Resilience and fraud management - The new Mantras

Authored by Niranjan Gidwani Consultant Director- TEXUB | Member UAE Superbrands Council | Charter Member Tie Dubai | Former CEO Eros Group   

Today, more than ever, if there is one value which needs to be recharged, refreshed, reinforced – it is RESILIENCE. This probably is the most important mantra.

In the world of business, data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that approximately 20% of new businesses fail during the first two years, close to half during the first five years, and almost two-thirds during the first ten years. That is a staggering number of failures.

Whether it is in personal life, or in the world of business and politics, the most complex animal to be tackled is the vulnerability when faced with difficult and complex situations. At all times, one of the most  understated and forgotten values that comes to assist us is -  Resilience.

If there is an urgent need for a structured program to be taught at all levels across the world, it is to build resilience capabilities. 

Those of us who have lived through difficult times and times of scarcity, or have been pre-conditioned and trained to be resilient, can avoid taking any compromising path that may cause undue risk. Resilience can and does foster purpose-driven unity to keep not only families, but also core teams in organizations, as well as nations together. Resilience hugely aids to reengineer ourselves when faced with a curveball, and empowers many of us to refocus on creating value even in times of crisis. 

Remember, when survival is at stake, resilience and clarity of intention become the much-needed lifeboat in choppy waters. And the very first step is at being mentally resilient. 

At the organizational level, allowing us to focus on our collective competencies amid chaos, and be guided by our ikigai will prevent the erosion of time, attention, and other scarce resources across multiple initiatives with low success rates. It also conditions senior management against defensive capital-saving measures when the need of the hour is greater investment for business continuity.

Therefore, investment of time, money and energy in resilience planning can be an important determinant at a time when business continuity plans have become the talk of every enterprise. More so, when all discussions are about political and economic crisis, food and energy crisis, inflation and a funding winter.

The reward for resilience is not only an invaluable experience but also another shot at building greater personal and corporate brand equity through trust and reputation. Something very sorely needed in today’s environment.

Which then brings us to the second and equally importantly needed mantra – Fraud Management.

With the oncoming superfast juggernaut of Artificial intelligence, Web 3.0 and Metaverse, the world is gearing up to adopt innovation at an even faster pace. We could compare the world to a train where the engine and the first several bogies are newly made and of very advanced technology, but with the latter part of the train having very old, non-airconditioned bogies comprising the underdeveloped third world. 

This rapid innovation, besides bringing huge amounts of development and success, is also likely to create new complexities and bring more and more digital fraud, as it is the same intelligent minds who just happen to think differently. 

This scenario has therefore brought us to a uniquely interesting inflection point.

While getting on to the fast-moving train of innovation is a must, the number of digital fraudulent transactions is increasing multifold. 

Therefore, incorporating frequent customer awareness has become a critical factor. While every company is working towards easing the consumers’ journey toward digital, it is essential that businesses do not open avenues for fraudsters. In the last few years, many brands including banks have reported cases of fraud and consumer data leakage. And the average digital consumer is not well aware of his or her rights while organizations employ a battery of lawyers to protect their interests.

Currently, besides data theft, there are three key categories of fraud - phishing, bot activity, and brand infringement. Of this, phishing continues to be the most popular way of committing fraud. Additionally, ransomware attacks have become more sophisticated thereby delivering a bigger negative impact to the world of digital business.  Phishing seems to be the first step towards cyberattack. A large majority has lost money by simply clicking on a phishing link.

The reason these two mantras could be seriously interlinked is because the same quality of resilience would need to be aggressively used to plan and handle digital fraud and consumer awareness about fraud. 

Do remember, in the digital world, no country can say that they would just need to protect their physical borders and remain safe.