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The results show a relatively low adoption of risk management processes among Greek organisations. Less than half (44.3%) use third-party contracts to make provisions against supply chain risks, compared with 72.2% of global organisations. Equally low is the performance of Greek companies in setting risk management policies (31.8%), implementing business continuity plans (29.5%) and putting in place practices for reporting on supply chain risks. This is explained by the fact that awareness of risk management processes and the associated benefits is low. Only than 1 in 10 (9.1%) organisations have conducted internal awareness and training programmes on risk management. That could imply either an acceptance of supply chain risks or a resignation that there is little that can be done easily to mitigate them. There is a lot of room for improvement in this area and we strongly recommend that organisations start putting in place processes for managing potential threats in the supply chain. Risk registers (shared internally and potentially with critical suppliers), mapping of the potential risks in the supply chain, identifying the products and services that will be mostly impacted in the event of disruption, calculating the associated Value at Risk (a measure for calculating exposure to risks), and putting in place contractual provisions to mitigate risks or insure against them are examples of actions that can be taken. In the current volatile environment, effectiveness in risk management will distinguish the leaders from the followers. Risk Management should be both proactive and reactive. Proactive risk management includes the design and implementation of provisions that reduce the likelihood of a disruption event occurring. These include risk audits, disaster prevention plans, collaboration, and market intelligence. Not all risks translate into disruptive events, of course. For those that do, reactive risk management includes the design of mechanisms that ensure that the business impact is kept to a minimum. These include multiple sourcing, contingency / business continuity plans, internal communication and escalation, and insurance. Given the nature of today’s supply chains, risk management needs to be a joint, cross- organisational activity, rather than simply an internal one. Therefore the right question to ask is not only “Is our organisation resilient?”, but also “Are the supply chains we operate resilient”? To answer this second question, organisations need to work closely with their key suppliers to understand risks at lower tiers of the supply chain and to plan appropriate mitigation strategies. The survey results show that Greek organisations lag significantly behind global organisations in this area (15.9% to 68.5%). Engaging with suppliers for risk management It is important for organisations to use suppliers’ knowledge of their own supply chain risks to improve their understanding of potential threats. Just over a third (36.7%) of survey respondents have communicated specific risk management standards to their suppliers, while 30.4% have asked to see suppliers’ insurance certificates and 25.3% have evaluated suppliers’ resilience and business continuity plans. Again, it appears that Greek organisations are less active in communicating their risk-related concerns with their suppliers than are global organisations.
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