German businesses are willing to contribute. But how prepared are they?
86 percent of surveyed companies would be willing to provide capacity to support national defense. Yet only 3.1 percent meet all five assessed criteria for Defense Readiness. Almost half meet just one or none at all.
A joint study by MHP Management and IT Consulting GmbH and the Center for Sustainable Transformation (zNT) at Quadriga University Berlin examines the gap between companies' confidence in their own preparedness and the measures they have actually put in place. Conducted by Civey, the survey covered 1,000 decision-makers from companies with annual revenues ranging from €50 million to €5 billion.
The findings reveal significant gaps: Many companies have yet to define their potential role in a defense scenario, lack sufficient visibility into critical dependencies, or are poorly prepared for prolonged IT outages. Production capacity alone does not guarantee the ability to operate during a crisis.
How long can businesses operate without their IT systems?
Cyber resilience is a particular area of concern. 76 percent of respondents say they could sustain operations for no more than three days following a complete failure of critical IT systems. Among companies confident they could ramp up production within 24 hours, 61 percent report being able to withstand a complete IT outage for no longer than a single day.
This poses a serious risk to security of supply. The logistics and transport sectors, both essential to maintaining supply chains and enabling military mobility, show particularly significant gaps in the cyber resilience measures assessed.
What businesses need to address now
The study "Ready to Defend?":
- examines how companies assess their own preparedness for crisis and defense scenarios
- evaluates five key dimensions of Defense Readiness, including risk management, supply chain transparency and cyber resilience
- compares levels of preparedness across industries and company sizes
- identifies where inadequate contingency measures pose the greatest risks to business continuity
- provides actionable recommendations for businesses and cooperation with public authorities
Discover where the greatest preparedness gaps lie and how companies can strengthen their ability to maintain operations under challenging conditions.
