What’s New: In Brief (February 21, 2008)

Traditional forms of terrorism in Asia are being superseded by area-specific threats such as criminal gangs with political agendas, and businesses need to respond to these, Lloyd’s of London says in a recent report, ‘Terrorism in Asia: What does it mean for business.’
The report was done in collaboration with the Institute of International Strategic Studies (IISS).
“There is no such thing as a uniform global threat and, in South East Asia, businesses face some complex and specific regional issues,” Richard Ward, Lloyd’s chief executive, said in the release. “While there are fewer occurrences of Islamist terrorism in the area, criminal gangs with agendas are on the rise, with kidnappings and other forms of violent crime [becoming] increasingly prevalent in some parts of the region.”
Ward says businesses with operations in the area “need to be better at information-gathering from the right source in order to focus on what they are actually threatened with.”
He said businesses should not focus solely on “media headlines that usually focus on radicalism, and making decisions based on that.”

Marsh has established a global supply chain risk management practice under the leadership of Gary Lynch.
The practice will provide clients with the risk intelligence and risk solutions required to better manage their value/supply chain risk, Marsh notes in a release.
Two other subpractices, the supply chain consulting subpractice, as well as the supply chain risk intelligence subpractice, will be led by Ann Grackin and William McBeath, respectively.
“Within the past decade, we have seen an acceleration of changes in business models due to a relentless drive for efficiency and productivity, which has led to an increase in outsourcing, just-in-time manufacturing, and globalization,” John Merkovsky, a managing director of Marsh and global leader for risk consulting, said in the release. “Businesses are still coming to grips with their evolving risk profiles and the impacts on revenue and brand equity of disruptionsnatural or manmadeon their extended supply chains.
“Our supply chain risk management practice will provide clients with the tools and insights needed to help address their exposures.”