A significant number of captive directors are underestimating the severity of threats to brand reputation, according to an Aon Risk Solutions survey.
The survey of executive and non-executive captive directors, conducted as a follow-up to the 2015 Global Risk Management survey to assess whether Aon has correctly identified certain risks as underrated, revealed that only 44 percent of those surveyed believe that damage to reputation should be viewed as a significant business risk.
More than half of captive directors in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region did agree that reputation and brand damage should be a prime business concern, although this fell to 35 percent in the Americas.
Rory Moloney, CEO of Aon Global Risk Consulting, commented: “Damage to brand and reputation can become a significant business risk. The speed of technological advancement, coupled with societal, economic and political changes means that reputational damage is an increasing concern.”
The survey also revealed that 78 percent of captive directors believe the risk readiness level for cyber risk has, or may have been, vastly overstated, while 63 percent said that political risk had been seriously underrated.
Some 70 percent of surveyed captive directors also agreed with Aon’s assessment that it is imperative for senior executives to communicate with risk managers and take an active role in assessing and covering the company’s risk exposure.
Stephen Cross, chief innovation officer at Aon Risk Solutions, said “The current world of risk is predictably unpredictable. The interconnectivity of traditional and emerging risks means organisations can no longer evaluate individual risks in isolation but must look at all the top risks and people in a more holistic way.”
