News item | 11-05-2026 | 06:00
Outage of energy, mobile communications or the cloud. Products, parts, machines or raw materials that suddenly no longer arrive. Dependencies on entrepreneurs for their processes are great. While these can fail due to natural phenomena, technical failures or hostile intent. More than half (51%) of Dutch businesses indicate that they are not taking any precautionary measures in this regard. That is why the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate (EZK) is starting a Think Ahead public campaign for companies so that they can better prepare for disruptions.
With the message: ‘Will your company continue to operate in an emergency situation? Start your own Script’, entrepreneurs are called upon to determine which processes are crucial for their company and what they can do to reduce dependencies and increase resilience. With their own script, they can record how they prepare and what needs to be done in the first 72 hours of a crisis.
New research commissioned by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy also shows today that entrepreneurs estimate their own resilience as low to very low. Only three in ten entrepreneurs (29%) think that their company is largely resilient to espionage and two in ten (19%) to the economic consequences of war or the threat of war. A quarter (25%) of entrepreneurs consider their own company to be resilient to the specific consequences of a failure of gas and water, and only just over one in ten companies (15%) to the failure of internet and cloud services.
Minister Heleen Herbert (Economic Affairs and Climate): “The dependence on energy, raw materials and digitalization is already high for entrepreneurs. Countries are also increasingly using control over raw materials and products as a geopolitical weapon. This further increases the risk of disruptions in supply or failure of processes. We are already noticing this, for example, due to the situation in the Middle East.”
The minister continues: “Research shows: the resilience of Dutch entrepreneurs is still too low and the dependencies are too great. That has to be improved and that is why this campaign. If you can continue as a company, you not only help yourself, but also your customers, suppliers and your environment.”
Denkvooruit.nl/bedrijven
Being prepared is very important for companies. From the point of view of entrepreneurship itself and because of the importance of a resilient business community for our society and economy. When companies are prepared, the impact of emergencies on society and the economy is lower and we can better absorb shocks. During long-term disruptions or international conflicts, important products and services can continue to be supplied.
More and more companies are therefore preparing. That is good for every entrepreneur, their suppliers, customers and for the Netherlands. Because if companies keep running, the Netherlands will keep running. Companies are starting up their own script Denkvooruit.nl/bedrijven.
