Rising to the challenge of global uncertainty
What do leaders do when the unthinkable becomes reality? The recent past has caught many organisations by surprise; the Brexit referendum result in the UK, the election of Donald Trump in the US, uncertainty surrounding Europe, China, Russia and so on. Such events are often symptomatic of deeper social, political and power changes that can have profound and lasting effects, and can even shift an enterprise’s licence to operate dramatically.
Many organisations have been blind-sided by recent events. Until recently these risks felt predictable and manageable. Now they do not. The game has become one of survival. Even where they have considered these risks they have not explored adequately the potential choices available to them, and hence have no clear plan of action.
Traditional Enterprise Risk Management frameworks give reasonable (but cannot give absolute) assurance that the biggest risks and opportunities are identified and addressed. Many factors are commonly addressed, but still profound events, or ‘black swans’ have occurred that have left organisations completely on the back foot and without a clear plan of action.
These ‘black swans’ originate outside the organisation, and beyond the control of the enterprise, but also affect many other organisations. Such risks can only be identified by exploring the unthinkable and considering the consequences of one or multiple ‘black swans’ coming together, and the choices these may create for organisations.
We believe that identifying risks in uncertain times can be straightforward even if it is not easy.
A clear and simple approach
We understand the pressures on senior people so we have structured an approach which can be undertaken in short, bite sized, interactive sessions where we facilitate a process that both challenges the constraints on your thinking, and enables you to identify the risks and choices you may need to address.
You know your business and the forces that could disrupt it; we help you widen your understanding of the risks and create a menu of choices to mitigate plausible risks – while helping you also look deeper into events that could create real challenges for your business.
Above all, our approach leaves you totally in control and discourages any dependence on us, we act as catalysts to enhance your own enterprise risk management.
At the heart of our approach lie 4 deceptively simple questions:
- What external events could happen that would potentially impact the enterprise (positively or negatively)?
- How will you know it is happening?
- What are the choices you will have if it occurs?
- What can you do now to mitigate the impact?
In addressing these questions, we take you on a journey of discovery that helps you develop fresh and sometimes revelatory perspectives on the uncontrollables in your environment; understand their possible positive and negative effects on your business, singly and in combination; and create and make powerful choices in uncertain times.
The simplicity of our approach gives it immediacy. You can apply it with nearly no start-up time and run it at a pace commensurate with the needs of your business, however demanding that pace is.
Executed with experience
Our team are all highly experienced veterans who have worked at the highest levels in organisations, commercial, social and political.
Bringing together the disciplines of foresight, strategic and operational risk management and fixing broken large scale change programmes enables us to support you in confronting uncertainty (short, medium and long term) and in understanding the choices you will have available to you. And, as importantly, framing those choices in ways that are consistent with the enterprise’s strategic purpose and culture so that the organisation not only survives, but does so ethically and sustainably.
We also bring a depth of Change Leadership experience that helps you assess how your enterprise may react to the choices you will make, and how consistency with your purpose and values can be maintained to provide security for those that will follow you and implement the results of those choices.