It has become clear that many organisations have realised the positive business benefits that transpire as a result of focused attention to their outsourced activities, the principals of service level agreements and supply chain auditing are still underdeveloped business tools that enable the mitigation of risk within an outsourced supply portfolio.

The profile of outsourced activities fall's into three principal categories, organisations that rely on suppliers to manufacture and develop innovations to outsourced products - supply chain. Organisations that have agreements to Market, Sell and deliver products or services - Demand Chain and organisations that license the use of their Intellectual property (IP) e.g. trademarks , patents and copyrights . The Brand market is a particularly vulnerable market.

The extended business relationship is a long established element of business practice however in today's competitive market place many organisations depend more and more on outsourced core activities such as key components manufacture and logistics.

The traditional issue of trust is a business force which is being over ridden by the need of senior executives and board member governance requirements to certify that enterprise wide risk's are known, understood and Mitigated (Corporate Governance ,Business Continuity Management and Supply Chain Management) significant interest in the power of contracts and in particular service level agreements and the ability of those governed by them to have demonstrable control of risk appertaining to the delivery of the agreement is in today's business world paramount.

Whilst Conducting Negotiations with the former Soviet Union, President Ronald Reagan famously said

"Trust, but Verify"

As the need to establish greater understanding and transparency within the supply chain relationship, organisations are redeveloping their vendor rating programmes and or establishing clear assurance guidelines for their supply chain audit teams; this process begins with aligning partnership objectives and sound understanding of what transactional information will provide adequate assurance for the principles board to sign off on risk mitigation.

IRCA Corporate Risk Division offers a variety of risk management solutions to help clients build a holistic risk management framework that enables organisations achieve their business objectives by building resilience within the organisation and its supply chain.

"Organisations increasingly see the importance of enterprise wide risk management in running a resilient business; they recognise it not as a fad in response to a business environment in crisis, but an increasingly vital part of managing a business".

Effective enterprise risk management allows organisations to make strategic decisions based on the best possible information around these risks. Increasingly, risk is now assessed across the whole range of an organisation's activities to manage the total exposure rather than treating different areas in isolation. The focus of risk is also to engage in the management of intangible assets such as brand reputation and knowledge.

What are the hallmarks of good risk management? A resilient approach would require:

• That risk management is integrated into business target setting and performance management; "
• That risk management techniques are used in operational and project planning;
• That dedicated corporate structures are implemented and processes put in place to manage risk.

The need for robust risk management processes has been dramatically underlined by recent events. Organisations that engage this approach can make decisions for their future confident that these are grounded in realities of the business environment within which they operate.

The Corporate Risk Division team uses an enterprise wide risk-based approach to help clients identify critical functions of their businesses including the key element of supply chain management and its many complexities.

The team determines and analyses exposures and their impact, as well as evaluating existing risk-treatment practices.

We help organisations protect their assets and revenue streams by focusing on business risk and continuity issues via the required multi discipline approach to revue of SLA arrangements and BCP's within a supply chain.

Strategic Risk Management

• Enterprise wide risk Management
• Business interruption and continuity management
• Corporate governance risk reporting
• Project risk management
• Supply Chain continuity risk assessment
• Due Diligence risk assessment.
• Asset Management

Dr. Michael Robbins Head of European Operations IRCA International Business Division