Post: Building Resilience Into Business DNA: Lessons NCT’S Journey

January 28, 2026

Building Resilience Into Business DNA: Lessons NCT’S Journey

I don’t think anyone would argue that our current Springbok team could be described as the epitome of resilience. They have become the kings of one-point wins. They have won against remarkable odds. They have faced the best in the world with 14 men. As world champions, they faced all and sundry and kept them all at bay. It’s not coincidence. It’s not that they decided to be tenacious and die hard for any particular season. Its been built in them and cultivated from an astute leadership collective, tested and refined over several seasons.

Resilience is not an emergency switch you flip when adversity strikes. It’s a capability embedded in an entity’s DNA – cultivated through preparation, adaptability and proactive systems. Drawing on NCT’s experiences over the past few years, we can attest to how resilience is built, why it cannot be improvised and what activities businesses should nurture to stay strong in uncertain times.

In today’s volatile world, resilience is often misunderstood as the ability to “bounce back” when things go wrong. But true resilience is not reactive – it’s strategic. It’s about anticipating risks, preparing for disruptions and creating a culture that thrives under pressure. Businesses that embed resilience into their operations and ethos are better positioned to survive and recover when adversity hits.

When disaster strikes, businesses without this embedded resilience scramble to respond. They lack systems, resources and decision-making agility. NCT’s recent history has in reality prepared us in so many ways. Like many South African businesses, we endured the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2021 looting and unrest, and the KZN floods of 2022. Then came the Richards Bay fire in October 2023, the Durban port loader damage in May 2024, and the strengthening rand over the past 15 months. These events wiped out revenues to a level that could have crushed most businesses. Our ability to adapt and overcome was not improvised – it was the result of years of preparation, capabilitybuilding and a culture that allowed us to predict, plan and respond decisively.

Resilience begins with identifying risks, assessing their likelihood and impact, and planning accordingly. Risks range from major fires and exchange rate volatility to supply chain collapses, IT failures, labour unrest, and natural disasters like floods. Tools such as risk registers and heat maps help visualise exposure and prioritise mitigation measures. NCT has found that scenario planning is critical. Can your business use solid forecasting tools to model risk? Are you able to predict where you will be one year or two years in the future? Can you predict how cash flow will be impacted under different scenarios?

That leads to money, of course. Financial resilience was a cornerstone of our response to the Richards Bay fire. Resilient businesses diversify revenue streams, maintain strong banking relationships and build liquidity buffers. They hedge against currency volatility and keep reserves for emergencies. While NCT’s revenue diversity is not unlimited, we don’t have all our eggs in the Richards Bay basket. Revenue from our Durban export facility and domestic sales – making up more than 40% of our turnover – proved vital as circumstances unfolded. Then there were our cash reserves. Years of refining our reserve methodology paid off. Those reserves buffered the timing of insurance payouts and gave us leeway to keep buying and storing member timber in the interests of the Industry. Our long-standing relationship with FNB also came to the fore, with offers of support we could have called upon if needed.

As the smoke was still settling in Richards Bay, we were already identifying which incoming vessels could be diverted to Durban, how long we could afford to buy timber from members, where we could store it and what we should be telling stakeholders. Foresight enables proactive action. Our ability to plot outcomes months into the future gave us confidence to make quick decisions when every hour counted.

Transparency during crises is essential. Stakeholders – members, customers, suppliers – must know what’s happening so they can plan and mitigate their own fallout. Cushioning the impact on customers and maintaining trust prevents uncertainty. Contingency plans for high-risk events are non-negotiable. During the fire, we engaged unions, the local municipality and port authorities early. We invited TV crews onto ground zero and kept the public informed about the fire and its environmental impact. The support we received from the community, churches, the municipality and industrial peers was remarkable – and we were commended continuously for our transparency.

After the fire, as rebuilding began, we spent significant time updating international customers and members with details around completion dates, timber intake projections, insurance updates and financial impact. We were buoyed to regain all our international customers as soon as we could service them, with the last confirming contract resumption just last month. The take away from this is quite subtle. We have spent years and years nurturing our relationships with our major customers. There have been times when we have placed these relationships ahead of short-term gains. We have ensured these relationships extend beyond the board level and executive level, to ensure that even at operational and financial levels our employees are engaging and interacting with their peers in a respectful and proactive manner. We have made this an inherent part of the NCT culture. Its part of our brand. The manner and depth of these relationships played a large role on the levels of support, understanding and encouragement we received from these customers.

Culture drives resilience. Does your organisation embrace flexibility, continuous learning and innovation? Do leaders empower employees to make rapid decisions and share how they handle challenges? At NCT, supportive leadership and open communication have been key to navigating disruptions. We learned from COVID-19 how to empower the right levels of our organisation to respond effectively while maintaining accountability. During the fire, board members were literally on the ground, sharing, supporting and motivating staff alongside senior managers.

Our experiences tell the story: resilience is cumulative, built through systems and culture – not improvised in a crisis. But here’s the twist: even the best preparation sometimes isn’t enough.

Consider the Welsh Rugby team – brave dragon warriors, trained and prepared to face the Springbok juggernaut. They analysed every scenario, trained relentlessly and played to the absolute best of their ability… and still got obliterated. Were they resilient? Absolutely – they got up after every tackle, every scrum, every try against them. But their resilience didn’t change the outcome.

Businesses face similar realities. Sometimes, despite preparation, flexibility and tenacity, circumstances overwhelm available resources. Resilience doesn’t guarantee a win – but it keeps you in the game long enough to fight another day. And that’s still worth investing in.

Resilience is not about avoiding adversity – it’s about enduring it and emerging stronger. Preparation, adaptability and proactive leadership make resilience a strategic asset. For NCT, resilience is not optional, it’s a long-term investment. And for every business, the question isn’t whether adversity will come, but whether you’ll be ready when it does. While we can’t predict every storm, we can build a ship that’s ready to sail through most of them

“Resilience is not an emergency switch you flip when adversity strikes, its a capability cultivated through preparation, adaptability and proactive systems.”

Written By: Danny Knoesen, General Manager – NCT Forestry Agriculture Co-operative Limited

Source: Forestry In Focus