Are we sleep walking into a crisis?

Businesses are underestimating the complexity of connectivity and what that means for the future of their business, says Warren Black, founder and principal, Complexus, speaking at StrategicRISK’s sixth annual Risk Forum Hong Kong.

“We now live in a world of absolute global connectivity through trade travel and technology. Every human is connected to everyone else through our phones. If something happens on the other side of the world, the news will be simultaneously delivered to all of our phones.”

“The risks that will come with the new technology to come is something we cannot even comprehend today,” says Black.

Black warned delegates that in our lifetime, humans are likely to become partly robotic through chip insertion; a risk businesses and governments have not yet begun to comprehend.

“Things that are considered business as usual today will almost certainly not exist tomorrow.”

Black questioned how risk managers can “see” unforeseeable” risks when the tools and methods used are only designed to “see” foreseeable risks.

”Our world is only getting more and more complex. We can no longer afford to ignore what is happening outside of our business, outside of our world. ’This is the way we have always done it’ is the most dangerous phrase in modern risk management,” said Black.