The financial services sector stands at a critical inflection point where traditional models of operational resilience are no longer adequate for the velocity and complexity of modern risk. This paper examines the strategic imperative for financial institutions to transition from reactive, compliance-centric risk management towards a state of anti-fragility: the capacity not merely to withstand systemic stress, but to improve because of it. Drawing upon empirical industry data, regulatory developments, and a practical case study from Atom Bank, the paper explores how agentic artificial intelligence is fundamentally reshaping the disciplines of operational resilience, third party risk management, and cyber security. Key themes include the maturity gap in configuration management database infrastructure, the systemic threat posed by supply chain vulnerabilities, the rise of artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled adversarial actors and deepfake fraud, and the concentration risk inherent in hyperscaler dependency. The paper challenges the prevailing assumption that anti-fragility is a well-established or universally accepted framework, presenting it instead as an aspirational model that demands significant cultural, technological, and governance transformation. Readers will gain a structured understanding of the current threat landscape, practical strategies for active resilience, and a framework for integrating AI-driven workflows into a unified institutional risk architecture. This article is also included in The Business & Management Collection which can be accessed at https://hstalks.com/business/.
As extreme heat events in New York City increase in frequency and intensity, existing response strategies must evolve to address growing risks to public health and infrastructure. This paper examines updates to the City’s (hereafter, ‘the City’ refers to the municipal government) heat emergency approach, based on initiatives piloted during the 2024 and 2025 summer seasons. The study outlines key changes to public messaging, operational planning, and community engagement. Messaging was revised to emphasise the health risks of extreme heat and promote earlier individual preparedness. The City expanded its approach beyond traditional Cooling Centers, introducing a broader concept of ‘Cool Options’ that includes a wider range of indoor and outdoor locations accessible to residents. New mapping tools were developed to provide continuous public access to information on cooling options across the city. The paper also describes targeted strategies to reach vulnerable populations, including partnerships with community organisations and the distribution of heat safety resources. Additional initiatives focused on improving accessibility, increasing awareness, and supporting at-risk groups during prolonged heat events. The findings demonstrate the importance of flexible, community-focused approaches to managing extreme heat. Continued evaluation and expansion of these strategies are expected to strengthen resilience and reduce heat-related health impacts in future increasingly severe conditions. This article is also included in The Business & Management Collection which can be accessed at https://hstalks.com/business/.
This paper provides insight into how a strong collaboration, including rotating personnel, between the first (operations) and second (risk management) lines of defence within large financial institutions improves unity of effort in meeting regulatory requirements, resiliency capabilities, recovery posture and ultimately protecting business operations and customers’ interests. Rather than the teams being inadvertently incentivised to compete, or fostering an adversarial relationship, the experience of walking in each other’s shoes enables the primary goal of the teams to be mutually supportive. This is a force-multiplier in meeting mission objectives and serving customers through continuous alignment and leveraging their common experiences to better identify and rate inherent risks in the environment, the quality of risk management, and gaps that exist between current capabilities and target states. In this approach, the first line receives valuable support from a team dedicated to risk management and with a wealth of operational experience from previous roles. A second line, which has a depth of experience in resiliency operations, can effectively anticipate and address unforeseen challenges, providing critical advisory support based on technical depth and breadth. The second line benefits from an operations team (first line) who better understand risk management beyond their current role within their office of resiliency plans, testing, exercises, training and education or crisis management. Without this added breadth of oversight experience and depth of knowledge in each of the pillars, the first line tends to limit personnel development to a single or limited set of experiences throughout their career. This article is also included in The Business & Management Collection which can be accessed at https://hstalks.com/business/.
Family reunification following disasters involving children remains one of the most consistently underdeveloped capabilities in emergency management and business continuity practice.1,2,3 Despite decades of incident after-action reports identifying reunification failures as a major contributor to prolonged suffering, operational breakdown, and loss of public trust, many healthcare systems and educational institutions continue to treat reunification as an ad hoc humanitarian concern rather than a formal continuity function.4 This paper argues that paediatric reunification must be reframed as an enterprise-level business continuity risk requiring structured governance, cross-sector integration, and repeatable operational design.5,6,7 Drawing on documented disaster failures, regulatory and accreditation requirements, and an implemented school–hospital partnership model, the paper presents a governed framework for integrating family information centres (FICs), school nurse liaisons, and coalition-based preparedness into continuity planning.8,9 The model demonstrates how compassion can be operationalised at scale without sacrificing command discipline, information security, or regulatory compliance.10,11 Implications for healthcare executives, emergency managers, and continuity professionals are explored, with particular attention to sustainability, legal alignment, and transferability across jurisdictions.12,13 This article is also included in The Business & Management Collection which can be accessed at https://hstalks.com/business/.
This paper describes how Huntington Hospital, a Level II Trauma Center in Los Angeles County, responded to the Eaton Canyon fire in early January 2025. Best practices will be presented that detail how the emergency department managed an unannounced surge, how alternative care sites were quickly activated to provide care for a large number of skilled nursing facility (SNF) residents, and strategies for ensuring adequate staffing when a sizable percentage of employees were affected by evacuation mandates and school closures. The paper offers considerations for effective communication, rapid deployment of plans and resources to support affected staff, placement of displaced SNF residents, and ensuring safe air quality inside the hospital. Impacts on hospitals related to past wildfire incidents are examined and applied to the actions taken by Huntington Hospital’s leadership team during this event. This article is also included in The Business & Management Collection which can be accessed at https://hstalks.com/business/.
