Page 36 - Insurance Times November 2020

CRISIS

MANAGEMENT;

BUILDING

CORPORATE

RESILIENCE

T he COVID-19 pandemic has been a true global gone away. Those include natural and man-made disasters,

crisis. The tragic loss of life, and severe and
political violence and terrorism, bribery, lone assailants,
political upheaval, industrial accidents and more.
lasting health effects for so many hundreds of
thousands of people, have been a salutary
reminder that a crisis can hit anyone, at any time. Some of these risks may be well known and understood by
businesses, others might be new and evolving. Current risks
As organisations in all sectors quickly found new ways of faced by companies operating around the world include
working to adapt to the pandemic and the restrictions on the increased political and social unrest in Lebanon, ongoing
movement of people and goods, many were prompted to think protests and unrest in Hong Kong, and an uptick in "virtual
even more deeply about how to build corporate resilience. kidnappings" in hotels in Mexico - whereby victims are
forced to refrain from contacting the outside world and an
Against the backdrop of the pandemic, the myriad other extortion demand is made for their freedom.
risks that organisations face when operating at home or
abroad - and which could escalate into a crisis - have not The current global situation is such that a "non-pandemic"
crisis becomes a potentially more complex crisis than it
would have been, because of the health emergency that
About the author we still face and the measures in place to try to combat it.
Being prepared and resilient is key. We want to help our
Charlie Matheson clients not only to understand, assess and be prepared for
Global Product Head risks to their people and operations, but also to find ways
Security Risks, AXA XL
to mitigate and manage crisis situations should they occur.

36 The Insurance Times, November 2020