Foreword from the IRM

This latest guidance paper from the Cambridge Centre for Risk Studies focuses attention onto the consumer goods sector - an area of vital importance for economies in both the developed, and developing world. IRM is delighted to be supporting this work on behalf of our worldwide membership and the wider global risk community.

Understanding and managing the risks surrounding global supply chains has never been more important. In addition to the traditional operating and financial risks, organisations are also facing challenges in relation to sustainability, ethics, geo-politics and digital disruption of business models.

Most organisations can produce a list of these risks in a risk register. However moving on from this basic step requires a more sophisticated, consistent and rigorous analysis. The scenario based approach developed in this report will provide useful guidance to practitioners looking for robust and objective ways of evaluating and prioritising these risks in the context of the business balance sheet, linking directly into the concerns of the board. We hope that the risk community will now take this work from Cambridge and ‘road test’ it to further develop new thinking in this area.

I would like to thank all the organisations and individuals who contributed to this project and also the Cambridge team for their focused and thorough approach, bringing some new thinking on concepts and techniques into the risk management space.

Socrates Coudounaris,

BEng (Hons) MSc FCII CIP CFIRM IRM Chair Risk Management Director, Reinsurance Group of America