The Russian invasion of Ukraine brings in new global risks

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has brought in a new range of global risks that range from financial to operational according to a new Forrester report.

Organisations need to urgently reevaluate this geopolitical risk in their business context and incorporate the impact of war and all its downstream effects in a permanently changed risk landscape, the authors of Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine Heralds A New Era Of Global Risk noted.

Forrester reports that there are five enterprise risks that organisations will face: financial, operational, talent and human capital, strategic and regulatory.

For financial risks, the short term is supply chain costs and loss of revenue, in the long-term customers will face higher prices for products.

Operational risks pose sanctions limiting where a company can do business in the short term and in the longer-term companies will need to ensure that sourcing, procurement and operations comply with the new sanction requirements.

Talent and human capital will see short-term restrictions including employees and their families feeling the impact of the world conflicts. In the longer term, employees will expect the company to take a stand. Employee anxiety and stress will continue to grow to create engagement and production challenges.

Strategic short-term ramifications include sanctions and supply chain problems that will most likely lead to a change in product or service delivery strategy. The longer-term implications mean employees and customers will expect the company to take a stand on the conflict, knowing full well it will create security issues for the company.

Regulatory short-term issues will come up including scrutiny surrounding the business practices of large multinationals will come into sharp focus with regulators. Longer-term issues will be that the more successful sanctions are in global conflicts, the more they will be leveraged in other situations.

This means more organisations will have to be resilient enough to pivot to sanctions at a moment's notice.