Volume 20 (2026-27) Copy

Major disruptive events are inevitable, yet organisations continue to experience vulnerabilities despite the widespread adoption of risk management practices. This paper examines whether the expansion of risk management frameworks has led to improved resilience or has introduced unintended complexity that limits effectiveness. In response to significant incidents, standards, regulations, and assessment processes have been developed to strengthen preparedness. These frameworks are often implemented independently, however, resulting in overlapping requirements, fragmented processes, and increased administrative burden. The accumulation of multiple programmes may therefore create inefficiencies in identifying, managing, and reporting emerging risks, while contributing to a false sense of preparedness. The paper analyses how siloed frameworks and function-specific response plans can reduce organisational effectiveness, particularly in complex incidents involving multiple risk domains. It considers how current approaches may fail to provide a coherent, enterprise-wide view of risk and response readiness. The paper argues for a more integrated approach to enterprise risk management, emphasising cross-functional coordination, consolidation of assessment activities, and improved alignment of stakeholders. A more holistic framework enables organisations to prioritise critical risks, improve decision making, and strengthen resilience in an environment of increasing uncertainty and complexity. This article is also included in The Business & Management Collection which can be accessed at https://hstalks.com/business/
Keywords: enterprise risk; ERM; leadership; resilience; business continuity; BCM; risk assessments

As extreme heat events in New York City increase in frequency and intensity, existing response strategies must evolve to address growing risks to public health and infrastructure. This paper examines updates to the City’s (hereafter, ‘the City’ refers to the municipal government) heat emergency approach, based on initiatives piloted during the 2024 and 2025 summer seasons. The study outlines key changes to public messaging, operational planning, and community engagement. Messaging was revised to emphasise the health risks of extreme heat and promote earlier individual preparedness. The City expanded its approach beyond traditional Cooling Centers, introducing a broader concept of ‘Cool Options’ that includes a wider range of indoor and outdoor locations accessible to residents. New mapping tools were developed to provide continuous public access to information on cooling options across the city. The paper also describes targeted strategies to reach vulnerable populations, including partnerships with community organisations and the distribution of heat safety resources. Additional initiatives focused on improving accessibility, increasing awareness, and supporting at-risk groups during prolonged heat events. The findings demonstrate the importance of flexible, community-focused approaches to managing extreme heat. Continued evaluation and expansion of these strategies are expected to strengthen resilience and reduce heat-related health impacts in future increasingly severe conditions. This article is also included in The Business & Management Collection which can be accessed at https://hstalks.com/business/.
Keywords: extreme heat; cool options; Cooling Centers; heatwaves; New York City

The financial services sector stands at a critical inflection point where traditional models of operational resilience are no longer adequate for the velocity and complexity of modern risk. This paper examines the strategic imperative for financial institutions to transition from reactive, compliance-centric risk management towards a state of anti-fragility: the capacity not merely to withstand systemic stress, but to improve because of it. Drawing upon empirical industry data, regulatory developments, and a practical case study from Atom Bank, the paper explores how agentic artificial intelligence is fundamentally reshaping the disciplines of operational resilience, third party risk management, and cyber security. Key themes include the maturity gap in configuration management database infrastructure, the systemic threat posed by supply chain vulnerabilities, the rise of artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled adversarial actors and deepfake fraud, and the concentration risk inherent in hyperscaler dependency. The paper challenges the prevailing assumption that anti-fragility is a well-established or universally accepted framework, presenting it instead as an aspirational model that demands significant cultural, technological, and governance transformation. Readers will gain a structured understanding of the current threat landscape, practical strategies for active resilience, and a framework for integrating AI-driven workflows into a unified institutional risk architecture. This article is also included in The Business & Management Collection which can be accessed at https://hstalks.com/business/.
Keywords: operational resilience; agentic artificial intelligence; third party risk management; anti-fragility; cyber security maturity; digital transformation

