INSIGHTS & PERSPECTIVES

For many organizations, business continuity has traditionally been viewed as a defensive function: a plan kept on a shelf in case of fire, flood, cyberattack, power failure, supply chain interruption, or another unexpected event. That perception is now changing.

Organizations are increasingly recognizing that business continuity is not simply about surviving a disruption, it is about protecting critical services, maintaining customer confidence, preserving market position, and importantly, recovering faster than competitors.

This shift is reflected in the continued growth of the global business continuity market. According to the Business Continuity Market Report 2026, the market is projected to grow from $52.76 billion in 2025 to $56.2 billion in 2026 and forecast to reach $72.96 billion by 2030. Growth is being driven by factors such as cyber threats, natural disasters, regulatory requirements, dependence on digital infrastructure, hybrid work, and demand for cloud-based recovery capabilities.

The strategic value of continuity

Business continuity is fundamentally about protecting people, operations, customers, and organizational value. But its benefits go further. A robust business continuity program helps an organization understand what must continue, what can temporarily pause, and what resources are required to sustain or restore critical operations; this usually involves more than just a written plan. When a sector-wide disruption occurs, the companies that recover first are often in the strongest position to support their customers, reinforce trust, protect their reputation, and respond to changing market demand.

The organizations investing in continuity today are not being pessimistic. They are acknowledging that disruption is a normal part of the modern operating environment and preparing themselves to respond. When the next major disruption occurs, every organization will face the same fundamental question: how quickly can we continue or recover what matters most? For prepared organizations, the answer may become one of their greatest competitive advantages. If every organization in a sector is dealing with the same disruption, the organization that can maintain service or recover first may gain a significant advantage.

Customers do not stop having needs because a disruption has occurred. When their usual provider is unavailable, they look for an organization that can still deliver. A company that remains accessible, communicates clearly, and restores service quickly may attract customers who would otherwise have gone to a competitor. Some of those customers may return to their previous provider when conditions normalize. Others may not.

That is why business continuity should not be seen only as an insurance policy. It can also support customer acquisition, customer retention, brand trust, operational agility, and long-term growth.

Resilience in action

Several well-known events illustrate how preparation, leadership, supply chain visibility, and practiced response arrangements can improve organizational outcomes.

Walmart and Hurricane Katrina

When Hurricane Katrina approached the Gulf Coast in 2005, Walmart activated a comprehensive emergency response from its headquarters. Preparations included positioning appropriate merchandise in areas expected to be affected, assembling representatives from key business functions in a centralized emergency operations centre, and preparing teams to assess affected stores and support reopening efforts after the storm.

The company’s inventory management, logistics capacity, centralized coordination, and ability to make decisions quickly allowed it to move essential supplies into affected communities and restore services under extremely difficult circumstances. Academic analysis of the response has identified Walmart and other large retailers as particularly effective private-sector participants in the relief effort.

The business continuity lesson is not that every organization needs Walmart’s scale. It is that organizations benefit from having:

• Clear decision-making authority
• Reliable information about operating conditions
• Pre-established coordination structures
• Flexible logistics and supply arrangements
• Employees empowered to respond to local needs

Walmart’s response demonstrated that continuity and community support can reinforce one another. Restoring operations allowed the company to serve affected residents while also protecting its ability to operate.

Toyota and the 2011 Disasters

Toyota’s experience following the Great East Japan Earthquake and the floods in Thailand in 2011 illustrates the importance of supply chain continuity. The earthquake interrupted production at Toyota’s domestic plants because numerous suppliers were located in affected areas. The company initially estimated that the two disasters could reduce global output by approximately one million vehicles. Through coordinated work involving Toyota, its group companies, suppliers, and dealers, it recovered production of approximately 600,000 vehicles, limiting the eventual decrease to around 390,000 vehicles.

Toyota used the lessons from these events to strengthen its business continuity arrangements. Measures included improving visibility beyond immediate suppliers, identifying risks among lower-tier suppliers, decentralizing sources for vulnerable components, and adopting more standardized designs. The company described these measures as supporting both everyday competitiveness and the ability to withstand disasters.

