Revisiting risk management in a time of crisis

Identify risks and score them Managers use a variety of techniques to identify risk events that may prevent their organizations from reaching its strategic objectives, including historical data, experts, simulations and brainstorming [ ]given that the last global pandemic, the Spanish Flu, occurred over 100 years ago, the risk of a global pandemic was most likely ranked by many as having a low probability (1) and a high impact (5), resulting in a raw risk score of 5 (see Exhibit 2) Positioned in the outermost concentric circle, the forecast is that a global pandemic may happen in the next five to ten years, an extreme risk requiring management attention and resources in the short term Once the risk of employee contagion was reduced, most organizations then worked to offset the impact of lower revenues caused by lockdowns and higher operating costs relating to hazard pay, safety equipment and lower productivity due to physical distancing