Global Operations Add Risk

Editor's Note: In last week's NU, we asked more than 30 industry leaders to address whether the world is becoming a safer or riskier place. This week, and over the weeks ahead, we'll pose the same question on this page to top risk managers. 

I don't know if the world is riskier, or if the symptoms of risk are being acknowledged more, but it seems as if there is a certain amount of unrest financially and politically, all over the world.

The more global our communities and operations become, the more risky our activities are as well, because the world is more outside of our control.

When you are operating only on a campus, or if you are operating only in your own city boundaries, you have a better ability to understand the risk and to prevent it or protect against it. So the more global your universe becomes, the more difficult it is to understand all the risks and prevent them and deal with them once they do happen.

I work at a university, and we have faculty all over the world doing research and education. It's difficult to understand all those risks and prevent them—and also to respond to them. 

If you have people in Japan and there is a tsunami, or in London and there's a riot, that's more difficult to respond to than something that I can walk over to and see.

So I think the more we become a global society, the more risky and challenging the jobs for risk managers become.