The primary challenges confronting Indian businesses today: Technology, Geopolitics and Climate Change

Many Indian business leaders face new and unpredictable risks from tech and climate shifts, a Bloomberg survey reveals.

Business leaders in India are concerned due to new and emerging risks arising from rapid shifts in technology and climate change, a Bloomberg survey of over 300 respondents has found, according to a news report on livemint. Bloomberg in its ‘In Flux: Navigating India’s Changing Risk Landscape’ report, highlighted the growing prominence of newer forms of risk in business decision-making.

Business leaders are now preoccupied with more non-linear risks such as complex geopolitical environment, mounting climate concerns, and paradigm-shifting technological innovations such crypto and GPTs, the survey found. Non-linear risks are unpredictable and can potentially disrupt businesses in unexpected ways.

“The research illustrates significant shifts in risk perceptions and underscores the need for organisations to adapt their risk management strategies to address emerging and often unpredictable challenges more effectively. Indian business leaders feel the nature of risk has significantly changed from what it was a decade ago – and that risk will also look significantly different again a decade from now,” the release said.

Key trends emerge

– A clear comfort zone for most business leaders. More than nine-in-10 (or 91 percent) of respondents found it easier to identify traditional risks compared to newer forms of risks.

– Nearly half (or 48 percent) of all senior leaders consider data-related risks as a top cause for concern. This lends to the finding that new importance is being placed on technology and technology-related risks.

– A significant number of leaders are uncertain about the future. Nearly one-in-five leaders (or 19 percent) expressed apprehension about their ability to address future risks with the current data capabilities.

Risk perception

Findings also showed that one’s leadership position within a company drove their perception of risk. As much as 48 percent of CEOs and MDs thought risk was ‘completely’ or ‘significantly’ different than it was 10 years ago; while 72 percent of CTOs said risk had changed ‘completely’ or ‘significantly’ in the same period.

But there is also some convergence of consensus. Among risks, 13 percent of CEOs and MDs see environmental risk as a top concern – up 3 percent from their view 10 years earlier; and 9 percent of CTOs now label climate as a ‘top risk’ compared to 4 percent identifying it as such 10 years earlier.

“The nature of risk has the potential to transform entire sectors quickly and unexpectedly. The consistent feedback is that as risks evolve, their impact becomes more profound, and traditional mechanisms for mitigating such risks are often lacking. To monitor and overcome challenges presented by what this report identifies as ‘Non-Linear Risk’, it has become imperative for organisations to adapt to the changing dimensions of risk and prepare accordingly,” Rajiv Mirwani, Head of Bloomberg South Asia, said.