Institute of Internal Auditors
Overview: In 2022, organisations were hit by a perfect storm of high-impact, interlocking risks that have thrown businesses into a permanent state of crisis. Following hard on the heels of the pandemic, the war in Ukraine has intensified supply chain failures, caused a spike in energy prices and fuelled inflation.
Now a state of crisis is the new normality. Climate-related natural disasters, looming recession, an accelerating cost of living catastrophe in Europe, food shortages, employee welfare and skills deficits, and a rapidly industrialising cyberattack landscape are overlaid by intensifying geopolitical tensions and the very real threat of financial liquidity and solvency risks for businesses.
This has forced many organisations not just to rewrite their risk registers, but to tear up outdated risk taxonomies that favour old-style siloed thinking. Sudden, systemic organisation-wide risks with contagious, unpredictable ramifications throughout the enterprise are no longer seen as Black Swan events – but as interlocking elements of a continuous storm.
