An Economist Impact study supported by Telstra International has found that organisations in the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany are materially underprepared for large-scale digital disruption.
The research suggests failures are driven less by technology gaps, than by weak governance, limited coordination and poor visibility beyond organisational boundaries.
The APAC-led, multi-market study, with comparative benchmarks from the three western economies, surveyed over 1,400 senior executives. Just 25% of organisations across all surveyed markets say their responses to digital disruption largely go to plan, while only 21% have a dedicated team responsible for delivering digital resilience initiatives.
While organisations report progress in modernising systems and strengthening cybersecurity policy, the research shows digital resilience breaking down when disruption extends beyond enterprise suppliers, partners and critical infrastructure.
Ecosystem digital resilience is the weakest link
Confidence drops sharply when disruption involves external dependencies. Fewer than one in five executives in the US (19%) and UK (20%) express confidence in cross-sector collaboration with suppliers and partners during disruption events.
Access to skilled talent is similarly constrained, with just 22% of US and 18% of UK respondents citing it as a strength.
By contrast, executives report higher confidence in internal foundations such as cybersecurity planning and regulatory frameworks. Germany leads on policy confidence (70%), while the US (54%) and UK (51%) show solid but less mature confidence levels.
The findings point to a widening gap between internal preparedness and ecosystem-level digital resilience, with siloed information sharing, limited joint testing and weak partner governance undermining response efforts when incidents escalate.
Planning exists, execution fails
Despite widespread planning for digital disruption, execution consistently falls short, with governance and oversight remaining weak.
Across all the surveyed markets, just 27% of organisations say digital resilience plans and strategies are reviewed regularly by boards, and only 38% say those discussions lead to follow-up action. Monitoring is also inconsistent, with more than half of organisations tracking digital risks infrequently or on an ad hoc basis.
Below board level, responsibility for managing digital resilience-building is more often than not focused within a single function, such as IT, rather than shared across the C-suite (confirmed by 47% of respondents).
Legacy technology remains a structural drag
Although most organisations report some degree of system modernisation, legacy infrastructure continues to underpin large parts of operating environments. Around 60% of US and UK organisations, and 54% in Germany, say legacy technology still forms a significant part of their operations, constraining efforts to design digital resilience into systems from the outset.
Progress away from legacy infrastructure also diverges by sector. Just over a third of financial services and IT & technology organisations (36% each) report having modernised most or all of their core systems, compared with 12% in the public sector and 19% among industrial organisations, where deeper legacy dependence and rigid investment models continue to slow progress.
Infrastructure and climate risks remain overlooked
The research also highlights a growing blind spot around physical infrastructure and environmental risk. Just 14% of organisations integrate climate-related risks into digital resilience planning, despite the direct impact of environmental events on power supply, data centres and recovery timelines.
As AI adoption accelerates, pressure on energy and water systems is increasing, and the consequences of infrastructure failure are becoming harder to ignore. Recent large-scale outages caused by extreme weather events underline the vulnerability of communications networks and digital services to non-cyber disruption.
Roary Stasko, CEO of Telstra International said: “What stands out in this research is not a lack of intent, but a gap between ambition and execution. Many organisations believe they are prepared, yet disruption continues to expose weaknesses in governance, coordination and decision–making, particularly beyond their own walls.
“In a highly connected digital economy, digital resilience can’t be built in silos. It has to be owned at the top, tested across ecosystems and treated as a core business capability.
“As digital disruption grows in frequency and complexity, strengthening resilience amid operational or cyber risks is becoming a differentiator for organisational stability and competitiveness.”
Charles Ross, Head of Policy and Insights, Asia-Pacific at Economist Impact said:
“Our research shows organisations understand the risks they face, but many have yet to translate that awareness into sustained capability. Digital resilience must be treated as a core business discipline with clear ownership and dedicated resources, not as a periodic IT initiative.
“That means integrating ecosystem partners into stress testing, shifting from episodic risk reviews to continuous preparedness and ensuring governance keeps pace as technologies such as AI scale”.