What questions should companies ask to better assess their exposure to uncertainty or risk?
The best way to truly understand your exposure is to do a scan of all of the components of your business to determine how those might be affected by the current downturn. This macro industry analysis can help you gain insight into your customers, suppliers, competitors, government and regulators. Begin by asking questions about who your major customers are, how they may be impacted and whether they are optimally concentrated. Look more closely at your critical suppliers, your alternatives to credit, how the changing regulatory environment will affect you, and what your competitors are up to. Are things really as bad as the headlines suggest? Things in the U.S. are highly precarious, and the worst may still be ahead. The $700-billion bailout will provide some relief to the crisis, with the U.S. taxpayer bearing the brunt of this subsidy. What you’re going to see now is a spread of economic decline that will move across verticals and geographies, increasing pace like a ball rolling down
