 Written by: Mighty M Mhlanga, IRMSA CRMPRAC Member
“Never let a good crisis go to waste”, Rahm Emanuel said during the 2008 global financial crisis. This catchphrase has been reprised by many who remain optimistic despite the current challenges we find ourselves in. The current landscape presents one of the most perplexing and difficult environments for individuals, business leaders and to a large extent, governments who must provide leadership and guidance under extreme stress and criticism. There is no magic bullet for a pandemic that literally shut down many, if not all industries and destroyed all economies, but as gloomy a picture as this is, there is a positive transformative aspect to this pandemic. My focus is on how government should use the current crisis to address some of the threats and identify positives or exploit opportunities that will assist in addressing our country’s triple challenges of unemployment, poverty and inequality, challenges which have been further exposed and exacerbated by the pandemic. According to the National Treasury, the South African economy is set to shrink by 7.2%, 2% more than the very high global contraction of 5.2%. This represents the worst recession since World War II and is likely going to remain so for quite some time. The South African Reserve Bank (Reserve Bank) has for the past few months been playing a pivotal role from a monetary policy point of view by reducing the repo rate in an effort to induce spending and stimulate economic growth. As good as this is, it is not enough on its own. The Reserve Bank Governor, Lesetja Kganyago has for the longest time been emphasising that government needs to play its role by implementing structural reforms and using the fiscal policy to support interventions introduced by the Monetary Policy Committee. Despite progress in some areas, government has largely failed to implement reforms. Lungisa Fuzile, the former Director General and now CEO of Standard Bank in one of his interviews mentioned the missed opportunity by government to roll out the broadband spectrum prior to COVID19 which would have meant better broadband access and speed, low cost of communication and data prices leaving money in people’s pockets which in turn would have induced aggregate demand in the economy. This is but one of many examples. In May, government announced massive COVID19 economic relief measures to the value of R500 billion, this sourced from the reprioritisation of the current budget, local funding sources, as well as international financing institutions. This package was largely aimed at addressing the healthcare crisis, assisting the vulnerable unemployed, protecting and creating jobs and saving businesses heavily impacted by the crisis. As expected, many citizens were hugely encouraged by this and had the hope that we can defeat the pandemic together with government. Some, though, criticised the lending from international funding institutions highlighting the nation’s already high debt levels. From a point of view of crisis response, I believe the funding will be critical if used for purposes mentioned by the President and re-emphasized by the Finance Minister in his supplementary budget. Unfortunately, we find ourselves again falling short when it comes to execution. The daily reports and news on allegations of corruption, irregularities, maladministration, fruitless and wasteful expenditure, flouting of procurement procedures are negatively impacting government’s ability to effectively implement these economic relief measures and reforms. The public is getting more and more impatient with government’s slow or lack of initiative to address corruption. Corruption presents a major risk to our ability to respond to the pandemic and our economy’s recovery. The inability to use borrowed funds for purposes they were borrowed for also represents a huge risk for our country which can have a multitude of effects such bankruptcy, inability to service our national debt and incapacity to fund critical initiatives to address the tripartite challenges. The current trajectory suggests that the above risks are expected to materialise, unless of course we act with a great sense of urgency. The president’s response to the much-publicised allegations of corruption was to authorise the Special Investigative Unit (SIU) to probe all corruption linked to the R500 billion COVID19 relief funds and help recover looted funds. As positive an intervention this is, it is not sufficient as a risk response. We need to urgently invest in preventative measures that deter potential corruption and also implement consequence management to deal with the corrupt individuals. This will build the required confidence in our government and their ability to see the nation through the pandemic challenges. Government’s role has never been more important than it is in today’s climate. Business and citizens rely on decisions made by government to subsequently make their own decisions. Another high national risk is uncertainty and unpredictability of government decisions that can render assumptions, strategies, and recovery plans obsolete. Despite the aforementioned national risks there exists a myriad of opportunities that government can exploit to respond better to the current crisis and also place the country and its citizenry in a better position post COVID19. Hereunder are a few of the opportunities government should consider:
This time calls for us not only to hold government to account but to also bring forward solutions so that we can emerge out of this crisis a better nation. We can either destroy the future of our country or work together to weather the storm and deliver on the aspirations of our people. ENDS MEDIA CONTACT: Rosa-Mari, 060 995 6277, rosa-mari@thatpoint.co.za, www.atthatpoint.co.za For more information on IRMSA please visit: Website: https://www.irmsa.org.za/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/IRMSAInsight Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IRMSAInsight/?ref=hl LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/irmsa-institute-of-risk-management-sa/
0 Comments
 Only by building risk intelligent organisations will leaders be able to overcome six distinct global threats identified by the Institute of Risk Management South Africa (IRMSA). This is according to Christopher Palm, IRMSA’s Chief Risk Advisor.
