Managing Risk In Uncertain Times

Companies that transition to a new risk playbook will be in a stronger position to win the future consumer. There are three key areas to get right.

- Kristina Rogers And Andrew Cosgrove

Consumer product companies are working hard to stay relevant to a consumer that is changing faster than ever. As traditional opportunities and certainties collapse, their hunt for growth must be relentless.

They are making bolder choices to reshape their organisations, business models and brands to better engage consumers both today and into the future. But we believe it is time for them to become equally bold in addressing their approach to risk.

Technological and social change over the next decade will transform the lives of consumers around the world. What it takes to deliver the products, services and experiences they value will transform too.

To engage the future consumer, organisations will need to build and protect trust in an environment that will be more complex and more challenging. And they won’t just need the trust of consumers, but of investors, ecosystem partners and stakeholders more widely.

The need for a different approach to risk is made clear by the scenario modeling we’ve been doing as part of our ‘FutureConsumer. Now’ programme. For more than a year we worked with clients, EY professionals and independent futurists to model 15 alternative future worlds.

Together we explored scenarios that anticipate the very different kinds of consumer that might emerge in the years ahead, what it will take to serve them and the implications for companies today — both in terms of opportunities and risks.

RISKS WILL HIT YOU HARDER AND FASTER

To create growth in our scenarios, companies need to respond to risks that are very different from those they face today in terms of their probability, impact and composition.