In the past several years, many large scale events that were once thought unlikely, distant, or isolated — climate change, food insecurity, energy supply volatility, overhaul of technology, and the global liquidity crisis, to name a few — have manifested and changed the course of business for many organizations.
Such global or "emerging" risks are systemic in nature and typically span beyond the capacity of a single enterprise to contain. While their likelihood may have may have once been deemed low, their impact is so significant — potentially franchise destroying or opportunity generating — that they cannot be ignored. Not surprisingly, understanding unknowns has become a boardroom issue.
This whitepaper explores why companies must adopt a systematic approach to emerging risk identification, assessment and management as part of their overall approach to Enterprise Risk Management (ERM).