“Leaders at the highest levels of the private and public sectors must embrace an enterprise-wide culture of integrated risk management to secure their future,” he says. The threats The first threat is the exponential growth of information. Organisations who fail to build a competitive advantage around harnessing their data will be left behind. The second is the drive to adopt new technologies. Failure to effectively implement digital transformation and 4IR technologies will leave organisations vulnerable to those who do. Third is the ability to develop innovative business models. If leaders cannot create new, agile and flexible business models delivering faster, excellent decision-making they will lose ground to rivals. Fourth is disruptive competition. Young upstart enterprises are shattering traditional business practices with completely different approaches to delivering value. The fifth is a next gen market that not only expects data- and technology-driven experiences but supports agile disruptors over rigid incumbents. In other words, one has to be the best in breaking down barriers to entry or access to one’s prodcuts and services. Sixth is a geopolitical landscape marked by COVID-19, climate change, trade wars, and other socio-economic upheavals. Palm says these six risk factors mean the pace of business is constantly accelerating in an increasingly complex global environment, resulting in greater uncertainty than ever before and demanding more, faster, excellent decision-making. Risk-intelligent leadership These conditions compel leaders to make the right decisions more often, much faster and using the best information available to them. If they falter, disruptors will quickly force them out of their own market. “IRMSA believes the frameworks and methodologies of risk management can help them immeasurably,” says Palm. This means that private and public sector leadership must start thinking about the future together, using hindsight and insight to create foresight. “That is not enough though, thinking and designing alternative futures or responses to potential risks and opportunities, in advance and based on futures thinking and scenario planning, will, in essence, give your organisation the basis of fast and reliable decision-making in concert with a flexible and agile business model,” states Palm. Organisations who do this successfully typically integrate their strategy, risk management and resilience playbooks to optimise decision-making. They also acknowledge that delegating ownership and accountability throughout the organisation is critical. To bring agility to their business model, they discard tall management hierarchies in favour of empowering people with the right skills to make business-critical decisions at point-of-contact resulting in a risk intelligent and resilient organisation. Most of all, they break down silo mentality, that is, where information-sharing, decision-making and action are confined to a specific department or area of responsibility. “Risk management is collaborative by nature and that’s why we believe it plays a strong role in the risk intelligent future,” says Palm. Lastly, resilient organisations strive to become data-centric and technology-savvy to achieve their ends. Becoming risk intelligent A risk intelligent future is founded on public and private sector leaders having foresight that enables them to make excellent decisions. “Risk management is not just about avoiding danger but about leveraging opportunities - helps organisations map a sustainable growth path forward,” says Palm. A risk intelligent future will be the theme of IRMSA’s upcoming virtual conference from 30 Sep -1 Oct 2020, followed by a Master Class on 2 September 2020. Speakers from organisations showcasing their thought leadership in becoming risk intelligent organisations, both in public and private sector ranging from multinational organisations to small and micro enterprise will be in attendance. ENDS MEDIA CONTACT: Rosa-Mari, 060 995 6277, rosa-mari@thatpoint.co.za, www.atthatpoint.co.za For more information on IRMSA please visit: Website: https://www.irmsa.org.za/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/IRMSAInsight Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IRMSAInsight/?ref=hl LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/irmsa-institute-of-risk-management-sa/  Written by Pavana Ranjith IRMSA Executive Committee member
“The rate of change is so high everywhere these days that you now must assume that someone will disrupt you, and often from a direction you least expect. As Steve Forbes sees it “You have to disrupt yourself or others will do it for you.” – Extract from Exponential Organizations by Salim Ismail. The words “disruptive technology” invoke thoughts of uncontrolled chaos and uncertainty with many organisations viewing it explicitly from a negative impact to themselves and their related industry. This view is supported by a recently released study on the state of innovation in South Africa by Accenture, which indicates that even though the majority of South African companies are expecting to be disrupted by innovations in their industries over the next three years, half of them are not prepared to cope with it. Disruption creates opportunity. This is arguably best illustrated by those entrepreneurs and companies who have innovated out of the disruption created by the unprecedented and far-reaching consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic, by radically embracing or accelerating technological investments to remain relevant. The longer-term impacts will become prevalent through entrenching of the move to virtual workspaces and practices; digitization as a key platform for learning and skills development; accelerated autonomous health, manufacturing and transport industries; and far more integrated, diverse and coordinated supply chains to name a few. Do we as risk practitioners regard these as technological disruptions or technological innovations or both and how do we determine if our own organisations are equipped and informed to deal with the new normal? Risk Management has a responsibility to guide executives and decision-makers in understanding the risks and opportunities presented by disruptive technologies. Some of the key risks include the risk of being overtaken by competitors and new market entrants with cheaper and more efficient and effective business models, failure to meet the increased