The frontline of resilience: Critical infrastructure as sovereign capability

PwC Middle East argues that tabletop exercises and compliance-driven audits create a false sense of readiness, and that true preparedness requires unannounced, cross-sector stress tests that push leadership decision-making to its limits — including scenarios where essential services are fully offline. The piece also warns that siloed risk frameworks are a strategic blind spot, urging boards to establish senior governance mechanisms that maintain decision-making authority under pressure. For SEA mid-market CEOs, this is a direct prompt to replace box-ticking scenario reviews with genuine pre-mortem stress tests embedded in board cadence.