[OR] [GI] [E1] [C7] Establishing Organisational Goals for Operational Resilience

Chapter 7

Establishing Organisational Goals for Operational Resilience

Introduction

Operational resilience (OR) is a critical capability for organisations operating in sectors with rapidly evolving risks, such as transportation.

Grab Indonesia, a leader in the Southeast Asian transport and logistics ecosystem, provides a crucial service that impacts millions of customers daily.

In the highly competitive and rapidly changing transport sector, establishing clear goals for operational resilience is fundamental to maintaining service continuity, ensuring customer satisfaction, and safeguarding the organisation’s reputation.

This chapter aims to guide Grab Indonesia in setting strategic goals that align with operational resilience best practices, particularly with ISO 22316 standards and regulatory frameworks.

Establishing goals for operational resilience is not merely a top-down exercise but one that requires collaboration across all levels of the organisation. It involves identifying critical business services, anticipating threats, understanding vulnerabilities, and developing strategies to mitigate disruptions.

For Grab Indonesia, this means prioritising resilience across its multi-faceted services, including ride-hailing, food delivery, parcel services, and digital payment systems.

This chapter provides a framework for setting those goals, ensuring that the organisation not only adapts to potential disruptions but thrives despite them.

Setting Strategic Operational Resilience Goals

Aligning Resilience Goals with Organisational Mission and Vision

The first step in establishing operational resilience goals is ensuring alignment with Grab Indonesia's overarching mission and vision.

As a transport provider, Grab’s goal is not only to deliver safe, reliable, and efficient services but also to be a trusted partner in Indonesians' lives. Operational resilience should therefore be seen as an integral part of delivering these core services.

For Grab Indonesia, resilience goals should focus on maintaining service availability, minimising downtime, and ensuring rapid recovery during disruptions. These goals should be aligned with Grab’s commitment to innovation, sustainability, and customer-centric service delivery.

The resilience goals will also need to align with Grab's strategic objectives, including market growth, regulatory compliance, and corporate social responsibility.

Defining Critical Business Services (CBS) and Identifying Vulnerabilities

Operational resilience goals must begin with a deep understanding of Grab Indonesia’s critical business services.

This includes all services that contribute directly to customer experience and financial performance, such as:

• Ride-hailing services: Transporting passengers using vehicles, motorbikes, and taxis.
• GrabFood and GrabMart: Food and grocery delivery services.
• GrabExpress: Logistics and parcel delivery services.
• GrabPay: Digital payments platform.

Identifying the potential vulnerabilities within these services is essential for formulating practical resilience goals.

For example, ride-hailing services may be vulnerable to unexpected demand spikes, extreme weather events, or disruptions in driver supply.

Similarly, GrabFood may face supply chain disruptions or interruptions at partner restaurants. By recognising these vulnerabilities, Grab Indonesia can establish specific resilience goals that focus on maintaining or quickly restoring these services in the face of potential disruptions.

Risk Mitigation and Redundancy Planning

Operational resilience goals should focus on proactively mitigating risks and building redundancies into core processes. For Grab Indonesia, this could involve:

• Technology and Infrastructure: Ensuring robust IT systems, such as app functionality and payment gateways, with disaster recovery protocols in place.
• Human Resources: Maintaining a diversified and trained workforce to handle unexpected service disruptions, including backup drivers and restaurant partners.
• Logistics & Supply Chain: Establishing resilient logistics networks and emergency backup systems for GrabExpress and GrabMart to ensure minimal service disruption during times of crisis.

By defining specific risk mitigation measures and establishing redundant systems, Grab can build resilience into every part of the business, reducing the impact of operational disruptions.

Regulatory and Compliance Considerations

Operating in Indonesia, Grab must align its operational resilience goals with local regulations and industry standards, such as ISO 22316 (Organisational Resilience).

Compliance with these regulations not only ensures that Grab remains in good standing with regulatory bodies but also demonstrates the company’s commitment to best practices in risk management.

Regulatory frameworks often set minimum standards for resilience and recovery, which Grab must build upon to exceed expectations and establish a competitive edge.

Grab Indonesia must also consider broader regional compliance in its operational resilience planning, particularly as its services span multiple markets with varying regulatory requirements. Establishing resilience goals that can be adapted to local and regional regulatory environments will ensure that Grab remains agile and responsive to any legal or operational changes.

Continuous Improvement and Monitoring

One of the key goals in operational resilience is the constant evolution of strategies based on feedback, experience, and environmental changes. Establishing mechanisms for monitoring resilience performance is crucial for ongoing improvement.

Grab Indonesia should adopt a Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle to continuously evaluate and enhance its resilience capabilities:

• Plan: Define goals and strategies for operational resilience.
• Do: Implement the strategies.
• Check: Monitor and assess performance, including testing resilience systems (e.g., disaster recovery drills, system backups).
• Act: Make necessary adjustments based on evaluation results.

This continuous loop ensures that Grab Indonesia adapts to emerging threats and takes proactive steps to strengthen its operational resilience over time.

Summing Up …

In the fast-paced transport industry, establishing strong operational resilience goals is essential for long-term success and sustainability. Grab Indonesia’s resilience goals must address the organisation’s unique challenges while ensuring alignment with its strategic mission and regulatory obligations.

By defining critical business services, identifying vulnerabilities, investing in redundancy, ensuring regulatory compliance, and committing to continuous improvement, Grab can not only safeguard against disruptions but thrive in an increasingly uncertain environment.

This chapter has outlined the framework for establishing operational resilience goals that will help Grab Indonesia navigate both expected and unforeseen challenges, positioning the company for continued growth and success.

By embedding operational resilience into the heart of its strategy, Grab Indonesia can continue to lead as a transport provider while maintaining the trust and loyalty of its millions of customers.

Gain Competency: For organisations looking to accelerate their journey, BCM Institute’s training and certification programs, including the OR-5000 Operational Resilience Expert Implementer course, provide in-depth insights and practical toolkits for effectively embedding this model.