Sue Trezise – Sue-lutions Ltd
Looking beyond the Top 10 and doing the ‘Pivot’.
By this time any other year I would be providing a summary of reports such as the Allianz Risk Barometer or the AON Global Risk Survey, using the insights to benchmark risk activities and awareness in the New Zealand context.
2020 is one out of the box (as they say) with the COVID-19 pandemic creating a completely different context for risk practitioners, given the depth and breadth of unknowns and the velocity with which change has happened.
What’s different this time?
It is as if the Top 10 risks have all been realised in the same event, rather than as independent developments as might normally be anticipated. It’s the earthquake risk (low likelihood, high consequence risk) realised in all places at once – no one and no place is unaffected. It’s a collection of threats that has become a super-issue situation: mass business closures; supply chain breakdown; loss of resources through lockdown or quarantine; a substantial decline or significant increase in customers depending on the face-to-face or online presence; sudden change in business regulations/requirements (eg social distancing constraints in work and retail space); and the malevolent presence of IT cyber attacks, security breaches and internet failures.
From the same setting, new thinking has been triggered. For example, opportunities created by the acceleration of telework (increased use of virtual meetings, confidence in online productivity), working from home flexibility, sharing of strategies for coping with isolation (cooking, exercise and mindfulness videos), and big wins for those industries well positioned to respond to demand for online products and services.
This is taken from an article published in the RiskPost June 2020, edition 1.
You can view the full article here.