For the past several years, leaders across Asia, and particularly in economies that have endured compounded shocks, have been singularly focused on stabilisation. They have worked relentlessly to repair balance sheets, restore disrupted operations and rebuild confidence among investors, customers, employees and citizens. Recovery has been their mission.
That work has been necessary. In many cases, it has been heroic, as Dr Ramesh Shanmuganathan, Executive Vice President / Group CIO at John Keells Holdings PLC and Director/CEO at John Keells IT, says in this conversation with Echelon.
But leadership is not ultimately judged by how well it responds to a crisis in the moment. It is judged by what it leaves behind once the urgency fades. That legacy, he says, will not be measured by recovery alone, but by whether leaders used this period to build organisations that can withstand future shocks, including those they cannot yet see.
That quality is resilience. And resilience, he says, rests on a conversation that many boards have postponed for far too long.