We have found the use of the radar — our risk radar — to be a simple and useful device to allow us to present a snapshot of the top 10 strategic business risks for a company, a sector or indeed the global economy as a whole. The radar allows us to show both the scale of the challenge and its nature. To arrive at our findings, we worked with Oxford Analytica to interview more than 70 analysts from around the world and from over 20 disciplines that shape the business environment, including law, finance, the sciences, business strategy, geopolitics, regulation, medicine, economics and demographics. The focus of. | Strategic business risk 2008 The top 10 risks for business UErnst Young Quality In Everything We Do It is never the risk that causes damage or creates opportunities -it is how we respond. About this report Risks are inherent in every forward-looking business decision so successful risk management should be an integral part of an organization s strategy and operations -an important dimension of good management practice. There has been a great deal of work done in the area of risk management in recent years. Ernst Young has been engaged in significant global activity to clarify stakeholder perspectives map management activities and identify leading practice from which all can benefit. Likewise many companies have invested significant resources globally in risk and compliance initiatives. Financial risk and regulatory risk have been the focus of much of this effort. In both cases there are externally determined rules and frameworks with which companies need to comply and emerging best practice guidance on processes and controls that can help. We have worked with many companies who have found that the challenge of compliance can lead to opportunities for performance improvement through improved processes and enhanced communication. Some companies are now looking more closely at their operational risks prioritizing these and thinking about how they can manage and monitor these in a coordinated way the result of which can again be opportunities for performance improvement. What is clear is that to gain further business advantage companies must increasingly look at the extended risk universe from finance and compliance risk -to operational and finally strategic risk. A different perspective on strategic risk Our experience however suggests that strategic risk has not necessarily benefited from developments in management practice. Much that has been written about strategic risk seems to be at such a macroeconomic level that the implications for action by the management of
