H1N1: What Now?

No matter where you are and what industry you work in, you probably have been affected in some way by the H1N1 virus and all the personal and business disruptions that have occurred. We’re beginning to see reports that we’ve seen the worst of the virus and that we’re on the upswing out of its grasp. Other experts are reporting that we are nowhere near to being at the end of this and that a third wave will hit this winter. With such uncertainty, many risk managers are erring on the side of caution.

Economic Impacts

There has also been some debate surrounding the effect swine flu will have on the economy. There are some indications that the virus has had little effect on the US economy. Government simulations have shown its impact as ‘reasonable and manageable’. However, it is anticipated that there could be between a 1 and 4.25-percent decrease in the country’s GDP.

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Examining Strategic Risk – ‘Strategic’ Risk or ‘Strategic Risk’ Management?

Risk management is much wider than simple financial or operational risk. Concepts such as ’strategic risk management’, ‘integrated risk management’ and ‘enterprise risk management’ now describe the wider application of such thinking, tools and techniques.

There is a common view that strategic risk is about managing risk ’strategically’ rather than examining strategic risk as a category similar to operational, financial and other risk areas. This common view causes confusion and may be one of the reasons that strategic risk is not further researched or specifically managed.

As outlined in my previous strategic risk blogs, one of the reasons for a lack of research is that there is no commonly accepted standard definition of strategic risk.

Much of this is no doubt due to the complexity of the concept of strategic risk, which suggests that no single quantitative measure will prove satisfactory in all strategic situations. Those risks that can be precisely quantified receive most of the attention from academic researchers, as well as corporate risk managers, while ’soft risks’, however significant, often receive little notice (cf. PricewaterhouseCoopers 2005). In order to further the literature, the need for a common understanding on strategic risk must be developed.

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Mobile Risk: What are you really carrying with your smartphone?

Kevin Bacon had his stolen in New York, British Major General Gerry Berragan had his pick-pocketed on a train in China, President Obama may still have his hacked, and at any point in time thousands of smartphone owners could be running information-leaking viruses without knowing it.

Living in an increasingly mobile and connected world changes the boundaries and realities of risk. When you carry the world at your fingertips you take with you risks that, if not properly managed, can bring about huge loss.

Of major concern are risks surrounding viruses, theft and loss. These risks can affect the protection of employee and customer information, your company’s reputation, your intellectual property, and your competitive advantage.

How do we put ourselves at risk?

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Aon Identifies Top Three Risks in the Retail Industry

Aon recently released a report that outlined the top three risks identified by the retail industry. The report found that these top three risks were also in the list of top ten risks that the retail industry was the least prepared to face.

These risks are of concern to the retail industry because of three characteristics; their complexity, their difficulty to control, and their enterprise-wise affect and scope.

What are the top three risks?

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Examining Strategic Risk – What is it – Why Should We Care? Part 2

One of the reasons for the lack of academic research about strategic risk is the confusion as to what is ’strategic risk’. Many of the early ERM adopters are at a preliminary assessment in which they treat enterprise risk management as an extension of their audit of regulatory compliance processes. Other organizations are at a more advanced stage, in which they quantify risks and link them to shareholder and risk-transfer decisions.

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Supply Chain Risk Management: Balancing Flexibility and Vulnerability

Supply chain management is largely about interconnectedness. When planning for and managing the sourcing, procurement, conversion and logistics related to your product offering, companies need to create the right relationships with the right companies. This will help to optimize the movement and storage of materials and inventory while at the same time preparing for disruptions. Striking the right balance is not easy.

If you stretch your supply chain too thin, you subject it to vulnerability and leave room for disruption in your operations. If you don’t actively seek ways to improve your supply chain and its processes, you’re missing out on the ability to make related operations run more effectively and efficiently.

Globalization and new market realities that allow just-in-time manufacturing, outsourcing and lean manufacturing have further complicated supply chain management. While it brings great opportunity to companies big and small, it also brings considerable risk. If you do it right, a flexible and optimized supply chain can not only free up resources within the organization, but it can also decrease the cost of goods and increase the number of markets that you can occupy. However, mismanage your supply chain, and a disruption can decrease revenue and market share, and can increase costs considerably.

When one of the links in the chain fails, what do you do?

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Examining Strategic Risk – What is it – Why Should We Care? Part 1

Within the management literature, most organizations have viewed the process of risk management primarily as an issue of compliance with statutory or regulatory requirements. Risk management within organizations has traditionally occurred within specific areas – technology, regulatory, financial, environmental etc. – with little or no coordination. Major ‘risk’ events such as September 11, Enron, WorldCom and the recent financial crisis made it increasingly apparent that the processes, policies and procedures of managing organizational risk must be a cohesive, constant analysis of both the internal and external organizational environment.

After the major ‘risk’ events of the last twenty years, the literature suggests a concentration on compliance with statutory regulatory requirements as the driver for risk management within an organization may not be an effective motivation for the management of risk.

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Communicating in a Crisis Situation

A fire has destroyed your manufacturing facility that produces 80% of your products. Your staff has nowhere to work, your suppliers have nowhere to ship goods, and your customers start looking for new suppliers. Now what? Read more

How to Protect your Company’s Communications with E-mail Policy

In the wake of a large-scale online denial of service attack made possible through the hacking of personal e-mail accounts, we asked the LinkedIn community if employees should be able to use external e-mail addresses for work-related communications. We share their views and insights with you below.

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What is your Company’s Reputation Worth?

You’re a company that is occupying all the right places online. You have a website, you blog regularly, you tweet, and you make sure your company controls profiles on all of the major social networking sites. You’re doing what you can to make sure that you are where you need to be to create brand awareness and interest in your products.

But how do you manage all these corporate communications? How closely do you monitor online representations by and of your organization?

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