Insights & Impacts

The coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak has forced unprecedented sudden closings of facilities around the world. This article outlines some important steps to take to help minimise property loss during and after shutting down a facility.

Being resilient means preparing for everything—including infectious disease. The coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak is disrupting organisations in ways not previously experienced or planned for. What can you do to protect your business?

Attention FM Global clients: Whether or not your business has been affected by the coronavirus pandemic, you can be sure of one thing—now is the perfect time to learn all you can to make your business more resilient.

Lithium-ion battery-based energy storage systems (ESS) are in increasing demand for supplying energy to buildings and power grids. However, they are also under scrutiny after a number of recent fires and explosions. To increase awareness of what can be done to improve safety around this technology, commercial property insurer FM Global has publicly released groundbreaking research and recommendations.

Companies are increasingly vulnerable to indirect supply chain disruptions and need to factor this into their supply chain risk management. Despite the increasing complexity of supply chain risk management, it seems executives in C-suites could do more to address the issue directly.

A recent survey by Pricewaterhouse Coopers found that Australian CEOs view cybersecurity risks as their greatest threat to business growth. Yet many mining executives are reporting that it would take a “catastrophic” cyber incident for industry to act and build adequate cyber resiliency.

As Australia drives towards 24 per cent renewable energy generation this year and up to 50 per cent by 2030, the challenge of managing evolving risks becoming more urgent. We expect to see even more gas turbines modified or upgraded to cater for this change in the generation mix. New gas turbine technology coming to market is increasing resilience by allowing existing turbines to be operated in peaking mode, cycling mode and fast starting mode.

While the fires may have eased, the impact to Australia’s business community is significant. The economic damage from the bushfires devastating Australia’s eastern seaboard alone is likely to exceed the record $4.4bn set by 2009’s Black Saturday blazes, Moody’s Analytics has said. With summer not yet over, the bushfire threat unfortunately continues meaning everyone must remain vigilant and take steps to ensure that they mitigate the risk.

Across all industries, innovation—the ability to adapt to changing market circumstances and create a competitive advantage—is vital for business resilience. Innovation can take many forms. While the impact of these advancements could be significant, innovation can also bring risks.