Emerging Risks

Emerging risks are acknowledged as increasingly challenging issues for Boards and C-suite executives both in terms of threats and growth opportunities. The pace of change in the business world along with often conflicting interests and values have made gathering a reliable risk profile difficult and the complexity of information on risk issues has increased, not least since the science pertaining to emerging risks tends to be contested. In this context decision makers need transparent and high quality information.Emerging Risks: A Strategic Management Guide integrates the concept of emerging risks into risk management and corporate strategy. The book restores the constructive dialogue between the business professional and the expert/scientist community which is a prerequisite if companies are to anticipate, plan ahead and exploit leading edge ideas. It then guides organizations on how to approach and manage those risks proactively in the wake of new regulation, governance and ERM (enterprise wide risk management).The book focuses on risks that are global and systemic and provides insights into some of the major emergent risks and issues of the 21st Century. It opens with an overview of emerging risks and sheds light on their specific characteristics.The topics covered include: Nanotechnologies - the industrial revolution of the 21st Century; New information and communication technologies (NICT) - the infrastructure of the future; Electromagnetic fields (EMF) - continuing to make waves; Chemical substances/REACH - a very real economic and environmental issue and an example of emerging risk management; Biological risk - an ongoing change in need for international surveillance; Supply chain - an essential chain as a priority for top management; Country risk - with security and corporate social responsibility (CSR) as growing issues.The second part proposes a process for managing emerging risks and the strategies that need to be put in place, drawing on examples of best practice.