demands of clients, diminishing revenue channels and growth opportunities, inadequate talent pipeline, poorly-conceived responses to macro trends and changing consumer preferences. Some of the key features of innovative companies who disrupt and innovate include: Flexibility and adaptability: having the right technology with robust configuration or alternatively the practical strategies to move towards this. To illustrate this, some recent shorter term examples in the healthcare industry in response to Covid-19 include 3D printer technology used to produce airplane parts, now used to produce respiratory ventilators, drone technology to drop parcels and medication, and telemedicine with virtual visits and remote-patient monitoring. Data Analytics and Capabilities: coupled with flexibility and adaptability is having the right systems to efficiently obtain and analyse data to inform disruptions and innovations. Leadership and innovative culture: the above will not be successful without the innovative and delivery-driven leadership that understands that constant business change is part of the “way we do business”; a culture and organizational structure that supports, encourages and rewards innovation and creativity while supporting “quick fails” and a diversity of knowledge and skills to collaborate and implement robust solutions. We as risk practitioners are an integral part of this diverse workforce. Do we practice some of the key ways of understanding the risks and opportunities presented by disruptive technologies? The following are critical for the risk practitioner to consider helping broaden his/her understanding of these risks and opportunities:
The nature of our own jobs will evolve as technologies such as AI (artificial intelligence) will replace the mundane tasks of number crunching and report writing and free up time for deeper and more proactive value-adding risk work. Are we adaptable, flexible and appropriately skilled? Are we building the right data analytics now to ride the exponential headwinds of disruption and innovation? ENDS MEDIA CONTACT: Rosa-Mari, 060 995 6277, rosa-mari@thatpoint.co.za, www.atthatpoint.co.za For more information on IRMSA please visit: Website: https://www.irmsa.org.za/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/IRMSAInsight Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IRMSAInsight/?ref=hl LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/irmsa-institute-of-risk-management-sa/  Written by Adv. Modidima Mannya, IRMSA Risk Chat Contributor
There cannot be any doubt that the coronavirus disease of 2019 (Covid –19) has redefined the world in general and the work environment in particular. In the work environment, the Compliance and Risk Officers probably have the most complex tasks of ensuring that businesses stay afloat. While the Finance Officers battle to manage budgets and make do with limited and constrained financial resources, the Human Resources Officers battle with the implications of having to retrench, the Strategy and Marketing Officers battle with business repositioning and more importantly; the Compliance and Risk Officers ought to be battling with the complex compliance and risk environment, which has since developed during this pandemic. Compliance and risk management is not necessarily taken seriously in many organisations. Most Compliance and Risk Officers are misunderstood, avoided andor even disliked. This is mainly because at the end of the day, they tend to ask pertinent questions and raise issues which determine the life and future of an organisation and its staff- issues that management don’t necessarily want to deal with, or merely just not ready to deal with. The changes brought about by Covid–19 complicates an already complex operating environment for Compliance and Risk Officers. The compliance requirements of Covid–19 has added to the pressures experienced by the Compliance and Risk Officers. Business continuity and operational survival of any organisation is now entirely dependent on the risk management’s capacity to effectively manage compliance and risks. The new normal has heightened the risk profile of every organisation and redefined company’s strategic risks. This means that the Compliance and Risk Officers must now adjust to discharging their responsibilities in a high-pressure environment. It is in moments like these when matters detrimental to the organisation, like corruption, mismanagement and various other acts can expose an organisation to serious high operational risks. Many organisations faced a sudden shutdown where even existing business continuity plans could not be implemented. Those who could have staff work from home were suddenly faced the additional cost of providing staff with work-from-home resources. In many instances, emergency procurement became the buzzword. Labour intensive and small businesses were forced into immediate and unplanned retrenchments. This is all evidence that risk management was not taken seriously, or has not worked as it should have. Compliance and Risk Officers have to work through these various controversies and complexities to define and ensure good governance in an abnormal situation. The first immediate challenge is whether leaders of organisations appreciate that every single decision must now be compliance and risk informed. Equally, Compliance and Risk Officers face the critical challenge of appreciating that they now work in wholly undefined environment which requires thinking on one’s feet. As government eases lockdown and businesses re-open and more social and economic activities take place, Compliance and Risk Officers need to be able to critically analyze the implications of any activity associated with their organisations for effective inputs. The normal approach to compliance and risk management is mitigation. In the current environment, risk prevention and immediate elimination is the new normal. As an example, infection control and prevention measures determine the future of any organisation. Compliance and Risk Officers are now required to do advisory and implementation work, as well as monitor the work (and processes) being carried out by the organisation. It is no longer enough to have a compliance and risk plan and expect the risk owners to implement. Compliance and Risk Officers are now part owners of compliance and risk issues. This is also partly because policies remain unchanged, and in many instances, they are no longer