WITH COVID-19 upending businesses and world, a survey found that business interruption has become the number one concern among employers in the Asia Pacific region.
“With more emphasis and reliance on technology, cyber risk also topped the list as the number one current and predicted future risk globally, its highest rank since the inception of the survey.
“Cyber attacks were also cited in the top 10 list of risks across each region, industry and respondent type,” reads Aon’s 2021 Global Risk Management Survey.
Apart from business interruption and cyber attacks, other issues worrying businesses are:
- Economic slowdown/slow recovery
- Damage to reputation/brand
- Pandemic risk/health crises
- Failure to innovate/meet customer needs
- Increasing competition
- Accelerated rates of change in market factors
- Failure to attract or retain top talent
- Regulatory/legislative changes
Based on the survey, it clearly showed that COVID-19 has dramatically changed on how businesses operate and view the industry’s future, amidst a backdrop of challenging market conditions: slower vaccine rollouts, delayed infrastructure projects and workforce shortages.
“It really tests the ability of firms to manage volatility and make better decisions. With that, organisations are shifting their focus from event-based to impact-based risk assessments.
“For example, business interruption was once seen as a linear risk, but the pandemic has demonstrated how it can affect multiple industries and companies simultaneously and globally,” it reads.
Managing “known unknowns”
On related matter, Aon commercial risk solutions Lambros Lambrou said that with the world becoming a more volatile place, effective decision-making skill has become paramount for a firm.
“Long-tail risks are not single events. They’re innately interconnected, as we’ve seen with the pandemic fundamentally changing the way the world works, revealing new risks and re-ordering priorities in the C-suite.
“A preoccupation with managing these immediate risks may compromise firms’ ability to invest in managing the risks of tomorrow,” he opined.
On that note, Aon Asia Pacific CEO Anne Corona said that companies’ risk profiles are continuously changing, with corporations’ understanding, readiness and ability to manage and transfer risk evolving as they emerge from the health crisis.
“And there is an increasing need to innovate to address these ‘known unknowns.’ As we face unprecedented events, businesses must proactively prepare and manage the current and emerging risk exposures,” she stressed. – Dec 7, 2021
