A survey including more than 1,000 Chief Financial Officers from around the world outlines their perspectives of the impact of thirty-six risks on the current year and on the longer term.
The last few years have been characterized with an exponential multiplication of risk factors, which led to a general increase in the level of uncertainty that organizations are facing, creating more complex scenario developments. The list of elements that organizations must take into account in the process of building risk resilience is pretty long: challenges of management during a pandemic to the phenomenon of political polarization, social discontent, economic crises, technological evolution and digitalization, changes in the geopolitical landscape, changes in consumer habits, terrorism, migratory movements and finally, challenges in the world of work.
In this process, Chief Financial Officers hold a crucial part in supporting boards mapping out risk scenarios and setting up business strategies. Protiviti and NC State University have recently conducted a survey on more than 1,000 professionals around the world, outlining their perspectives on the impact of thirty-six specific risks in the current year and longer term, focusing on the 2030 horizon. The considered elements pertain the macroeconomic risk areas, those that can affect companies' growth opportunities, their strategic and operational risks, potentially impacting strategy execution.
As it can be expected, in the short term, the focus of the CFO will remain on operational and financial aspects, with the objective of managing the consequences of the pandemic and preparing for a post-pandemic world. Concerns regarding the effectiveness and duration of government support measures and the future impact of mounting debt are shared by every company, regardless of its size or location, (just like the uncertainties regarding the actual duration of the pandemic).
