Strategic & Emerging Risks
From false precision to real understanding
Simon works with boards and executive teams to identify, understand and respond to the risks that will shape their organisation over future years (and even decades).
Although most boards and executive teams are we versed at managing operational risk, strategic and emerging risks need to be treated different. The lack of clarity around probability and impact means emerging risks don’t always fit within classic risk management frameworks and can be easily overlooked. This has the potential to create blind spots with organisation shaping consequences.
The risk management challenge for boards
Boards are often expected to review extensive risk registers dominated by operational issues. Although important these risks can often be controlled, mitigated or effectively delegated. At the same time, emerging risks are often missed as they are yet to be identified or not sufficiently well understood. This leads to
- Too many risks competing for the board’s attention
- False confidence created by ratings and heat maps
- A focus on controlling rather than navigating risks
- Missed strategic opportunities
A different approach: identify, prioritise and decide
Strategic and emerging risks are not problems to be “managed away”. They are changes to be identified and choices to be navigated. Simon’s approach work shifts the board conversation away from false precision and towards collective understanding and judgement.
Rather than asking boards to quantify what cannot yet be known, Simon helps leaders
- Identify emerging and strategic risks earlier
- Prioritise what really matters at an organisation-shaping level
- Decide what kind of response is required
How Simon works with boards and executive teams
I work directly with boards and executive teams (and often both together). These facilitated sessions use a combination of strategic foresight tools to collate perspectives, map key risks and enable decision-focused discussion. These sessions often surface a productive tension between the comfort of quantifying and managing risk and the far more difficult challenge of making strategic decisions in uncertainty.
The outcome of these sessions is
- Focusing the board’s attention on the few risks that truly matter
- Enabling productive disagreement without confrontation
- Developing a clear course of action around key risk
- Strengthening the board’s ability to make judgement when certainty isn’t available
The long term impact is a board with clearer strategic intent, proactive response, and a reduced risk profile.
Mayor, Baw Baw Shire Council
Some of the brands Simon has inspired
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