Your organisation as an ecosystem¶
Risks do not sit obediently in silos. They travel through people, technology, suppliers, and regulators with the grace of a domino chain collapsing. Yet most audits pretend each domain can be managed in isolation. This workshop takes a systems view: mapping your organisation as an ecosystem where interdependencies matter more than individual parts.
Core principles¶
Systems view: Look at the organisation as a living network, not a set of departments and policies.
Interconnectedness: Dependencies between HR, IT, suppliers, and partners shape actual resilience.
Cascading failure awareness: The first failure rarely matters most — it is the second, third, or tenth knock-on effect that brings the house down.
Cross-boundary thinking: Security, risk, operations, product, and vendor management are different lenses on the same system.
Practical foresight: The goal is not to model every possible scenario but to highlight critical weak links and where they converge.
How it works: practical steps¶
This is an applied mapping and analysis process, grounded in collaborative workshops and real-world scenarios.
Dependency discovery (remote prep, 1–2 days)
Collect existing org charts, process diagrams, vendor lists, and incident reports.
Run a short survey to capture informal dependencies (e.g. “who do you call when X breaks?”).
Map known critical suppliers and cloud services.
Ecosystem mapping workshop (onsite, 1–2 days)
Interactive mapping with stakeholders from across teams (tech, ops, HR, finance, product).
Build a live dependency map that captures people, processes, tech platforms, and external partners.
Highlight single points of failure and hidden connectors.
Scenario walkthroughs (onsite or remote, 1 day)
Walk through realistic “what if” scenarios: cloud outage, key supplier failure, insider absence, regulatory shock.
Trace the ripple effects across the system map to see how problems cascade.
Capture intervention points and resilience gaps.
Synthesis & roadmap (remote, 2–3 days)
Translate findings into a concise ecosystem risk profile.
Produce resilience recommendations ranked by impact and feasibility.
Develop a roadmap balancing quick fixes (e.g. backup vendor contracts) with long-term systemic changes (e.g. redesigning processes to reduce hidden dependencies).
Typical outputs¶
A visual system map of your organisation’s critical interdependencies.
Cascading impact analysis for 2–3 high-priority scenarios.
A set of resilience recommendations spanning people, tech, and supply chain.
A short executive summary that cuts across silos and presents system-level insights.
Who this is for¶
Organisations reliant on complex supply chains, cloud services, or distributed teams.
Leadership teams tired of siloed risk reports that miss the big picture.
Risk and security professionals looking to move beyond asset inventories toward system resilience.
Operational leaders who want to know where the next domino might fall.
Formats & duration¶
Baseline mapping (3–5 days): ecosystem map + top interdependencies.
Deep dive (2–3 weeks): workshops, scenarios, and resilience roadmap.
Strategic programme (3 months): ongoing mapping, monitoring, and leadership coaching.
Optional add-ons¶
Integration with existing BCM / ISO frameworks.
Visual dashboards for ongoing ecosystem monitoring.
Follow-up scenario exercises and red-team style stress tests.