The aim of this study is to highlight the relevance of the concept of organizational resilience as a strategy for enterprises to adopt in order to address the various crises that arise in their environment. To achieve this, a qualitative study was conducted among 64 Very Small Enterprises (VSEs) in Cameroon. The companies surveyed were selected using the convenience sampling method. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with the VSEs' owners/managers, using Bertaux's life story method (1976). The content analysis method, based on the interpretive logic of the verbatims, was employed. The results show that VSEs withstood the COVID-19 crisis due to various dimensions of organizational resilience. These dimensions include several strategies, such as alliances and downsizing, the development of new skills, the expansion of existing activities, and versatility through learning. However, enterprises of other sizes were not considered, and the results pertain only to VSEs in a single region (the West region) of Cameroon. Extending the study to include enterprises of different sizes and other regions would increase its scope.  

 

Key words: Crisis, Covid-19, organizational resilience, strategy, very small enterprises (VSEs).