Organizational Resilience: Key Factors to overcome and survive a Business Crisis. Learnings from a family owned business in Crisis.

Abstract: BACKGROUND: Organizations are not prepared for crisis and are vulnerable to disruptive changes. SMEs, and organizations in general, are key elements of our society and need to learn how to be resilient, in order to be sustainable. A case study was used to explore key organizational resilience factors to overcome a business crisis.OBJECTIVE: Explore through the theoretical lense of organizational resilience, how the studied SME was lead and organized during crisis towards a sustainable business outcome. With the aim to present learnings and recommendations for organizational resilience and sustainability.THE CASE: Business crisis, generated by a fire, consumed 90% of the production plant of an SME (Small and Medium-sized Enterprise) in Colombia. This SME (Susi Bakery) managed to recover completely from the crisis in 7 months. Different perspectives of the stakeholders across the bakery’s network were analyzed to understand the strategy of this SME, to overcome the crisis and be resilient.METHODS: Single case-exploratory case study, with in-depth semi-structured interviews to different stakeholders across the Bakery’s network. A theoretical framework in organizational resilience was built and used to answer the research questions: What are the factors that make the analyzed SME (Susi Bakery) a resilient organization? What moved key stakeholders towards engaging the recovery of the business crisis? The analysis of the collected data is based on phenomenography, since stakeholders present different subjective perceptions.THEORETICAL CONTRIBUTION: Organizational resilience’ theory explored through the case of an SME in Colombia.CONCLUSIONS: Resilience strengthens the capabilities to adapt and see disruptive changes as opportunities. Organizations can learn to be resilient through the development of resilient business models' and their enabling factors. Currently, 11 enabling factors for organizational resilience can be found in resilient business models theory: Adaptability and innovation, Motivation, Diversity, Collective efficacy, Effective communication, Loosening of control, Sustained relationships, Minimize layoffs, Financial slack, Competence and Acceptance. 3 Additional enabling factors were found in this case: Leadership, Reciprocity and Reputation. There is a research gap regarding the relations and causalities of the resilient enabling factors, and the relationship between organizational resilience and business crisis management.