Introduction

For businesses, understanding their risk universe is an ever-present challenge. But with the economic downturn, global pandemic, and uncertain political climate, new risks are emerging and existing risks evolving at such a rapid pace that businesses are finding it ever more challenging to cope with. As a result, now more than ever is the time to update rigid compliance frameworks with a more flexible, technologically advanced, and iterative approach designed to weather the changing risk landscape.

For organisations of all sizes in all sectors, risk is an increasingly complicated matter. Exacerbated by the current landscape of geopolitical change and disruption, technological innovation, and evolving business models, the range of risks CFOs have to deal with seems more complex than ever before. In addition, most industries are dealing with political instability, economic constraints, trade volatility, regulatory changes, and talent shortages. Then add the exponential growth of cybercrime, and it’s clear to see risk is a major issue. These fast-paced changes make it extremely difficult to fully understand and manage the critical risk facing an organisation at any given time. While companies and their departments can operate in silos, ONE single threat can single-handedly impact many parts of the organisation and damage brand reputation or corporate and financial performance.

The volatile global environment is resulting in a broader and more challenging risk landscape. New risks have been introduced, while existing risks such as Brexit, the US election, cybercrime, climate change, and economic disruption have not gone anyway – and in many cases have become even more severe during 2020.

This calls for a more consistent and integrated approach to risk management. One that enables more informed decision-making through a holistic, enterprise-wide view of all the risks an organisation may face.