Singapore execs reveal biggest risks to business

These threats are keeping leaders here up at night – and they're vastly different to those of global executives

Singapore execs reveal biggest risks to business
A new survey is offering unique insight into the concerns of Singapore business leaders with executives identifying notably different issues than their international counterparts.

The Global Risks Report 2018 collated responses from 12,411 executives in 136 countries to pinpoint the five biggest risks to doing business for each respective country.

The top five risks identified globally were unemployment, fiscal crises, failure of national governance, energy price shock and social instability – however, Singapore leaders seem to be contending with significantly different problems.
Local leaders identified terrorist attacks as the most pressing concern although globally the issue just scraped onto the leader-board in 10th place.

Cyber-attacks were voted the second biggest risk, followed by asset bubbles and data fraud or theft.

Reg Peacock, CEO of Zurich Insurance Singapore, said the findings suggest local executives are more concerned about external events which might impact Singapore, rather than home grown trouble.

“As a technological hub with many large regional or global corporate headquarters here, Singapore is a potential target and it is good to see executives are aware of these risks,” he said.

“All companies should ensure they have clear risk mitigation and management strategies in place to manage these issues,” he added.

Infectious diseases also entered the top five worries for Singapore employers although the issue didn’t even break the top 10 globally.

“While economic growth and technological development create new opportunities for governments and businesses, augmented geopolitical turbulence has created uncertainty about how to manage resilience in tempestuous times,” said John Scott, Zurich’s chief risk officer of commercial insurance.

“Today it is a must for businesses to have clear risk management strategies in place, while building resilience to emerging risks,” he continued.

“Looking at the findings, we can see that while businesses are clearly aware of social and economic risks, they are underestimating the potential impact of environmental and technological ones in many markets.”
The top 10 global risks of highest concern were:
  • Unemployment or underemployment
  • Fiscal crises
  • Failure of national governance
  • Energy price shock
  • Profound social instability
  • Failure of mechanism or institution
  • Failure of critical infrastructure
  • Cyber attacks
  • Inter-state conflict
  • Terrorist attacks


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