applicable. Furthermore, it is vital that decision making must be rapid and decisive, if a catastrophe is to be avoided. Malfeasance is generally an opportunity issue. Those entrusted with managing resources often take advantage of situations such as this. Heads of organisations are unlikely to cope unless they have a dedicated compliance and risk capability which enters the arena when necessary. As every decision depends on compliance and risk, decision making must incorporate the advice of Compliance and Risk Officers. The current situation is new to many if not all organisations and may not have precedent. That is however not a defence available to a Compliance and Risk Officer. Compliance and Risk Officers have always worked outside a defined framework. Whatever the policies, rules and plans, Compliance Officers and Risk Officers rely more on critical analysis skills than defined industry frameworks and practices. In the context of the current situation, it is Compliance and Risk Officers who can advise better how people can relate to each other in the workplace, who must be there and what must be in place It is the Compliance and Risk Officer who can tell better, who must be allowed to drive the truck or make tea. It is the Compliance and Risk Officer who can tell better which door of the building to use and how staff must behave whilst at home. It is the Compliance and Risk Officer who can tell whether the right quality of sanitizers should be procured. It is these basic things which determine whether an organisation can open its doors and remain operational. It is the Risk and Compliance Officers who can tell better whether it is worth retaining staff or spending money an organisation does not have. Therefore, Compliance and Risk Officers should assess whether:
MEDIA CONTACT: Rosa-Mari, 060 995 6277, rosa-mari@thatpoint.co.za, www.atthatpoint.co.za For more information on IRMSA please visit: Website: https://www.irmsa.org.za/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/IRMSAInsight Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IRMSAInsight/?ref=hl LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/irmsa-institute-of-risk-management-sa/ “Resilience is the key to enabling business growth in a hostile market environment,” says Christopher Palm, Chief Risk Advisor at the Institute of Risk Management South Africa (IRMSA).
In its most general human context, resilience is defined as “the ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change”. Expanding this basic definition then one will need to have the ability to anticipate, respond and adapt to, and/or rapidly recover from a disruptive event – in other words to “keep going” – it doesn’t have to be pretty or convincing it just has to have a preventative capacity as well as an adaptive capacity in response to the disruptions. In fact, those that achieve perfect resilience, that is, avoid interruptions altogether, are transformed by it. “Every time a business anticipates and counters all threats at its current level, and learns from it, it then empowers itself to operate at a higher level, thereby compounding its gains,” says Palm. With nothing holding it back, it can focus on and elevate its growth strategy. So how can organisations acquire resilience? What makes an organisation resilient? While the function of a business is to deliver goods or services to a market that needs them, its purpose is to grow. Sole proprietors and corporate shareholders alike invest their capital into a business hoping it produces a tidy return on investment. The more market share it can gain, the higher the returns. Yet, when adverse conditions in its internal, market or macro environments delay its progress, its growth trajectory veers ever further from its original projections. The sole proprietor loses faith.Corporate shareholders lose confidence. The business loses ground. It seems obvious that an organisation should understand its various environments and identify the threats and opportunities within each. It will then be able to respond to the risk, at the very least, develop the means to continue operating in spite of them, and, equally and maybe even more importantly to also leverage the opportunities identified. At best, its growth will not be disrupted at all. At worst, it will be able to recover operations rapidly with minimal impact to its progress. So, a business’s ability to anticipate and either avoid or counter setbacks and responding to opportunities with agility must be a core ingredient of its resilience. Resilience, therefore, is a direct product of integrating strategy development and execution, effective risk management, business continuity planning and excellent decision-making. Transformation However, according to Palm, resilience shouldn’t just be about being able to rapidly bounce back from disaster. Rather than a set of preventive and corrective steps, it should have a lasting impact on the organisation’s capabilities. “True resilience means a business has transcended the risks that threatened to prevent its growth and has transformed itself to achieve greater performance because of it,” he says. For an organisation to truly benefit from resilience, it should integrate what it has learned into its strategy. This means that resilience should be highly valued by its leadership and risk management must be deeply integrated into the strategy development process. Conclusion So, organisations that build up their resilience will be better able to protect their growth and be transformed by what they have learned. Since resilience is the direct product of risk management and business continuity planning, it follows they will reap the greatest benefit if risk management is a permanent component of their strategy and decision-making. “Businesses that want to grow without hindrance must realise that risk management and business continuity planning are no longer obligatory support functions. Rather, they are accelerators of business growth,” says Palm. ENDS MEDIA CONTACT: Rosa-Mari, 060 995 6277, rosa-mari@thatpoint.co.za, www.atthatpoint.co.za For more information on IRMSA please visit: Website: https://www.irmsa.org.za/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/IRMSAInsight Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IRMSAInsight/?ref=hl LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/irmsa-institute-of-risk-management-sa/  Written by Lindiwe Magobholi, IRMSA Member