Toyota’s experience highlights a crucial point: organizations cannot fully understand their continuity risk by looking only at their own facilities. They must also understand the suppliers, systems, transportation routes, utilities, and partners on which their critical operations depend.

Business continuity during COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated how quickly an industry-wide disruption can separate prepared organizations from their competitors. The pandemic created significant shortages of computers and components just as remote work and virtual learning caused demand for technology to surge.

In the technology sector, Dell’s direct supplier relationships and supply-chain agility helped it respond to component shortages while demand for commercial computers was increasing. By the second quarter of 2021, Dell had gained nearly two percentage points of market share at the expense of major competitors, while its commercial PC revenue increased by 32% year over year.

The lesson here is clear; supplier visibility and well-established relationships can be a major competitive advantage when an entire industry is competing for scarce resources. Organizations that understand and actively manage their supply chains may restore or expand capacity faster than competitors.

Recovery speed matters

The examples above highlight how organizations succeeded for different reasons, but the underlying lesson was consistent. They had already invested in capabilities that gave them options. When their industries were disrupted, they were able to shift channels, redirect resources, scale alternative operations, and respond to changing customer demand faster than many competitors.

That is the competitive value of business continuity. It does not guarantee that an organization will avoid disruption. It increases the likelihood that the organization will make better decisions, maintain critical services, adapt its operating model, and capture opportunities while competitors are still trying to determine how to respond.

After a major disruption, every hour of downtime can affect revenue, contractual commitments, employee productivity, customer relationships, and public confidence. A prepared organization does not have to invent its response while the crisis is unfolding. Its leaders should already understand:

• Which products and services are most critical
• How long those activities can be unavailable
• What dependencies could delay recovery
• Who has authority to make urgent decisions
• What alternative arrangements are available
• How employees and customers will be informed
• What steps must be taken first

That preparation improves the quality and speed of decision-making.

Turning continuity into a competitive advantage

The objective is not to predict every possible incident. No plan can anticipate every detail of a disaster, cyberattack, infrastructure failure, or supply chain disruption. The objective is to develop adaptable systems, capable people, clear priorities, and practiced decision-making processes that can be applied under pressure.

To realize the strategic value of business continuity, organizations should move beyond simply having a plan. They should build an active and sustainable continuity program.

A practical approach is to:

1. Assess critical operations, risks, dependencies, and potential impacts.
2. Prioritize services and establish realistic recovery objectives.
3. Develop practical strategies for people, facilities, technology, information, suppliers, and communications.
4. Document clear and accessible process and procedures that support decision-making.
5. Train employees and leaders so that they understand their responsibilities.
6. Exercise the plan using realistic scenarios.
7. Improve the program based on lessons identified through exercises and real incidents.

The question for leaders is no longer whether disruption will occur, but whether their organization will be ready when it does. Investing in business continuity today creates the capabilities, confidence, and flexibility needed to protect what matters most and emerge from disruption in a stronger position. That is why business continuity is not only about protection, but also a competitive advantage.

Sources and further reading

Horwitz, S. (Spring 2009). Wal-Mart to the rescue: Private enterprise’s response to Hurricane Katrina. The Independent Review, 13(4), 511–528. https://www.independent.org/pdf/tir/tir_13_04_3_horwitz.pdf

Reeves, M., Shmul, Y., and Zuluaga Martínez, D. (2021, November 4). How Resilient Businesses Created Advantage in Adversity During COVID-19. Boston Consulting Group. https://www.bcg.com/publications/2021/how-resilient-companies-created-advantages-in-adversity-during-covid.

Susan Rosegrant, S. and Leonard, D. (2007, August 28). Wal-Mart’s Response to Hurricane Katrina: Striving for a Public-Private Partnership. Harvard Kennedy School Case Program. https://hbsp.harvard.edu/product/HKS150-PDF-ENG

Toyota Motor Corporation. (2012). Impact of the disasters and recovery efforts. In Toyota annual report 2012 (pp. 30–31). https://www.toyota-global.com/pages/contents/investors/ir_library/annual/pdf/2012/p30_31.pdf

Toyota Motor Corporation. (2016, March 11). Five years on: Toyota’s efforts to build a disaster-resilient future. https://global.toyota/en/detail/11373994.

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