You know how generals tend to prepare to fight the last war. It appears that chief financial officers (CFO) worry about a repeat of the most recent disasters but have trouble identifying future risks. The risks that CFOs say will be their greatest concerns over the next five years — financial meltdowns and supply-chain disruptions — are the disasters that have happened in the last few years, according to an article and survey by CFO magazine.
Top risks identified by 168 senior finance executives
- Financial exposure (51%)
- Supply-chain/logistics disruption (37%)
- Legal liability/reputational harm (35%)
- Technology failure (33%)
- Security breach (23%)
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Multiple responses allowed.
Source: CFO Research Services and Liberty Mutual Insurance Co., June 2010
“The research suggests that many companies would benefit from a more forward-looking approach to managing risk,” the article says, but one-quarter of respondents acknowledged that identifying risk exposures is “very challenging.”
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So what resources are available to CFOs to help their organizations develop a more forward-looking approach to managing risk? Without some type of road map, many will continue to remain behind the curve.
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