Enterprise risk management is in its nature intended to manage risks of an organisation holistically. It is a reality that for many years enterprise risk management has struggled, with some organisations still battling to keep its seat at the roundtable, because although it is not a profit centre function it sometimes behaves as one. It is seen as a value add as opposed to being a contributor to the bottom line. Risk managers have been putting policies in place to ensure that organisations are resilient whilst achieving their strategic objectives. Simply put, optimising risk for reward. Scenarios are developed in order to set risk appetites to safeguard the business from any known event. The most difficult questions any risk professional faces when managing risk appetite is:
By nature, people are optimistic – rightly so. But it is our job as risk managers to be pessimistic and think of the “out of the ordinary” or “black swan” or "outliers" situations and manage the business against these risks whilst harnessing the opportunities therein. The objective is to ask,
As we were enjoying the new year, COVID-19 had started to wreak havoc in other parts of the world, and I wonder if we as risk professionals, were already paying attention to the pandemic and what conversations we were having in our emerging risks discussion with oversight committees. Did we imagine this wave ever reaching our shores? Certainly, the COVID-19 wave hit the shores of the Republic and President Ramaphosa declared a nationwide halt on all economic activities. As Professionals, we had to act on our feet whilst hiding in our homes with our children in fear of our lives and as the proverb goes “the rest is history”. Like Joseph`s dream in the good book of life the 7-years of famine are here and therefore Joseph’s emergency plan/fund must be activated, and like anything in life, the emergency plan goes through gruesome tests. As the media reports highlighted recently, it is very clear that many businesses are not resilient enough to survive the pandemic. As businesses were mandated to close in an endeavour to prevent the spread of the virus and only essential services were permitted to continue to provide much-needed services, we witnessed most businesses:
The South African Television News channels ENCA and Newzroom Africa ran a story on the 10th June 2020, indicating that business confidence fell to its lowest in 45 years, with all economic indicators signalling a crisis. The South African government introduced a Relief Fund to provide relief to those that are hugely impacted by the pandemic, the SARB relaxed its liquidity requirements and the financial services sector pledged to assist the economy with debt-relief measures including credit life cover, and yet all these measures are proving not to be enough. According to Statistics South Africa, by the end of 2019 the country was already in a technical recession. The pandemic is unprecedented and no one could have foreseen its impact but consequently, it was very evident the one month of “no trade” was catastrophic for most organisations or those that had reserves for less than a month to survive. It begs the questions:
Everyone at the roundtable should always consider the impact of a business failure on the most vulnerable citizens of this country – because that is a picture of a country that cares about its people. This pandemic has reminded us that in life, winter will always come, and we must be prepared for it. ENDS MEDIA CONTACT: Rosa-Mari, 060 995 6277, rosa-mari@thatpoint.co.za, www.atthatpoint.co.za For more information on IRMSA please visit: Website: https://www.irmsa.org.za/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/IRMSAInsight Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IRMSAInsight/?ref=hl LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/irmsa-institute-of-risk-management-sa/  Authored by: Dr. Les Carlo, IRMSA Risk Intelligence Committee Advisor
The advent of COVID-19 in South Africa has changed the landscape of risks irrevocably. It has brought home the importance of managing COVID-19 as a complex problem. From a risk perspective, it must shift focus onto a system of complicated or complex risks and opportunities. In looking once again at the 2020 IRMSA Risk Report it is clear that there is guidance on how to approach complicated and complex risks, but is it enough? Does the narrative “Navigating Complexity: The Frontier of Risk Management” tell us enough? The comparison between Complicated Systems and Complex Systems is detailed and powerful in helping to understand what is being dealt with when analysing problems. Given that a risk is in fact a problem that has yet to materialise, it can be usefully applied when adding one extra dimension. That is that in the case of a complicated risk, it must still be properly defined to avoid the potential to solve it incorrectly. This also applies to complex risks except that the “multiple non-linearly connected parts” or at least one of them must be subjected to an adequate definition if the system and hence the risk is to be positively influenced. The concept of defining the complicated risk is within the grasp of all of us. Having said that the risk report brings home the importance of understanding systems theory as a key tool in hands of a modern day risk practitioner or manager. But understanding systems theory alone, which is important, this does not help with addressing complex risks, and hence the relevance of the “Cynefin Sensemaking Framework”. Does the “Cynefin Sensemaking Framework” as described therein do to help the risk practitioner or risk manager in the important role that they must play now? It does in terms of differentiating a complex risk, and in helps in what to See, Attend To and Act Upon when faced with one. But does it help with how to address a complex risk in a way that will result in improved management of it? It is suggested two concepts need to be added to enable effective management. Firstly at least one or more of the “multiple linearly connected parts” of the system exposed to the risk need to be sufficiently defined to the extent that they can be positively influenced towards a better outcome. Secondly, once there is improved definition, an approach that will deliver an improved outcome needs to be selected and applied. In 1994 R. L. Ackoff in a paper on Systems Thinking and Thinking Systems suggested the following way of treating messy (or complex) problems.
