A survey published by specialist commercial insurer CNA Hardy suggests that, as global interconnected risk becomes a reality, reputational risk is rising and business confidence is on the slide.
CNA says its survey data highlights a clear East-West divide in terms of confidence, with optimism having fallen among executive leading European, UK and North America businesses, while continuing to rise in Asia-Pacific.
Ongoing discussions regarding how the UK is to exit Europe are having a markedly negative impact on business confidence on both sides of the Channel.
In the UK only 36% of leaders are confident in the ability of their firm to grow and prosper – a substantial drop from May 2017 when 71% of business leaders were confident.
In Europe, CNA says only 50% are confident – a fall of almost one third in the past six months – while in North America, confidence fell back 8% to 59% over the past six months.
Asia-Pacific is the only region where confidence has risen in the past six months, rising from 23% to 65%. It’s also the only region where executives globally believe there is the greatest capacity to drive growth.
Globally, the percentage of business leaders who feel they operate in a moderate to high risk environment held broadly steady at 81%, with European business leaders the least risk averse at 65% and North American the most with 87%.
“The data shows a strong consensus among global business leaders on the direction of travel in terms of risk overall,” said Dave Brosnan
“This alignment of risk perceptions over time and across the regions demonstrates very clearly the reality of interconnected risk.”
“From connected devices and international supply chains, to the global financial system, the potential for small problems to trigger unexpected cascading failures, is now all around us.”
