{"id":7795,"date":"2026-06-05T09:11:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T09:11:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theirmindia.org\/blog\/?p=7795"},"modified":"2026-06-05T09:19:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T09:19:16","slug":"national-resilience-in-the-age-of-polycrisis-talent-strategy-and-the-future-of-risk-management","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theirmindia.org\/blog\/national-resilience-in-the-age-of-polycrisis-talent-strategy-and-the-future-of-risk-management\/","title":{"rendered":"National Resilience in the Age of Polycrisis: Talent, Strategy, and the Future of Risk Management"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Getting<\/a><\/p>\n

This article is the transcript of IRM India’s What’s The Risk?\u00ae episode telecast on CNBCTV18. The <\/span>What’s The Risk?\u00ae<\/b><\/a><\/span> initiative by IRM India Affiliate decodes risks and opportunities across diverse sectors with an objective of elevating the importance of risk intelligence and <\/span>enterprise risk management<\/b><\/a><\/span> as a skill, profession and business enabler.<\/span><\/p>\n

Voiceover:<\/b><\/p>\n

Institute of Risk Management India Affiliate<\/b><\/a><\/span> presents National Resilience in the Age of Polycrisis: Talent, Strategy, and the Future of Risk Management.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Hersh Shah:<\/b><\/p>\n

Every country has its breaking points. For some, it’s the failure of a critical water system during a prolonged heat wave, for others, it’s misinformation-fueled bank run that rapidly erodes consumer confidence and even financial stability, somewhere else, it’s a nationwide internet blackout that cripples access to healthcare, disrupts logistics networks, and even stalls public administration, and in another corner of the world, we have a stalled vaccination drive that reignites public health fears and even exposes governance fatigue. Now, individually such disruptions may appear containable but when they unfold concurrently or in close succession, their combined impact is exponentially greater. We are now navigating in an era where crises are no longer discreet or linear but deeply interwoven and even self-amplifying. This emergent reality, increasingly characterised as a polycrisis, disrupts all the conventional models of <\/span>risk mitigation<\/b><\/a><\/span>. In such an environment, resilience is not just a recovery mechanism, it is a strategic capacity. It calls for anticipatory governance, multi-sector coordination, and even the ability to manage ambiguity at scale, and this demands a more integrated approach to risk management, one that bridges enterprise strategy, public policy, and even national security. So, here’s welcoming all of you to the panel discussion on National Resilience in the age of Polycrisis: Talent, Strategy and the Future of Risk Management by the Institute of Risk Management India Affiliate. As the world’s leading certifying body for ERM exams across 140+ countries, the What’s The Risk?\u00ae initiative underscores our unwavering commitment to driving <\/span>thought leadership<\/b><\/a><\/span> in every sector and discipline. Joining me in the seventh episode are <\/span>Michele Wucker, CEO, Gray Rhino & Company, Strategic Advisor to IRM India, Vishal Jain, Partner and Leader, Enterprise Risk, Deloitte India, and Pramit Pal Chaudhuri, South Asia Practice Head, Eurasia Group & Fellow, Ananta Aspen Centre.<\/span> Lady and gentlemen, thank you for joining us. <\/span>Michele Wucker <\/b>(CEO, Gray Rhino & Company, Strategic Advisor to IRM India),<\/span> let’s start with you. You know, your Gray Rhino framework has really helped leaders identify high-impact, high-probability risks, but in today’s world of polycrisis, where multiple rhinos are charging at once, how should nations and institutions really prioritise what to tackle first?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Michele Wucker:\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

I was absolutely delighted to discover that the zoological word for a group of Gray Rhinos is a crash, which speaks specifically to this polycrisis idea, and Gray Rhinos are obviously about identifying obvious risks, but it’s really even more about taking a fresh look at obvious risks. Gray Rhinos aren’t only the ones that we misidentify, that we fail to respond to, but they’re a reminder of how vulnerable leaders are to the obvious risks, that were usually not as good as we might think at responding to. So, the first thing is, to just go back to what you know already and make a list of the top three Gray Rhinos in that list, look at how they affect your business, your constituency, and how are you responding, how could you better respond, and how are other stakeholders responding, whether that’s competitors, or other people, clients, citizens, it’s really about response. Focus on the response and how you can respond better to this crash of Gray Rhinos in this polycrisis.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Hersh Shah:<\/b><\/p>\n

And is this something you’ve covered in some of your recent books?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Michele Wucker:\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Well, it’s certainly in the \u201cGray Rhino\u201d and in \u201cYou Are What You Risk\u201d, it talks about some of the often misunderstood influences on why some people, some leaders, some organisations respond more quickly, and\/or others don’t. It has to do with psychological factors, with cultural factors. So, part of Gray Rhino theory, is really understanding how you are prepared psychologically, organisationally, and culturally to respond to the obvious things in front of you. One of the most surprising discoveries for me was that many people find doing something to head off the Gray Rhino is a bigger risk than the Gray Rhino themselves, they would rather be wrong with everybody else rather than being right alone, but there’s huge value to be created from recognising obvious risks and being brutally honest about how you respond so that you can improve that response.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Hersh Shah:<\/b><\/p>\n

Vishal Jain <\/b>(Partner and Leader, Enterprise Risk, Deloitte India)<\/span>, let me bring you in at this point. What are some of the limitations that you’re seeing in risk maturity across Indian enterprises, and where do we really stand today in terms of preparedness towards a polycrisis scenario?\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Vishal Jain:<\/b><\/p>\n

