Feature
PRACTICE
The next generation The business landscape is changing rapidly and risk management is preparing to meet those challenges, as delegates at IRM’s Risk Leaders 2018 conference heard BY ARTHUR PIPER
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usinesses and organisations often pay too little attention to political risk, according to Sir Mark Boleat in a keynote address at this year’s IRM Risk Leaders 2018 conference. Given the huge impact that Brexit will have on businesses in the UK, for example, he questioned whether risk managers pay enough attention to political risk today. “Political risk has not traditionally been on risk registers because in the past, general elections did not pose a significant risk as the parties were relatively well aligned,” Sir Mark, who is former policy chairman, City of London, told over 180 delegates attending the conference. “Brexit has changed everything because businesses do not know what their trading relationship will be over the coming years.” He said that the UK could “crash out” of the European Union on 29 March 2019, the date when the provisions of Article 50 that govern the exit provisions expire, or trading relationships could remain the same until 2020 and beyond. “Brexit negotiations could continue for years and years and years,” he said.
If business does not engage adequately with politics it can hardly be surprised if the political system makes decisions that it does not like
Getting political He said that risk managers had a responsibility to factor in political risk in their overall assessment of
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Enterprise Risk
