PAGBABAGO
One of the popular concepts in organizational management whether for government, business and non-government, is risk management. It is integrated in almost every training or planning exercise.
Lately, and because of the rapid transformation going on in both local and external environment, there appears to be a need to re-examine the value that we have originally given to certain factors.
At a workshop of a development non-government organization where I serve as an adviser, the facilitator distributed materials where participants were asked to rank the importance or influence of certain factors and trends in the environment and organization. He elicited as well, suggestions on how they should be managed.
The purpose was to put value or rank the importance of factors within or outside or internal environment so that tasks may be more easily identified. The purpose was to mitigate the effect of such risks and ensure that the benefits of interventions outweigh the economic costs.
Among the factors in the internal work environment are the systems and technology employed to promote productivity, safety, security and privacy, and reduce risks of external and internal factors such as fraud, theft, money laundering, technology failure, and external force majeure (acts of God such as hurricanes, heavy floods and typhoons, earthquakes, etc.), terrorism and war.
Those familiar with this exercise do realize its importance. Thus, most of these concerns are now integrated in every program and budgetary planning.
But, with the dramatic transformation going on in the country and in the global environment, there is need to examine rankings or weight we have given to the above factors.
It may appear that we may not have put a realistic weight on some developments such as the impact of climate change over these past few years. Or the impact of new technology that could threaten certain national and organizational values such as privacy and security.
For example, we now recognize that the ongoing conflict in the West Philippine Sea threatens not only the economic security due to food shortage (the Philippines is heavily dependent on fish) but also its national security.
Climate change means that we shall be experiencing extremes in weather, such as frequency of heavy typhoons and floods, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes.
The rapid transformation of our technological environment means heavy dependence on the new technology. Automation and AI will continue to transform the workplace as they can go beyond what humans can do in terms of time and efficiency.
There is also the looming crisis in the Middle East. As analysts have indicated, the recent flare-up last Oct. 7 following Hamas’ attack on Israel could effect a serious retaliation that would result in a much wider conflict that would affect most countries of the world.
The World Economic Forum (WEF) foresees the critical impact of three forces – natural crises, the debt crisis and inflation. We are now experiencing inflation in transport charges, electricity rates, and global oil prices.
Risk management exercises for all organizations will have to reflect on the above social, economic, political and technological changes if they wish to prepare for a realistic transition into the future. As philosophers note: “Change is inevitable. We can either resist it or adapt to it. Disruption brings both inconvenience and opportunity. And, when you have finished changing, you’re finished!”