So, see, from a risk point of view, enterprises are looking and they have the risk registers in place, identifying what are the risks at all levels, and largely, it should be across, right from the localised micro level to the macro level risk also. But the thing is that the risk in the current form today is more like a one-time assessment, and the preparedness is something not so matured, so though I know what I’m exposed to, but at the same time, my entire focus is more to mitigate that risk. The step beyond is that even if I mitigate, there could be even a very limited chance of risk getting actually exploited or an event happening, but then preparedness for an event happening for a particular risk, I think that structured approach is still not that mature in most of the enterprises. What they do is that everybody believes that we know how to do, what to do, we have been doing this, so in a panic mode, everybody takes care of it, but then at the time of the crisis, you actually lose a lot of time if you’re not structured in that process. The other thing is that most of the functions or departments are working in silos or isolation, whereas when an event happens, it is across the company or enterprise. So, an integrated view, checking what is the interdependency of one function to another function, the entire value chain-based approach of the preparedness if a crisis hits, how it’s going to impact all the other components, that is something which is largely missing. And the last important thing is, most of the focus has been on the localised because that is easily foreseeable in my environment, that’s how people believe. What about the gradual, slightly longer, political, geopolitical, national, I would say a macro level risk, how much is the preparation for that, is something which is sometimes not even thought of.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Hersh Shah:<\/b><\/p>\n

Pramit Pal Chaudhuri <\/b>(South Asia Practice Head, Eurasia Group & Fellow, Ananta Aspen Centre), <\/span>bringing you in at this point. With global volatility escalating, whether it’s geopolitical flash points, or economic uncertainty, and even supply chain tensions, how should India really frame its national risk priorities to stay resilient in this interconnected, turbulent landscape?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Pramit Pal Chaudhuri:<\/b><\/p>\n

Well, I think the core of it remains what every government would like to do, which is to be completely self-reliant in as many elements as possible. That obviously is not possibl<\/span>e,<\/span> there are limited resources. So, the game really is to, one, assess your priorities on risk, you can’t cover all risk, governments simply cannot<\/span>.<\/span> Obviously, national security concerns tend to be predominant, but you’ll see, for example, in India, the focus has been less on defence but on diplomacy. Use, if you wish, less expensive means to your security. Climate, for example, is a risk that is global but very difficult to get solutions at the global level, so you attempt to carry out as much green transition as you can. You have supply chain risks, the Houthis attack American warships, American warships leave the Arabian Sea, the Indian Navy then has to step in to secure the Arabian Sea, Persian Gulf supply chains, which strongly affect, obviously, Indian exports and shipping lines. So, that cascade effect is there, but how does India handle it? A government, ultimately, especially one in a developing country like India, has limited resources. So, the question for them is priorities, and should we say, strategy, so, a part of that is what India is doing. We’re building 60 warships right now, the biggest naval maritime expansion in its history because it realizes on the hard security side it’s largely going to be on its own, but on the other hand, it’s forming alliances, should we say, coalitions of the willing, in things like technology, strategic technology coalitions, for example, like the Quad, but it is also member of the BRICS, and emerging economies front organisation, to push certain issues in trade and climate which fulfil its obligations. It maintains a relationship with all the great powers, even ones like China with which it has a rivalry, but also one like Russia which is a pariah to the West, but India feels it necessary for a larger Eurasian strategy. So, the game, therefore for India, is getting these priorities right, and it’s a perpetually shifting struggle, to some degree, for any government.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Hersh Shah<\/b>:<\/b><\/p>\n

Michele, building on that, let me come back to you before we take a short break. What role do you think can incentive structures really play across governments, markets, and even civil institutions to enable early response to systemic risks instead of, you know, really waiting for crisis to unfold?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Michele Wucker:\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

When people talk about risk, they often only talk about the bad things, the things that you are preventing, whereas risk also involves opportunities, vulnerabilities, and dangers, and there is strategic value in addressing the vulnerabilities and building resilience. So, I think what first needs to happen is a greater level of discussion at the board level, at the policy level, in the media, about resilience, what investments are being made in resilience, and then to build into key performance indicators, key risk indicators, and key resilience indicators as part of that, and we really need to talk a lot more about what’s being done to prevent something. All too often we see something like the Key Bridge collapse last year in Baltimore and you probably saw the news recently of Mexican Navy training ship causing a lot of death and injuries by crashing into the Brooklyn Bridge, and in those cases, there were so many missed opportunities for preparation, whether it was insuring up the Key Bridge which would have cost a fraction of what it is cost to fix it, or in having the tugboat properly attached. So, really, talking ahead of time, what do we need to do? Reporting on what you have done, and okay if there is a failure, if it doesn’t go properly, then you can always come back and say we did everything we could, this was beyond what we did but we were thinking about it, and that’s a much better place for a policy maker, for a CEO, for anyone to be in than in the oh we saw something coming and we just let ourselves get trampled.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hersh Shah<\/b>:<\/b><\/p>\n

I think the common thread is clear that we need systems that can adapt and align, not just absorb the shock after they occur. Alright, it’s time for a short break. We’ll be back with this powerful panel to unpack how talent, strategy, and even public leadership are converging to shape national resilience in a polycrisis world. Stay tuned.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n