In 2025, in the fourth year of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, we are releasing our Fifth Annual Research on the Resilience of Businesses and Organisations in Ukraine. This year, we focus on planned resilience — the ability of organisations to strategically prepare for the future, no matter how uncertain it may be.
After all the trials we have endured as a society — over centuries, decades, and recent years — we can now say with confidence:
RESILIENCE IS A CHOICE
RESEARCH RESPONDENTS
Ukrainian companies assess their level of resilience as
24%
— high
43%
— medium
— low
32%
Six Key Factors of Organisational Resilience
In the report, we explore resilience across six essential dimensions:
Purpose and principles
Alignment of a greater purpose with the business strategy.
Ability to change
Agility and speed of adaptation.
Customer engagement
Authentic and customer-centred value proposition.
Managing innovation
Ability to produce innovations that mitigate risk and address challenges.
Social engagement
Structured stakeholder and reputation management.
Team
Culture, leadership and human potential management.
“Resilience is primarily a belief in what you do, and it is your reputation. Mission keeps you grounded when everything around you is unstable: you realise you are doing something meaningful — and you must carry on. There comes a moment of responsibility — for your reputation and for the mission you have chosen. Because if you have defined it yourself, you must live up to it. That is what gives you strength. That is the essence of resilience. Belief in your work and your reputation are both the necessary and sufficient conditions for holding on.”
Iryna Danylevska, Co-founder and CEO of Ukrainian Fashion Week
We conducted our first study of organisational resilience in Ukraine in 2020, at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. While working on this year’s report, we revisited that initial study to compare how the meaning of resilience — and the areas leaders focus on — has evolved over time.
Business Mission and Social Role — From CSR to Strategic Responsibility
01
08
2020
Not always clearly articulated, corporate social responsibility includes helping society (purchasing testing kits, IVL and other equipment, providing transport for doctors).
2025
A grand purpose and a social mission have become foundational. Corporate social responsibility now extends to international representation of Ukraine, influencing public policy, and supporting the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Leadership — From Crisis Manager to Sense-Maker and Role Model
02
08
2020
Key elements: rapid response, flexibility and anti-crisis management.
2025
The leader becomes the “holder of resilience”, setting the value direction, while simultaneously delegating responsibility, reducing micromanagement, and fostering trust.
Team — From Clear and Structured Communication to Role Flexibility, Care, and Trust
03
08
2020
The main emphasis is on regular and open communication with the team, including top management.
2025
There is a growing need for role flexibility, shared leadership, psychological support, and the development of soft skills such as adaptability, emotional resilience, and critical thinking. Well-being and care for people are increasingly recognized as investments in resilience.
Planning and Adaptability — From Fast Response to “Planned Resilience”
04
08
2020
Flexibility and rapid decision-making are forced reactions to crisis.
2025
Adaptability is becoming the new norm; companies are returning to strategic planning with a one- to five-year horizon, but continuously revising their tactics. The approach of ‘hope for the best, prepare for the worst’ has become fully established.
Innovation — From Reactive Solutions to a Decentralised Culture of Change
05
08
2020
New products and services are implemented reactively, primarily to satisfy customer needs.
2025
Innovation is decentralised, as teams generate ideas at all levels. It emerges through inventiveness and optimisation, not only through breakthrough technologies. Digitalisation and business process automation continue to their role. Organisations are actively testing AI, although it has not yet been systemically integrated it.
Reputation and Values — From Humane and Empathetic Communication to Shared Values
06
08
2020
The focus is on empathy, humane service and expansion of online channels.
2025
Shared values with society and adherence to principles shaped during the war have become essential. Reputation and trust now serve as “strategic capital,” influencing partnerships and organizational survival in times of crisis. Public intolerance towards violations of values is steadily increasing.
A culture of continuous learning and horizontal career mobility
07
08
2020
Employee training is mostly ad hoc, often driven by crisis-related needs.
2025
A culture of continuous learning, experimentation and tolerance for error is emerging.
Evolution
08
08
2020
From rapid response, survival and ad hoc social support.
2025
A shift toward greater strategic readiness for the future, grounded in the awareness and acceptance of uncertainty as the norm. Organisations are becoming mature actors within the state system, fostering cultures of resilience, innovation and shared values.
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