Willis identifies key emerging risks for businesses in 2013

Despite being just a few weeks into the new year, experts at global insurance broker Willis have identified their key emerging risks for businesses in 2013.

Top of the list are: the increased likelihood of extreme weather, the damage of negative publicity on established brands accelerated through social media, and missed business opportunities in emerging markets.

The findings come after 16 Willis experts were tasked with identifying the biggest risks facing their industries and services over the next 12 months, and appear on the company’s WillisWire blogging platform.

Opinions were varied as to which was the biggest risk in 2013. Willis Global Solutions executive vice-president George Haitsch writes that the biggest risk in for global businesses is missing out on what he describes as “BRIC Round 2”, the next emerging economies after Brazil, Russia, India and China.

“If the first round of massive and rapid globalisation produced four juggernauts of economic development that most companies were desperate to tap into and at times struggled to manage,” Haitsch said, “shouldn’t more attention be paid NOW to round 2?”

Meanwhile, Willis Re executive vice-president of Dave Ingram warned that delays to the implementation of Solvency II had caused some insurers to rethink their commitment to enterprise risk management (ERM), and that this could bring new risks.

“The shine of ERM has faded for many insurers and as budgets are finalized for 2013, the spending and staffing for ERM is dropping,” Ingram said. “But this shift could be a leading indicator for future problems.”