They have defined that physical contact is one facet of the complex problem, and have effected a temporary change to the environment. In other words they have applied the lockdown regulations and in doing so influenced but not solved the problem. In conclusion, it is important for risk practitioners and risk managers to at least understand the basics of Systems Theory, something that IRMSA can include in its training programmes. Also, to address risks we need to do a very basic thing and that is to properly define the complicated risk or that part of the complex system that is to be treated. Finally, in the case of a complex risk, chose the approach towards treating it that fits the organisation to which it is exposed and possibly use one of the ways stipulated by Ackoff. ENDS MEDIA CONTACT: Rosa-Mari, 060 995 6277, rosa-mari@thatpoint.co.za, www.atthatpoint.co.za For more information on IRMSA please visit: Website: https://www.irmsa.org.za/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/IRMSAInsight Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IRMSAInsight/?ref=hl LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/irmsa-institute-of-risk-management-sa/ How risk management can be implemented effectively to disable corruption within organisations8/6/2020  Written by Mpho Modisane, IRMSA Risk Intelligence Committee Member
As professionals we should avoid falling prey to corruption. Corruption robs both the public and private sector to the extent of eroding our individual professional brand and that of our companies (reputational risk), it undermines the employees of both sectors who are truthfully and impartially committed to their professions. Corruption is defined as any conduct or behaviour in relation to persons in private or public sector entrusted with responsibilities in their office, which contradicts their duties, and which is aimed at obtaining undue benefits of any kind for themselves. Although most companies and government departments have clearly articulated policies that condemn fraud, bribery, extortion, misappropriation, favouritism, kickbacks and other forms of corruption, these policies don’t seem to be working as intended hence corruption keeps rearing its head. Corruption inhibits possible foreign investment, stifles economic growth, and undermines efforts towards achievement of sustainable development. It further undermines the various layers of controls created by companies, member organisations such as IRMSA, legal and judicial systems. Corrupt individuals and businesses who pay bribes to avoid complying to set rules, laws and regulations continue to benefit unduly by securing tenders, contracts, and favours at the expense of those who choose to uphold high ethical values. Many have lost their lives while fighting corruption and people’s lives continue to be threatened where there seems to be pushback. This renders the fight against corruption a more complex one. Most concerning to risk professionals is that corruption leads to other possible related and unrelated risks materialising. For example, if a private sector service provider pays kickbacks to a government department employee in order to secure a tender to provide a particular service, the service provider may not be able to deliver the service at the required standard or in extreme cases, not deliver the service at all. If the government department was intending to address a particular risk by putting in place controls with this service, it means the risk will highly likely materialise as a result of controls not being applied. David Lewis, the Executive Director of Corruption Watch, explains that one of the lessons we have learnt from our country’s recent past is the role played by private-sector companies and professions in facilitating public and private-sector corruption. These include members of the legal and auditing professions, tax advisers and management consultants, and real estate agents. Lewis further explains that the work of their organisation as a corruption watchdog going forward will focus increasingly on these identified facilitators of corruption. To make the risk of corruption prominent in our organisations we need tocreate scenarios in our risk discussions which demonstrate instances whereby corruption risks can materialise. The jargon used in the scenarios has to be relevant and at the most, be specific to the organisation. Where controls don’t work as intended, alternative or a combination of controls should be applied to deal with weaknesses. For example, to treat collusion, staff rotation can be used and supplemented with automation of certain processes. Corruption undermines the efforts of professionals in the private and public sector who live up to their mandate, and as risk professionals we need to protect the controls created through member organisations, watchdog agencies and legal and judicial systems. Risk management can be a useful tool to ensure that these controls are adhered to and where they are inadequate, risk managers must ensure that additional measures are put in place. One of the benefits of risk management is that when it’s done intelligently, it can contribute immensely towards the eradication of fraud and corruption, create sustainable value as well as protect and enhance reputation. In these unprecedented times, the risk manager’s role in the fight to corruption is more important than ever and as a risk professional you need to ask yourself the following questions about your organisation. Have you:
ENDS MEDIA CONTACT: Rosa-Mari, 060 995 6277, rosa-mari@thatpoint.co.za, www.atthatpoint.co.za For more information on IRMSA please visit: Website: https://www.irmsa.org.za/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/IRMSAInsight Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IRMSAInsight/?ref=hl LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/irmsa-institute-of-risk-management-sa/  When selected companies returned to business on 1 June 2020, they should already have had risk assessments and plans in place in accordance with the requirements for Level 3 lockdown.
