Andy Hawkes, CEO at Cardinus and newly elected President of IIRSM, paints a picture of the future of the risk management industry and describes how Cardinus Risk Management aims to deal with the issues to help customers make the best choices in an uncertain world.

As we look to 2018 and the key risks facing industry and commerce we instinctively consider terrorism, technoogical disruption, natural disasters and cyber risk at the top of most lists, but additionally the ability to change, and more importantly, how to manage that change, an essential element. The impact of digital disruption from AI, Blockchain, and IOT, to name a few, will see the acceleration of competition and change at record speeds.

At Cardinus we expect to see executives needing to devote additional time or resources to risk identification and management over the next 12 to 24 months. The global business environment needs to motivate boards and executives to increase their focus on effective risk oversight. As many organisations have discovered in recent years, getting it wrong in the digital economy can be lethal.

Information security and the arrival of GDPR also is driving risk management. The demand for better data security is sat alongside the ingenuity of criminals. While a lot of the answers will be provided by clever software and hardware, it is the human factor that will remain a challenge; how can you prevent employees innocently clicking on links that appear genuine?

The emergence of the lone wolf terrorist and the threat of cyber terrorism has changed our perception of the safety of family, colleagues and the general public at large. The nature of safety risk management has changed and we need to educate all groups to be more aware and conscious of the threats now posed.

On a wider front we will see the emergence of post-Grenfell fire safety regulations, acceleration of the agile and collaborative working environment and how this will impact on ergonomics risks associated with musculoskeletal injuries, and, as we move towards driverless and intelligent vehicles we will see ongoing debate around safety.

Cardinus is committed to supporting our clients across a broad range of risk management needs from online solutions to on-site interventions. To this end, we are developing greater numbers of e-learning courses to provide training for a larger number of safety concerns, we’ve recently launched a Security division, and improving our existing offerings to meet contemporary concerns. Over the next few months we’ll be providing more detail on our plans, so keep an eye on our blog for updates.

Never before has the need for the risk management profession been as critical.

For help with your risk management programme, call us on 0207 469 0200 or email [email protected].