What does resilience really look like in 2025?
The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) has launched a Business Resilience Toolkit to help finance professionals and business leaders respond to growing economic risk and uncertainty.
The new resource aims to provide strategic guidance amid heightened volatility, with UK businesses continuing to face challenging conditions.
Around 60% of start-ups fail within their first three years, while recent figures from insolvency firm Begbies Traynor show a 3.5% quarterly increase in companies facing significant financial distress—totalling 654,765 firms.
Andrew Harding, FCMA, CGMA, Chief Executive of CIMA, said the toolkit was developed to equip finance teams to play a more central role in helping organisations withstand disruption.
“With record numbers of businesses failing or under financial pressure, access to strong financial management expertise can make the difference between survival and failure,” said Harding. “Financial business partnering is essential to navigating uncertainty.”
The toolkit, developed by AICPA & CIMA, includes strategic frameworks, risk evaluation tools, and a series of prompts to help businesses assess how shifts in the external environment might impact operations, business models and strategy.
Key areas addressed include:
- Understanding economic and policy risks
- Developing integrated thinking
- Identifying and monitoring key drivers
- Enabling proactive responses
- Utilising strategic tools to uncover new opportunities
According to CIMA, the resource is designed to help finance professionals go beyond risk management and assume a strategic role in organisational planning and resilience.
“Resilience is not a fixed state—it’s a capability. And with the right tools, finance can build it,” said Harding.