They must also conduct worker education on COVID-19 and protection measures. Yet, at a recent briefing, the Department of Employment and Labour reported that, of those businesses it had inspected, 40 percent of private enterprises and 50 percent of SOEs were not compliant with the regulations. “Businesses need to go even further than these basic conditions if they want to mitigate the many risks they now face,” says Christopher Palm, Chief Risk Advisor at the Institute of Risk Management South Africa (IRMSA). He suggests several critical areas they must address on an ongoing basis. Revisit their vision, mission and strategic objects Even before opening, businesses should have reviewed their business model and adapted their strategic approach. They have to understand what about their business no longer works and what they must to do as each lockdown level becomes a reality. Perform a business impact analysis Just the OHS requirements can be onerous for businesses to implement, maintain and enforce as care is required for each and every location and duty. Organisations should carry out a business impact analysis that reveals the true cost of operating in that context. They may find they cannot resume business simply because it would be unprofitable to do so. Attend to immediate challenges Above all, companies must focus on cash management and liquidity first. Everything else a company does must be subordinated to this one objective. Assess normal business risks The biggest risk for companies is the impact of OHS requirements on their ability to operate. However, they cannot overlook typical business risks. They must quickly assess their current competitive advantages and disadvantages, especially in terms of their supply chain. If they cannot procure goods or services, they cannot continue. Create opportunities Having identified their competitive advantages, with a view to generating cash and building liquidity, companies will be ready for some tough decisions. They need to develop new ways of delivering their good and services to their market. Can they embrace ecommerce and home deliveries? Or should they sell their inventories off to atypical customers, rent out floor space, or hire out their expertise. In short, they will need to break the business mould and look for radical opportunities outside the norm. Assess legal commitments and exposures As the legal health and safety officer of their company, could the CEO be sued for murder if an employee dies because they did not implement the necessary precautions? A hairdresser in PE faces this situation after testing positive yet ignoring instructions to self-isolated, leading to the death of another. Companies must review their exposure to similar litigation, as well as their ability to comply with regulations both structurally and operationally. “Companies should accept that, when they open their doors again, they may need to be very different businesses than before to survive,” says Palm. They must therefore urgently reassess their strategic outcomes in light of new risks and opportunities, and pivot accordingly. ENDS MEDIA CONTACT: Rosa-Mari, 060 995 6277, rosa-mari@thatpoint.co.za, www.atthatpoint.co.za For more information on IRMSA please visit: Website: https://www.irmsa.org.za/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/IRMSAInsight Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IRMSAInsight/?ref=hl LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/irmsa-institute-of-risk-management-sa/  Written by Dr Arthur Linke, Member of the IRMSA Risk Intelligence Committee
The renowned World Economic Forum’s (WEF) 2020 Risk Report featured all of the Top-5 global risks as being climate-related risks. These included: Extreme Weather, Climate Action Failure, Natural Disasters, Biodiversity Loss and Human-Made Environmental Disasters. In this time of a pandemic crisis, we must reiterate the significance of climate risk, and that we need not look far to remember many acute examples of climate risks materialising. The wildfire disaster devastation on all continents except Antartica in the past several years comes to mind, with the Knysna Fires, South Africa’s single largest ever environmental disaster economically being a particular local case in point. Should an acute climate disaster strike in these pandemic times, the pressure on our human and economic resources would be compounded, and even more incomprehensible. That is another lesson of the WEF Risk Report – the interconnected nature of risks, as well as the fact that “big loss events” or “long tail events” as they are called are becoming more frequent, and more devastating. As an aside, the risk of pandemics also featured in the Top-10 high-impact risks in the WEF 2020 Risk Report. It has been in the report for years, highlighted in special focus sections, and in 2015 it was the second highest impact risk, based on the events of the time. Many may consider Covid-19 to be a Black Swan, but the WEF reports and other sources clearly indicate to us that the risk of pandemics has certainly been on the radar for a long time. We have had a number of “preview” experiences in the past years with SARS, MERS, Ebola etc. and thus this is a “known unknown”, sometimes referred to as a grey elephant or even a grey rhino, utilising an African wildlife motif. For those interested in déjà vu moments, the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic is a precursor. John Barry’s classic book on this catastrophic scourge comes highly recommended, whereby 2020 is a 100-year pandemic flashback all over again, with one of the few differences this time around being the Internet. We would do well to remember that when rating, assessing or evaluating risks and planning scenarios, we should always consider the worst-case possible scenario of raw or untreated risk (imaginable