond, and even gain ground while competitors are stuck reacting.
Our readers and attendees are already pushing in this direction. From leveraging multi-hazard early warning systems to implementing cloud-native backup tools for enterprise workloads, the evolution is underway.
But we need to keep moving forward, especially in this perfect storm of emerging threats and technology shifts.
Lessons From Leaders
One of the best parts of my job is talking to people who are driving change across industries. One of them is Jason Harrell (featured in this issue), whose journey from engineering to operational resilience has been nothing short of inspiring. He understands the future of business protection goes far beyond tech. It’s about people, culture, and leadership.
We need more professionals like Jason—people who can navigate the complexity of risk while communicating with clarity and purpose. People who understand both the strategic and technical sides of resilience. That’s what DRJ is here to cultivate.
The Time to Adapt Is Now
If there’s one message with which I’d leave you, it’s this: don’t wait. The threats we’re facing aren’t slowing down. The expectations from leadership are rising. The pace of change isn’t going to let up.
We have a responsibility, not just to our organizations but to our teams, customers, and communities, to be ready. That means being open to new tools, new ideas, and new ways of working. It means bridging the gap between continuity and resilience.
Most of all, it means showing up as strategic leaders in our field.
Let’s continue to raise the bar. Let’s redefine what it means to be prepared. Let’s build organizations that don’t just survive disruption but come back stronger every time.
See you at DRJ Fall 2025 in Dallas.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bob Arnold
Bob Arnold, MBCI (hon.), is the president of Disaster Recovery Journal.
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