Strategic Advisory

Strategic briefings for international technology company

The client:

A UK-founded company developing household appliances.

The issue:

Our client was looking to embed more strategic thinking into decision-making on managing risk. It was keen for external expertise on geopolitical risk to inform senior decision-making.

Our solution:

As part of a continuing arrangement, Control Risks’ provides expert contributors to join regular global senior management meetings taking place within the client organisation. Presentation content is agreed prior to each meeting, taking into account recent and forthcoming geopolitical or political developments in regions and countries of interest, questions raised by client personnel and suggestions from Control Risks’ team members based around the world who are aware of the client’s exposure, risk appetite and interests.

Up to three senior analysts attend each meeting to present analysis on political, strategic and security issues and to forecast how future developments may impact on the client’s exposure to political risk and operational disruption. The sessions are designed to be fully interactive, with participants from the client organisation fully encouraged to ask questions and share their own views on the issues discussed. All events are recorded.

The result:

Our client has reported that its teams feel better informed about geopolitical trends and events with potential to affect their operations and risk exposure, and able to make better and more timely decisions which improve the resilience of the company.

Tracking the pandemic for potential business impact

The client:

A global food service company

The issue:

The client approached Control Risks in the early days of the pandemic to better track developments related to the pandemic and understand the potential impact of these developments on their supply chain, manufacturing facilities, and customers.

Our solution:

They subscribed to our twice-weekly global monitoring update, which enabled them to track key trends and developments across their operations. We arranged a weekly call with the client to talk through development, the implications for particular markets and discuss any new challenges our client was facing. We also brought in our crisis management experts to directly advise their management on appropriate planning and actions as the pandemic evolved.

The result:

We are now working with them to help forecast economic growth and customer behavior in their key markets. This will inform their strategy for how, where, and when to open their manufacturing facilities. 

Evaluating long-term investment exposure

The client:

A major Asian debt finance company

The issue:

Our client was evaluating its long-term investment exposure in the Arabian Peninsula to inform decisions on portfolio structuring and revisit existing projects to ensure that they remain within the organisation’s risk appetite levels.

Our solution:

Our Gulf analysts worked with the client to build regional scenarios that could have a significant impact on its assets in the region. Based on our initial analysis, we agreed with the client that the baseline scenario for the evolution of the region was relatively benign in terms of how it would affect the projects that the client financed. We therefore agreed to focus on low likelihood, high impact scenarios to provide the client with the five most credible regional and country-specific scenarios that could have a meaningful impact on its projects, alongside a list of potential scenario drivers that could be monitored by the client going forward. 

The result:

The client uses these cards to inform its internal assessment of each project’s exposure to political, operational and security risks in the region. They also allow it to monitor key drivers for each scenario to adjust likelihood levels should a scenario appear more or less likely.