Top 3 risks identified by retail industry also the risks for which the industry is least prepared

The current economic slowdown, damage to reputation and disruption or supply chain failure are the Top Three risks identified by the retail industry, an Aon Analytics report found.
The report is based on data from Aon’s 2009 ‘Global Risk Management Survey,’ ‘Aon Global Risk Insight Platform’ and other proprietary databases.
The Top Three risks identified by the retail industry were also identified in the list of Top Ten risks that retail respondents reported the lowest state of preparedness for.
Thirty-three per cent of survey respondents reported a low state of preparedness for economic slowdown, 52% reported a low state for damage to reputation, and 53% for distribution or supply chain failure.
These risks tend to be more complex, difficult to control, and enterprise-wide, Aon said.
More than 45% of the retail respondents indicated that they rely on senior management intuition and experience as the primary method of identifying and assessing their major risks, the report found.
Twenty-four per cent said they rely on business unit risk registers or key risk indicator worksheets for risk identification and business unit quantitative analysis for risk assessment.
“In practice, respondents to our report most likely are using a combination of methods to assess their levels of risk,” said Len Churnetski, managing director of the retail industry practice for Aon Risk Services.
“However, risk identification based on experience may cause retail companies to miss emerging or new risks. These methods also may not be consistent in their application, and they could lead toward risk aversion.”