Operational Resilience: Risk & Business Continuity

Operational disruptions can arise from supply chain failures, financial pressures, technology problems, regulatory changes, workforce challenges and unexpected external events. The impact depends not only on the disruption itself, but also on how well an organisation identifies vulnerabilities, prepares for different scenarios and responds when normal operations are affected.

Operational resilience is the ability to prepare for disruption, respond effectively and adapt while maintaining critical business activities.

This course provides a structured introduction to operational resilience, combining risk assessment, business continuity, crisis management, scenario planning and organisational implementation.

What will you learn?

1. Understand operational resilience

Explore the principles of operational resilience, the changing landscape of global disruptions and the importance of identifying vulnerabilities before they affect critical operations.

2. Assess operational risks and vulnerabilities

Examine approaches to identifying operational weaknesses, evaluating potential impacts and prioritising risks. Learn how risk assessment and business impact analysis can support more informed planning.

3. Develop a resilience framework

Understand how to structure an operational resilience framework, establish priorities and consider how resilience performance can be measured and improved.

4. Prepare for disruption and manage crises

Explore crisis management, communication strategies, regulatory alignment, financial resilience and resource planning. Consider how organisations can respond to disruption while maintaining important business activities.

5. Strengthen supply chains and organisational capabilities

Examine supply chain diversification, local sourcing, workforce resilience, technology-enabled visibility and customer communication during disruptions.

6. Use scenario planning to prepare for uncertainty

Explore scenario planning, operational adaptation and approaches to scaling improvements. Consider how organisations can prepare for different possible futures rather than relying on a single forecast.

Practical tools and deliverables

The course includes practical resources to help you structure resilience assessments and translate concepts into an organisational plan:

• Business Impact Analysis: structure an assessment of how disruptions may affect important business activities.

• Risk Heatmap: organise and visualise assessed risks to support prioritisation.

• Operational Resilience Framework: establish a structured approach to resilience planning.

• Operational Vulnerability Scan Template: identify potential weaknesses and areas requiring attention.

• Resilience Toolkit and Framework Library: access supporting tools and frameworks for resilience work.

• Organisational Resilience Roadmap: organise priorities and implementation steps into a practical plan.

These resources are intended to support structured analysis and planning. They should be adapted to the organisation's context, risk profile and applicable requirements.

Who should take this course?

This course is relevant to operations managers, business leaders, risk and business continuity professionals, supply chain specialists, consultants, project managers and business owners.

It is also suitable for professionals who want to understand how resilience principles can be applied across different organisational functions.

No formal specialisation in operational resilience is required.

What will you take away?

By completing the course, you will have a clearer understanding of how to identify operational vulnerabilities, assess potential impacts, structure resilience measures and develop an organisational roadmap.

The aim is not to eliminate uncertainty. It is to help you approach disruption systematically, make priorities explicit and prepare your organisation to respond and adapt more effectively.

Course Author

Alex Amoroso, PhD

Senior UX Researcher | Research, Product & Learning Design

Alex Amoroso is a researcher, educator, and course designer with more than 10 years of professional experience in UX and product research, behavioural research, and complex problem-solving, alongside extensive experience in professional and academic education.

Her work focuses on a simple question: what is actually going on, what evidence do we have, and what should we do with it?

Across research, product, and organisational environments, she has worked on complex problems involving user behaviour, digital products, analytics, customer experience, decision-making, and innovation. Her research has included studies with thousands of users across B2B and B2C environments, combining qualitative and quantitative methods to investigate problems, challenge assumptions, interpret evidence, and support better decisions.

Alongside her professional research work, Alex teaches doctoral-level research design and methodologies, supervises and assesses research projects, and has developed approximately 30 online courses across research, UX, product, data, analytics, customer experience, business, and decision-making. Selected courses are also available through Udemy Business.

Her approach to teaching is practical and structured: clarify the subject, organise the thinking, distinguish evidence from assumption, and turn complex information into knowledge that can be applied.

She holds a PhD in Health Anthropology, with research focused on human behaviour, environmental stress, and quantitative data analysis, and has published research in peer-reviewed journals.

Across her courses, she combines:

• Research-based thinking

• Practical frameworks and methods

• Real-world examples and applications

• Clear explanations of complex subjects

• Exercises, tools, and techniques that support practical learning

Her goal is simple: to help learners understand complex subjects, think more clearly, and apply what they learn in real professional situations.

Welcome to MTF:

The MTF Institute of Management, Technology & Finance is an international institute of practical education headquartered in Lisbon, Portugal. Guided by the motto 'SCIENTIA ET PRACTICA' ('Knowledge and Practice'), the institute focuses on applied skills at the intersection of business, IT, finance, artificial intelligence, and digital transformation. Today, MTF brings together over 1.04 million learners across 220 countries and territories, serves as an official partner of IBM, Intel, and Microsoft, and is a member of the Portuguese Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Union of Trade and Services Associations of Lisbon.

The MTF Institute School of Professional & Continuing Education profile represents a specialized course track and has distinct differences from the primary account and official learning platform of the institute. Education within this track is offered in the format of specific learning editions, where completed programs are recognized exclusively through the Udemy platform certificate. This format does not provide original certificates or official documents from MTF Institute itself, nor does it include student ID cards, academic credit, or enrollment in official MTF credential programs. However, despite the academic limitations of this format, all offered courses maintain a strong practical focus and high relevance, equipping learners with up-to-date knowledge and practical tools to address real-world professional challenges.