or even unimaginable) as a starting point. The main lesson, however, to draw everyone’s attention back to, is that climate risk is a slow (but accelerating) creep, like the analogy of the frog in hot water that doesn’t notice the temperature headed to boiling point. Similar to Covid-19, many seem to have so divergent and fervent opinions of climate risks. While we may not be headed to immediate boiling, we are certainly raising the temperature of our planet and our carbon emissions in an unprecedented way. Just like we weren’t prepared enough for Covid-19 despite all the warning signs (some being more prepared than others), we are not sensing the gravity, not preparing enough as a collective for climate risk, and not increasing our resilience. The insurance sector is one of the first sectors that has had to react directly to climate risk – fight or flight. Another IRMSA Risk Chat featured Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) reporting and what it means, but basically there are three factors impacting the insurance sector with regards to climate risk, and two of them have to do with ESG. The more apparent risk is that insuring assets threatened by climate risks e.g. properties by fire, flooding etc. is becoming less predictable and not financially viable as “big loss events” or “long tail events” become more frequent and more severe. There is something called the Risk Protection Gap (RPG) which represents those assets that are not protected (primarily not insured) against risks which is growing, also in part as a result of assets becoming non-insurable due to climate risks, all this to the detriment of global society and often the most vulnerable (another catastrophic slow boil). Drawing attention back to the Knysna Fires that presented us with not only South Africa’s largest environmental disaster in terms of economic impact, but the several billions of Rands of damage were mostly insured. This motivated the insurance sector to promote risk treatment and risk resilience going forward to be able to cover similar assets - if these can ever be covered at all again in terms of rising premiums and limited/no insurance possibilities. In terms of ESG, both insuring and holding of “dirty assets” is no longer acceptable to clients, shareholders and other stakeholders. Besides lawsuits and reputational damage, the first clients have completely declined to contract insurers covering coal, oil and gas manufacturers, and the assets themselves, shares in US Dollars tens of trillions worth of companies, many of them “dirty”, may significantly reduce in value and become “stranded” over the coming years, for example, as we shift to renewable forms of energy. Renewables represent an excellent opportunity to increase resilience to climate risk. So, whilst there is some change, growing awareness of climate risk, industry disruptions and a shift to a low carbon economy, these are occurring at pace that is just too slow. Prof Bent Flyvbjerg of Oxford University in a recent posting reiterated that when it comes to the “tail end” of risk, the most unlikely events, we just don’t know the limit of possible outcomes. The Covid-19 pandemic has shown us this – almost unimaginable outcomes of a "known unknown". He went on to say that; “Many have rightly observed that Covid-19 may end up being a mere dress rehearsal for the biggest and most urgent tail risk we face today: climate change. If climate science is right – and there is no reason to think it is not – the law of regression to the tail will be particularly pertinent here. It tells us that massive loss of life and wealth will likely follow if climate change is not treated now, at speed, and at unprecedented scale, with no time to waste in each step involved.” In other words, if the unknown outcomes of a relatively known risk event like Covid-19 have been treated in the way they were globally and can have these devastating consequences as we are seeing today, imagine how these outcomes might be for climate risk scenarios that are unprecedented for our planet. The economic or wealth outcome referred to is important – financial planning and financial resilience is one of the biggest factors of overall resilience, that is why we save for a rainy day (or not). Looking for an upside, anecdotally, Covid-19 has been good for climate risk. People talk about the great weather we’ve been experiencing of late (coincidence?), satellite pollution maps of South Africa and most other countries clearing up, birds everywhere and dolphins swimming in the canals of Venice (fake news, sorry). Every risk has its opportunity, for example solving our energy needs now in a more sustainable and resilient way through renewables. Why build an expensive, vulnerable power plant, when a distributed power array will solve our needs? Do we really need to travel and choke our way through smog and peak hour traffic to every meeting? Hopefully we learn these lessons, but as risk managers, we must go further, take up the baton and imagine the unimaginable consequences in the big picture. Ultimately, the current crisis should elevate the strategic importance of the risk management function and the influence it has. We should take advantage of the opportunity this crisis offers - exploiting the valuable lessons learned from the Covid-19 pandemic and improving our resilience for the next crisis. ENDS MEDIA CONTACT: Rosa-Mari, 060 995 6277, rosa-mari@thatpoint.co.za, www.atthatpoint.co.za For more information on IRMSA please visit: Website: https://www.irmsa.org.za/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/IRMSAInsight Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IRMSAInsight/?ref=hl LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/irmsa-institute-of-risk-management-sa/ |
Welcome to the IRMSA Newsroom
Archives
August 2020
Categories |
RSS Feed