Asia Pacific Risk Benchmarking Survey: More on Board

Welcome to the 2020 StrategicRISK Asia-Pacific Risk Benchmarking Survey. The results illustrate the impact this year’s pandemic crisis has had on the risk profession, in particular a growing engagement from senior management as well as more emphasis on risk reporting and business continuity management.

Eighty percent of survey respondents said their C-suite and board had become more involved in risk over the last 12 months, driven largely by the challenges posed by COVID-19. The pandemic’s impact on the organisation in terms of people, process and system has brought a growing need for cross-business coordination to deal with the multiple issues arising from the situation.

“The board and management have realised the importance of risk management and business continuity,” said the chief risk officer of a food and beverage organisation. “It has accelerated the implementation of our risk management programmes. But it is also an eye opener for me as a risk professional to improve existing practices.”

Despite greater engagement at a senior level, most APAC risk managers (71%) said their budgets and team size had remained unchanged during 2020. In the current economic climate, they are expected to do more with the same level of resources.

“COVID-19 has exposed a level of unpreparedness across many of our clients,” said the head of strategic risk management and business risk at a consultancy firm. “After an initial period of engagement with professional risk management staff, most have resorted to high risk operation strategies, also driven by reduced risk management budgets.”

Click here for the survey results