Category Archives: Reputation Risk

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Trends and Predictions for Retailers

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Last year, retail and consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies faced challenges stemming from evolving regulatory compliance, brand exposure, reputational risk and increasingly complex global supply chains. No doubt 2014 will prove to be a pivotal year for organizations to demonstrate their focus and commitment to strong governance, risk management, and compliance in order to truly emerge as leaders. Here is a look at some top trends that have influenced the industry, and a few predictions that will shape the year ahead.

2013 Key Trends:

Increased Volume and Complexity of Regulations. In 2013, the retail/CPG industry faced a flurry of new and amended regulations spanning environmental compliance, conflict minerals reporting, product safety, data privacy, anti-corruption, product packaging and labeling to name a few.

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Ensuring compliance and staying one step ahead of regulators requires that retail and CPG organizations establish more centralized and collaborative compliance programs.

Managing the Supplier Ecosystem. We saw that environmental, man-made, and human rights issues can threaten the financial stability and reputation of retail and CPG organizations. Establishing a unified view of the organization and its entire supplier ecosystem requires consistency and transparency, which can be achieved only through stronger due diligence, monitoring, and reporting processes.

Focus on Collaboration. In response to increased compliance mandates, and added complexity throughout the supply chain, internal business functions have begun converging and collaborating in new ways. A strong, compliant, and risk-aware organization brings together the right people, the right skill sets, and necessary resources against a shared vision, mission, and purpose.

2014 Predictions:

Rising Importance of Reputation. Non-compliance, fines, product recalls, bribery and corruption allegations, customer activism, factory fires, and health and safety issues have put many retail and CPG companies in the hot seat.

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These incidents not only play out over front-page headlines, but can spread virally across social media sites in a matter of minutes. In 2014, building and maintaining an organization’s reputation will become a matter of survival.

Complying with the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The ACA impacts retail companies that employ a significant number of temporary workers. According to the ACA, health insurance must be provided to full time employees who work at least 30 hours per week. In the retail industry, however, employees who work at least 40 hours per week have traditionally been considered full-time. Overcoming this discrepancy will require new policies and processes that will impact employees, human resources teams, and compliance executives alike.

Investments in Technology. As operations expand and supplier ecosystems become more diverse, organizations will be faced with new opportunities and new challenges. We will see organizations continue to focus on integrating the activities of multiple functions.

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Investing in new technologies and tools to help integrate quality customer service, regulatory compliance, supply chain governance and security can help organizations realize greater efficiencies, enhanced agility and improved business performance.

Does Reputation Really Impact the Bottom Line?

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Last month, the American Customer Satisfaction Index released its latest figures for 190 major brands across all industries. The finance and insurance industries got some good news: satisfaction increased across the sector in 2013. But a careful look at some of the “worst” companies in the survey reveals a trend that may call into question some traditional wisdom on one key risk: reputation.

As Eric Chemi points out in Bloomberg Businessweek, a comparison between these satisfaction scores and 2013 stock returns – factoring in only publicly-traded companies with at least a full year of trading data – shows that customer service scores have no relevance to stock market returns. In fact, when Chemi added a regression line, he found that stock returns actually decreased as satisfaction scores went up.

Customer Satisfaction vs. Stock Returns

The slope is minimal, so there is no statistical relationship between the variables, but the trend itself is curious. Clearly, other factors account for the market success of a publicly traded company, and reputation may impact a company’s bottom line off the NYSE floor. This chart does illustrate, however, that good guys do tend to finish last in even the broadest groupings.

2013 Performance

So, if reputation doesn’t necessarily impact one major metric of a company’s success, is there a secondary market for being liked? Does reputation make or break other metrics, like net profits or market share? Given that many other studies seem to suggest that reputation does have a negative effect on stock prices, there is likely more at work here.

Tech Trends in 2013 and New Year Predictions

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With the New Year comes added awareness of the hazards social media can present to corporations, the risks of data exchange between business systems and other challenges inherent with technology. Here is a look at the top trends of last year and predictions for the year ahead.

2013 Key Trends

1.      Growing Convergence between IT, Security and the Business

Evolving risk challenges require that internal and external stakeholders are on the same risk page. For many organizations, however, internal audit, security, compliance and the business have different views of risk and what it takes to build a risk-aware and resilient business. Effective risk management starts with good communications. This includes a common taxonomy for dealing with risk, and a collaborative discussion framework to facilitate the cross-functional sharing of ideas and best practices.

2.      Focus on Managing Third Party IT and Security Risks

Organizations are increasingly global and hyper-extended, with a heavy reliance on third parties such as partners, vendors, and cloud-based service providers. Data flowing within and throughout this modern business ecosystem supports critical business processes, and also contains sensitive and regulated information. Therefore, strong oversight and management of the various IT and security risks is critical to protect the business and its reputation.

