Tesco
Global Risks 2013
Report

Global Risks 2013

An Initiative of the Risk Response Network

Lee Howell
World Economic Forum, 2013
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Editorial Rating

8

Recommendation

This wide-ranging study of daunting global risks lists all the major problems that are likely to occur in the world – and not just the impending threats but the biggest, most complex and most difficult threats for individuals, organizations or countries to tackle. However, as unsettling as that sounds, this report from the World Economic Forum is required reading: It synthesizes perspectives from a survey of more than 1,000 authorities and experts around the world, and its insights cross disciplinary and ideological boundaries. The research addresses risks ranging from the extremely probable – because they are already underway, such as climate change and the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria – to the more wildly speculative – such as the discovery of alien life on other planets. The result is thought-provoking and useful, and getAbstract recommends it to futurists, planners and anyone pondering what the future may hold. Open your mind to what might – maybe, possibly, perhaps – happen.

Take-Aways

  • Businesses and countries can prepare for “preventable risks” and “strategic risks,” but “global risks” are too large and complex for any single organization to tackle.
  • Preventable risks include process breakdowns or employee error; strategic risks stem from deliberate corporate choices. Global risks are beyond a firm’s grasp to manage.
  • “Severe income disparity” is a global risk that may occur in 10 years. The risk of a “major systemic financial failure” would have the biggest global impact.

About the Author

Lee Howell is managing director of the World Economic Forum, an international, independent and nonprofit organization founded in 1971. It works with government, business, academic and other leaders to improve the world.

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