New report reveals that compliance-first mindset leaves boards unprepared for ecosystem failures
SINGAPORE, April 15, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Singapore leads APAC in digital resilience, according to a new Economist Impact report, but gaps in board-level leadership and coordination beyond the organisation continue to leave businesses exposed.
The findings are published in Resilience by Design: Building Connected Ecosystems for the Age of Disruption, a report supported by Telstra International. It draws on a survey of more than 1,400 senior executives across seven industries and 11 APAC markets[1], with comparative benchmarks from the United States, United Kingdom and Germany.
The findings highlight Singapore’s focus for the next phase of digital resilience: bridging the gap between regulatory compliance and operational agility, ensuring that boards are prepared for failures not only within their own organisations, but across the broader digital ecosystem they rely on – including partners and supply chains.
Charles Ross, Head, Policy and Insights, APAC, Economist Impact said: "Singapore’s top ranking is a testament to its gold-standard regulatory environment and national focus on digital resilience. However, our research shows that strong compliance and operational discipline are not enough. In an era of compounding risks, digital resilience depends not only on internal safeguards but on the strength of wider ecosystems. And ultimately, the ability to respond and adapt rests as much on leadership and culture as on technology."
Roary Stasko, CEO, Telstra International said: "Singapore shows up strongly in the research, reflecting its deep investment in digital capability. However, digital resilience today is no longer something any business can build alone. As ecosystems become more interconnected, leadership teams need to move beyond a compliance mindset and take shared accountability for digital resilience across partners, suppliers and networks. Organisations that embed digital resilience into strategy, governance and ecosystem design will be far better positioned to adapt and respond when disruption hits."
The research uses a Digital Resilience Barometer that evaluates capabilities across five pillars: the external enabling environment, technology and infrastructure, risk management, leadership, and workforce and cultural agility. In APAC, Singapore ranked #1 in overall digital resilience capability as well as in risk management and workforce and cultural agility. It was placed #2 in technology and infrastructure – but ranked lower in external enabling environment (#6) and leadership (#10).
Leadership, which assesses C-suite accountability and how deeply digital resilience is embedded in strategy, is the city-state’s clearest gap. 71% of Singapore respondents say that boards or executive committees do not review the effectiveness of digital resilience plans on a regular basis, leaving this responsibility concentrated in a single function, such as IT, rather than shared across the C-suite. This siloed ownership reinforces the tendency to treat digital resilience as a cybersecurity issue rather than a strategic board priority.
Ecosystem digital resilience is the weakest link
Despite Singapore’s lead in digital resilience, confidence collapses once operations move beyond a company’s own walls (supply chains, cloud providers, and third-party vendors).
While 22% of Singapore organisations report having first-hand insight into the digital resilience capabilities of their suppliers and partners, limited information-sharing, infrequent joint resilience simulations with key ecosystem partners, and weak partner governance make ecosystem interdependencies the main source of digital resilience failure. This matters, especially in Singapore: as a regional digital hub, disruptions do not stay local; they cascade across supply chains, cloud platforms, and cross-border connectivity.
Execution gaps in digital resilience practices
Even with top rankings across the workforce and cultural agility and risk management pillars, Singapore faces a significant gap between preparedness and actual performance.
Despite high confidence in national reskilling and upskilling at scale, a closer look at employees’ digital resilience behaviours shows that there is a persistent gap between awareness and effective action. While 82% have upskilling programmes and 85% run organisation-wide digital resilience training, only 12% mandate training that builds team adaptability, particularly during outages.
Although Singapore respondents are confident in structured preparedness to anticipate, mitigate and respond to disruptions, only 30% of organisations say their responses to recent disruptions went mostly or exactly to plan. Singapore is 14 percentage points above the average on citing inadequate scenario planning for when responses to threats do not go according to plan.
Additionally, organisations spend to comply, not to respond: 85% cite high compliance cost but 74% lack fulltime digital resilience teams and 60% lack dedicated budgets to digital resilience initiatives.
The next phase for Singapore’s digital resilience
Amid rising digital risks, hybrid work and rapid AI adoption, enterprises must close the gap between strategy and execution to reach the next phase of digital resilience.
"As digital disruption grows in frequency and complexity, strengthening resilience amid operational or cyber risks is becoming a differentiator for organisational stability and competitiveness," Stasko added. "At Telstra International, we work closely with government, industry and key partners to stay ahead of emerging threats, with a global network designed with layered digital resilience, proactive monitoring and strong continuity planning to help keep businesses connected and prepared as conditions evolve."
For further information and to access the full report, please visit this link.
About Telstra International
Telstra International is a trusted digital infrastructure and connectivity partner in Asia Pacific and the global arm of Telstra, a leading telecommunications and technology company with a proudly Australian heritage. Telstra International provides secure and resilient connectivity solutions to meet the growing needs of thousands of technology, enterprise, and wholesale customers.
Telstra International is built by industry experts that bring deep technical expertise, a long history of operating in Asia Pacific and a passion for partnering with customers to help their business grow. Connecting to points of presence in close to 200 countries and territories, Telstra International’s global network leverages more than 30 cable systems spanning over 400,000 kilometres, with access to 38 cable landing stations and licences across Asia, Australia, Europe and the Americas.
For more information, please visit TelstraInternational.com.
About Economist Impact
Economist Impact combines the rigour of a think-tank with the creativity of a media brand to engage a globally influential audience. We believe that evidence-based insights can open debate, broaden perspectives and catalyse progress. The services offered by Economist Impact previously existed within The Economist Group as separate entities, including EIU Thought Leadership, EIU Public Policy, Economist Events, El Studios and SignalNoise.
Our track record spans 75 years across 205 countries. Along with creative storytelling, events expertise, design-thinking solutions and market-leading media products, we produce framework design, benchmarking, economic and social impact analysis, forecasting and scenario modelling. This makes Economist Impact’s offering unique in the marketplace. Visit http://www.impact.economist.com/ for more information.
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[1]APAC markets include Australia, Mainland China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand. |