Business resilience and risk management during the Covid-19 pandemic: The Amadori case-study

Purpose of the paper: The work aims at exploring business resilience against a natural biological disaster - such as the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic - through the lens of risk management. Specifically, the work seeks to assess the resilience capacity demonstrated in the procurement activity by a specific company used as a case-study by identifying the indicators that enable the dimensions of organisational resilience to be detected in a longitudinal approach. Methodology: The study implemented a qualitative research approach to develop the case-study. The analysis was carried out by examining internal documents and holding a series of interviews with Amadori's Chief Purchasing Officer (CPO). Results: Resilience dimensions vary longitudinally and require different organisational responses. In brief, to respond to the different sources of risk, redundancy and rapidity were crucial during the lockdown phase, while robustness, rapidity and resourcefulness became key factors in the post-lockdown phase. Research limits: The study's results are based on a specific business case, thus limiting generalisation. Moreover, the results are preliminary as the pandemic is still ongoing. Practical implications: Findings can represent concrete help for other businesses to gain direction and adopt good practices of risk planning and management in view of resilience and business continuity. Originality of the paper: In the management literature, the study of business resilience is limited. This work contributes to extend theoretical and managerial knowledge on resilience dimensions that can be implemented during the different phases of highly unforeseen events with a consistent and prolonged impact on businesses.