3.      Movement Towards Risk-Based Security Operations Management

In 2013, IT & Security Operations adopted a more formal, structured approach that is more closely aligned with the business and its priorities. Using a risk-based approach to prioritize security initiatives drives efficacy and efficiency—which can help secure greater buy-in and support from senior management. Risk-based security management allows security teams to promote an understanding of risk by communicating in the terms and context needed to support decision-making.

4.      Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and Mobile Device Risk Management

Mobile, e-commerce, online, wireless—this is how business is done today. Furthermore, employees are increasingly mobile and rely heavily on their devices, such as smartphones and tablets, for a variety of business activities. The threats that come with this trend are many, including data leaks, theft, and misuse. Corporate IT departments have to create stronger policies and tighter controls to manage corporate data, applications, and user behavior.

2014 Predictions

1.      Leveraging social media to drive situational awareness

Security and business continuity management teams have begun to realize the power of both social media and technology solutions that can mine and analyze data from sources such as Google Crisis Maps, Twitter, Facebook, and more, to provide real time crisis updates. Further extending this intelligence can help governments and businesses gain a complete understanding of a crisis and all of its associated financial, operational, and reputational risks.

2.      Focus on Continuous Monitoring in Risk Management

Effective risk management requires the real-time monitoring of threats, vulnerabilities, and potential exposures. In 2014, IT, Security, Risk and Compliance teams will need to work more closely together to create mature monitoring processes, supported by technology, and guided by regulations and standards such as PCI DSS 3.0, ISO 27001, and NERC CIP 5.

3.      Security and Risk Analytics Based on IT and Security “Big Data”

Incorporating security analytics and metrics alongside more traditional performance metrics such as liquidity and revenue will be critical for management to gain a much-needed holistic view of the operational risk portfolio. Leveraging IT and Security “big data” can provide the risk intelligence needed to create a truly data-driven business, guide continuous improvement processes, and lay the foundation for organizational transformation.

Plan Ahead for Holiday Party Risks

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Holiday office parties are a good opportunity to bring employees together, but they present potential risks for organizations. With social media added to the mix, even slight misconducts can be amplified if they go viral. What might have been an embarrassment handled quietly by a company can quickly become a reputation issue.

According to an article by Lloyd’s, the addition of social media “can seriously impair a company’s ability to manage a crisis,” said Eric Alter, Risk Consultant at Marsh Ltd.

“Social media and business entertainment can be a challenging mix—whether it is a sales conference, awards dinner or a Christmas party—the use of social media in the work environment has to be carefully considered,” he said, adding that websites like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram enable almost instant sharing of information, but even email can cause problems. An employee intending to send a funny email to a coworker, for example, could accidentally send it to clients.

Steve Adcock, Underwriting Manager at QBE Europe observed that alcohol can lead to a heightened risk of inappropriate comments, behavior or even assault. “People can lose their inhibitions and may not think about what they say or do,” he said. “Employees will not always get along at the Christmas party. Disagreements can lead to hurt feelings through to a potential assault.”

Paul Griffin, Head of Employment and Labor at international law firm, Norton Fulbright cautioned that an employer is liable for the wrong doings or injuries of their employees, unless they can show they have taken all reasonable steps to prevent them.

To protect themselves and their employees, organizations need to advise staff attending a party that the usual company rules still apply, Alter advised. “A company policy should make it clear that any event that is associated with work should be treated as work, and that the social media policy continues to apply.”

OneBeacon Professional Insurance noted in “A Guide to Minimizing Risk at Company Holiday Parties,” that because of the infrequency of company-sponsored holiday events, liability risks are often overlooked. Concerns such as liquor consumption, premises safety and security, discrimination and food borne illness are just a few of the issues that need to be addressed to help prevent injuries or even harassment.

According to the report, any accidents or injuries occurring at company events may be considered work-related and could possibly be subject to workers compensation.

To help avoid safety mishaps OneBeacon advises:

• When using a venue away from the office, inspect it to ensure it meets safety standards. Note exits, emergency lighting and whether there is flooring to prevent slips and falls, particularly if there is a chance of bad weather.

• Consider the effects that weather may have on safe travel to and from the party. Special considerations may be needed to keep sidewalks and parking lots clear if the event is outside of normal business hours.

• Think about potential security needs, especially if the event is in an unfamiliar neighborhood or of the venue is closed to the general public.

• Keep an eye on party-goers to ensure that no one wanders off or goes to a car or parking garage alone after dark.

• Have an emergency plan in place in case someone is injured or needs medical assistance. Find out the location of the closest hospital and whether anyone can perform CPR or use a defibrillator.

• Review situations for employees with disabilities who may require special attention. For example, if a disabled employee must use a wheelchair, check that there is a safe entrance, navigate the event and know how to deal with a possible emergency.