Jonty Bloom is a business reporter.
Everyone wants to talk to Gianluca.
Dr Pescaroli is a global expert in risk management and how businesses and other organizations can best plan for, and cope with, a crisis.
He has been in demand since the start of Covid-19. His services are even more sought after now that the world economy has been damaged by the conflict in Ukraine.
Dr Pescaroli says that every single company in the West will be affected by the situation in Ukraine.
Dr Pescaroli is a lecturer in business continuity and organisational resilience at the Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction at University College London.
He says that firms need to have disaster recovery plans in place.
These are essential, independent of climate change or a Pandemic. The better you prepare, the better you react.
It has been a busy time for the entire global risk management sector, and Dr. Pescaroli is not the only one who is busy. According to a report last year, the industry was worth $7.4 billion in 2019, but is expected to reach $28.9 billion by the year 2027. The figure was calculated before the crisis began.
Firms in the energy and food sectors face very specific pricing and supply issues that they need to be able to deal with. In the event of a crisis, all companies should prepare a list of practical things to check and tick off, according to Dr. Pescaroli.
Do your top managers still have a home phone? If the collapse of the mobile phone network happens, then they don't have any phones.
If networks go down, firms need to have back-up generators. If the mains power supply is cut, they need to train more than one member of staff to be able to run them.
Large companies are now appointing risk managers at the board level. Someone will be responsible for making sure the firm can survive the next crisis. They are playing different scenarios to see how the company would respond to the worst.
Over the past decade or so, the banking industry has substantially increased its risk planning. The impact of future unforeseen events was raised following the 2008 global financial crisis.
The banks had to be rescued by the taxpayers. Governments want to make sure that doesn't happen again.
Sarah Breeden is one person the UK banks need to impress. She is the executive director of financial stability strategy and risk at the Bank of England.
Ms Breedon is in charge of stress testing the banks. She wants the banks to prove they have enough reserves to continue providing financial services.
The hope is that when the next shock happens, they are confident they have what they need in the tin, so they can do their job.
The Bank of England can insist that a bank raises more money, improves its risk management, or faces tighter supervision if it fails one of these tests. In the worst case scenario, a bank could be banned from paying dividends to shareholders.
Ms Breedon says that the testing process involves more than just checking that banks have enough money in reserve. Payment systems going offline are some of the technical problems that can be solved with some tests.
New Economy explores how businesses, trade, economies and working life are changing fast.
In every part of the economy, this type of stringent risk testing and state supervision is not common. There is no one checking to see if the UK supermarkets could cope with a global wheat shortage or how the car industry would fare with the internet collapsing.
Businesses can get help with making key risk management decisions. She and her colleagues advise companies on the dangers of doing business in certain countries and territories.
Western company bosses who are doing business in Russia have been asked a lot of difficult questions.
She says there are two issues for firms to consider. The risk of doing business in Russia is reputational.
Firms risk death in the court of public opinion if they don't pull out of Russia. We don't say to companies not to do that, but we say these are the risks that you need to consider.
Many companies without operations in Russia are spending a lot of time trying to understand their supply chains. She adds that businesses need to ask themselves who supplies their suppliers, and so on, because she explains that it takes 30,000 parts to make a car, but only one not to make a car.
The UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction has 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884
We are looking at stress testing and common points of failure.
The thinking about how to deal with future risks should not be limited to businesses or governments. It needs to be considered by everyone.
He takes a small radio off his shelf to show his point. In the case of a power failure in London, emergency communication is still done by radio.
If you don't have a radio that can operate without a plug, you don't have a radio at all, and won't know what is going on. An example of what risk is all about. I went out and bought one as well.
Will Smale is editor of the New Economy series.
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