Why Organizations Are Acquiring Risk-Sensing Tech

With innovation comes risk. Because of this, many organizations invest heavily in staffers who specialize in anticipating and preparing for "the worst that can happen." And, today, the majority of tech departments work with these teams to acquire and deploy what are called "risk-sensing" tools, according to a recent survey from Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited. The resulting report, titled "Risk Sensing: The (evolving) State of the Art," indicates that a significant number of C-level executives believe that their organization must leverage data to prevent the risk of getting left behind market/technology shifts that impact competitive standing. They're also keenly interested in tools which can flag potential issues related to finance, compliance, operations and strategies. In many cases, they're inviting external consultants to offer their own assessments of potentially troubling situations, seeking an outside perspective that isn't influenced by internal agendas and biases. "Sensing emerging strategic risks can position an organization not only to avoid and mitigate risks but also to generate risk-powered performance," according to the report. "The latter creates value from risk by moving early to address nascent market movements and customer needs, harness benefits from emerging technologies and block competitors' efforts to gain first-mover advantage." The report includes best practices, and we've adapted some of them here. A total of 155 C-level execs took part in the research, which was conducted by Forbes Insights.