During disruption, operational strain can quickly escalate into contractual disputes, financial exposure and broader risks to value. Here are some immediate and near-term actions that will enable organisations to respond in a structured, defensible and commercially informed way to navigate this volatility
The conflict in the Middle East has created knock-on effects across contracts, payments and claims. A delayed shipment, for example, can trigger a payment hold, while a change in scope may lead to a dispute or formal claim. What typically begins as an operational issue can quickly escalate into a commercial, financial and legal challenge. This puts pressure on controls, compliance and leadership decision-making, increasing the need for faster visibility, clearer governance and a more disciplined response.
Under these circumstances, organisations may find it harder to determine contractual obligations and interpret key provisions, validate cost impacts, manage delayed or disputed payments, and respond to claims in a timely and defensible manner.
The pressure becomes even more acute as claim volumes rise. Force majeure notifications and claims, breach of contract disputes, price escalation and cost recovery claims can expose weaknesses in control environments across procurement, payments, inventory and logistics, reducing transparency and increasing the risk of financial loss, inefficiency and unmanaged exposure.
In this context, resilience is more than the ability to keep operations running. It is the organisation’s ability to anticipate disruption early, understand which exposures matter most, identify where immediate action is needed, and recognise when the response itself needs to change.
Without that clarity, organisations risk treating symptoms rather than root causes, and focusing on operational disruption without addressing the contractual, financial and recovery implications that follow. They may also struggle to distinguish between matters that can be stabilised through day-to-day management and those that require structured claims handling, formal investigation or escalation to leadership.
Claims readiness must be part of the resilience response
As claims and disputes arise across different contracts, counterparties and jurisdictions, organisations need a clear and scalable way to manage them – from intake and triage through to assessment, evidence gathering and escalation. This becomes even more important when several counterparties raise claims at the same time, alongside cost increases and delay-related disputes. Without a structured approach, positions may weaken quickly, management attention can be diverted into manual coordination, and the ability to protect or recover value may be diminished.
Value protection also depends on controls and investigations
In disrupted environments, weaknesses in controls across procurement, payments, logistics and inventory may not immediately appear strategic at first, yet they can have significant financial and reputational consequences.
As operational strain persists, exceptions may become normalised, documentation may weaken, and visibility over pricing, approvals, counterparties and delivery obligations may deteriorate. This can increase exposure not only to financial loss and disputes, but also to integrity concerns, misconduct and regulatory issues that are often harder to identify and resolve once they have taken hold.
For example, procurement teams may onboard alternative suppliers under accelerated timelines in order to maintain continuity, bypassing standard due diligence and approval processes. While this may be operationally necessary, it can reduce visibility over pricing, contractual terms and third-party risk, creating exposures that may only become apparent once claims, financial leakage, fraud concerns or regulatory issues begin to surface.
A coordinated response model is now essential
What organisations increasingly require, therefore, is not a series of disconnected interventions, but a coordinated and strategically aligned response model.
This begins with:
- Early identification of risks arising from disruption across contracts, third parties and critical operations
- Strengthening resilience where operational and contractual pressures are increasing
- Managing claims in a timely and defensible manner
- Protecting value where control weaknesses, financial risks or regulatory risks begin to emerge
Technology plays a critical role in enabling structured intake, workflow management, document review and auditability, visibility and reporting across claims and investigations, particularly where disruption creates a level of scale and complexity that manual processes can no longer sustain.
What differentiates more effective organisations is the ability to recognise early how quickly operational issues can evolve into contractual, financial and strategic consequences. This requires teams to pivot quickly in the face of disruption, while putting in place the structure needed to sustain a more controlled and defensible response over time.
In practical terms, this means focusing on two parallel priorities:
Immediate priorities
- Rapidly map risk exposure across key contracts, suppliers and operations, focusing on where delays, cost impacts or disputes are already emerging.
- Establish a central decision-making and escalation structure so that disruption-related issues are triaged, prioritised and resolved consistently.
- Conduct rapid risk screening of newly onboarded and critical third parties, focusing on sanctions and regulatory exposure, pricing anomalies, contractual gaps and ownership transparency.
- Stabilise critical processes by defining minimum documentation and evidence requirements to support payments, claims and key decisions.
- Triage active claims, disputes and cost escalation requests, prioritising those with the highest financial and contractual impact.
Near-term priorities
- Strengthen claims intake, triage and assessment processes to ensure consistency, scalability and defensibility, supported by clear documentation and audit trails.
- Enhance visibility and monitoring across procurement, payments, logistics and inventory to identify control weaknesses and financial exposure.
- Embed more structured contract management and review capabilities to support interpretation, entitlement and recovery.
- Proactively manage regulatory exposure from disruption, ensuring sanctions and compliance considerations are embedded in operational and financial decision-making.
These actions will enable organisations to pivot quickly when needed, while building a more structured response to better anticipate disruption and protect value under pressure.
Authors
