Risk management is increasingly important on the boardroom agenda: survey
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- Published: Monday, 21 November 2016 10:24
Sword Active Risk has published the results of its annual survey of risk managers from top international organizations. The survey confirmed the rising importance of risk management, with well over half of those surveyed in every geographic region stating that risk management strategies were increasing in significance across the business. This sustains the trend seen in the two previous surveys run by Sword Active Risk.
Keith Ricketts, Vice President of Marketing at Sword Active Risk commented: “The reasons given for the increase in the importance of risk and opportunity management is a point of interest, as it varies across markets. In the UK it is largely customer driven and being supported from the top down. In the US, financial and regulatory compliance are the strongest driving factors, and in Australia/Asia, specific threats to the business and top down adoption are the reasons given.
“That risk management is continuing to raise its profile across the business landscape is no surprise to us. The differing reasons from diverse geographic regions shows the variance in risk maturity and reaction to local market conditions. This all points to the management of risk rising up the Board agenda for executives and shareholders alike”
The survey, which was completed during Sword Active Risk’s Global Risk Management Conference series (held in Chicago, London, Dubai and Sydney), also shows a dramatic increase in political risk, emanating from the outcomes of the UK Brexit vote and the US Presidential election.
In the UK 44 percent of organizations cited the political situation, and subsequent implications as the biggest potential challenge or unknown to their business, in stark contrast to last year where supply chain and cyber security were the most significant risks being faced by companies. In the US, this year a third of companies saw the domestic political situation and supply chain as the biggest risk, where last year geo-political, and physical/construction risks where seen as more important. In Australia, just under a third (29 percent) of those surveyed said that political unrest was the biggest threat.
The survey asked respondents about the use of enabling technology such as, mobile, social collaboration and relationship visualization solutions within the risk process. Across all regions relationship visualization was seen as the most important element when looking to improve risk processes.