Family reunification following disasters involving children remains one of the most consistently underdeveloped capabilities in emergency management and business continuity practice.1,2,3 Despite decades of incident after-action reports identifying reunification failures as a major contributor to prolonged suffering, operational breakdown, and loss of public trust, many healthcare systems and educational institutions continue to treat reunification as an ad hoc humanitarian concern rather than a formal continuity function.4 This paper argues that paediatric reunification must be reframed as an enterprise-level business continuity risk requiring structured governance, cross-sector integration, and repeatable operational design.5,6,7 Drawing on documented disaster failures, regulatory and accreditation requirements, and an implemented school–hospital partnership model, the paper presents a governed framework for integrating family information centres (FICs), school nurse liaisons, and coalition-based preparedness into continuity planning.8,9 The model demonstrates how compassion can be operationalised at scale without sacrificing command discipline, information security, or regulatory compliance.10,11 Implications for healthcare executives, emergency managers, and continuity professionals are explored, with particular attention to sustainability, legal alignment, and transferability across jurisdictions.12,13 This article is also included in The Business & Management Collection which can be accessed at https://hstalks.com/business/.
Keywords: HIPAA; FERPA; SHARE; reunification; school; continuity

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly embedded in organisational systems, shaping decision making, resource management, and crisis response. Achieving AI-resilient continuity is not just about faster recovery or stronger systems; it involves maintaining decision integrity, governance quality, and human judgment during intelligent disruptions. While AI enhances efficiency and resilience, it also introduces risks that traditional continuity planning does not fully address. Unlike conventional disruptions, AI-enabled attacks may not cause immediate system failures, yet they can degrade decision accuracy, situational awareness, and governance even while operations appear normal. This paper examines how AI alters the nature of disruption and challenges assumptions about visibility, human oversight, and linear recovery. Through practical scenarios, it illustrates how data poisoning, adversarial inputs, compromised models, platform dependencies, and misinformation threaten organisational continuity. The paper proposes principles for AI-resilient planning that protect decision integrity, enable human override, strengthen governance alignment, and incorporate AI-specific exercises. This framework provides practitioners with actionable guidance for sustaining reliable decision making under AI-driven disruption. This article is also included in The Business & Management Collection which can be accessed at https:// hstalks.com/business/.
Keywords: artificial intelligence; business continuity planning; decision integrity; AI risk governance; AI-enabled disruptions

This paper provides insight into how a strong collaboration, including rotating personnel, between the first (operations) and second (risk management) lines of defence within large financial institutions improves unity of effort in meeting regulatory requirements, resiliency capabilities, recovery posture and ultimately protecting business operations and customers’ interests. Rather than the teams being inadvertently incentivised to compete, or fostering an adversarial relationship, the experience of walking in each other’s shoes enables the primary goal of the teams to be mutually supportive. This is a force-multiplier in meeting mission objectives and serving customers through continuous alignment and leveraging their common experiences to better identify and rate inherent risks in the environment, the quality of risk management, and gaps that exist between current capabilities and target states. In this approach, the first line receives valuable support from a team dedicated to risk management and with a wealth of operational experience from previous roles. A second line, which has a depth of experience in resiliency operations, can effectively anticipate and address unforeseen challenges, providing critical advisory support based on technical depth and breadth. The second line benefits from an operations team (first line) who better understand risk management beyond their current role within their office of resiliency plans, testing, exercises, training and education or crisis management. Without this added breadth of oversight experience and depth of knowledge in each of the pillars, the first line tends to limit personnel development to a single or limited set of experiences throughout their career. This article is also included in The Business & Management Collection which can be accessed at https://hstalks.com/business/.
Keywords: organisational resilience; enterprise risk management; risk governance; business continuity; SLOD; FLOD

This paper describes how Huntington Hospital, a Level II Trauma Center in Los Angeles County, responded to the Eaton Canyon fire in early January 2025. Best practices will be presented that detail how the emergency department managed an unannounced surge, how alternative care sites were quickly activated to provide care for a large number of skilled nursing facility (SNF) residents, and strategies for ensuring adequate staffing when a sizable percentage of employees were affected by evacuation mandates and school closures. The paper offers considerations for effective communication, rapid deployment of plans and resources to support affected staff, placement of displaced SNF residents, and ensuring safe air quality inside the hospital. Impacts on hospitals related to past wildfire incidents are examined and applied to the actions taken by Huntington Hospital’s leadership team during this event. This article is also included in The Business & Management Collection which can be accessed at https://hstalks.com/business/.
Keywords: wildfire; staff impacts; unexpected surge; healthcare emergency response; emergency department