News from the Risk Centre

From taking a risk at Cambridge Judge Business School to founding the CJBS Centre for Risk Studies, we meet Danny Ralph, Professor of Operations Research, Academic Director of the Centre for Risk Studies (CRS), Director of Studies in Management Studies and Fellow of Churchill College.

Ransom was paid in 72% of ransomware cases in which companies sought professional assistance, says report by Centre for Risk Studies at Cambridge Judge Business School and Kivu Consulting based on a novel dataset.

The Centre for Risk Studies and BitSight today announced a new research partnership that will analyse the relationship between organisational cybersecurity investments and risk reduction. The partnership combines security programme investment costs, BitSight's cybersecurity performance data, and the Centre's sophisticated risk and incident modelling in order to help organisations evaluate security and risk management decisions and measure the efficacy of their investments in reducing risk. The partnership comes at a critical time for security professionals to demonstrate the value of their investments to senior leaders. In spite of record spending on cybersecurity technology in 2021, cyber attacks continue to escalate and cause massive financial damage to organisations across all sizes and sectors. Security and risk professionals face growing pressure from executives and boards to quantify the effectiveness of their investments in reducing risk. Jacob Olcott, BitSight's Vice President of Communications and Government Affairs said, "For far too long, organisational cybersecurity decisions and investments have been influenced by fear and marketing. It is critical for security and risk professionals to leverage data analysis in strategic decision making. This partnership will produce unique and valuable research to help leaders consider the financial costs and risk reduction benefits of their cybersecurity strategies. We…

Risilience, a new company that commercialises research from the Centre for Risk Studies at Cambridge Judge Business School, is launched with a £6 million Series A investment.

Three steps can help firms address vulnerabilities that can lead to supply chain cyberattacks, says a Harvard Business Review article from the Centre for Risk Studies at Cambridge Judge Business School.

Each of our research centres has unique ways to engage with non-academic organisations and, through that, to generate real world impact. This month we decided to share with you the work of the Centre for Risk Studies at Cambridge Judge Business School.

The average period between crises from 1700-1900 was 21 years, but since 1960 this has shrunk to just eight years. Investment opportunities totaling $3 trillion per year could reduce the probability of huge risks ranging from climate change to pandemics, says a report by Citi Global Perspectives and Solutions in conjunction with the Centre for Risk Studies at Cambridge Judge Business School.

A year after UK lockdown, the Cambridge Centre for Risk Studies calls for probability-based scenario approach to forecasting crises due to unreliability of well-established models.

MBA students' contributions to the annual Cambridge-McKinsey Risk Prize provide valuable learnings.

The news and insight section of Cambridge Judge Business School's website attracts audiences with eclectic interests ranging from business to healthcare to the arts. In 2020, attention was focused on articles related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Khaled Soufani and Daniel Ralph of Cambridge Judge Business School are honoured with the School's 2020 Sandra Dawson Research Impact Award. Dr Khaled Soufani and Professor Daniel Ralph of Cambridge Judge Business School have been named winners of the 2020 Sandra Dawson Research Impact Award for the impact of their research on non-academic stakeholders. Dr Khal Soufani, Faculty (Professor level) in Management Practice, Director of the Executive MBA Programme and Director of the Circular Economy Centre at Cambridge Judge, was honoured for his work on the University of Cambridge's multi-departmental project on eliminating plastic waste, and for research into the introduction of circular economy principles in the Internet of Things, a project sponsored by the European Union. Khal and his team helped set up the Cambridge Centre for Circular Economy Approaches to Eliminate Plastic Waste. The industry partner that is working with the team, Huntingdon, UK-based packaging manufacturing firm Charpak, has said: "To be collaborating with the University of Cambridge on their Research Project extends our vision of starting with local circularity; with a view to this circular model being deployed further afield, UK-wide and internationally." An article co-authored by Khal in California Management Review, "Introducing a circular economy: new…

Higher insurance penetration usually speeds recovery from natural disasters, but not in the US due to a fragmented insurance market, says new report from the Centre for Risk Studies at Cambridge Judge Business School. Countries with higher insurance penetration usually bounce back faster from natural disasters, but the "fragmented" nature of US insurance coverage results in slow recovery despite high insurance penetration, according to a new study by the Cambridge Centre for Risk Studies. Most countries with high insurance penetration of three to four per cent (measured by non-life premiums relative to GDP) such as in Western Europe, Japan, Australia and South Korea have an average recovery rate of less than 12 months, but the US has a recovery rate of more than three years despite insurance penetration of more than four per cent. Globally, each percentage point of insurance penetration reduces recovery times by almost a year, the report found. The US is "anomalous" given the wide variance of insurance coverage and availability there, particularly flood insurance, so recovery times from disasters such as Hurricanes Andrew (1992), Katrina (2005) and Sandy (2012), and the Great Mississippi and Missouri River Floods (1993) have been much slower than following major events…

More equal societies can mitigate crisis risk, says keynote speaker at annual Risk Summit of the Centre for Risk Studies. Governments should act "more as an insurer" by seeking more equitable societies rather than simply responding to crises, the CEO of the Impact Investing Institute told the annual Risk Summit of the Centre for Risk Studies at Cambridge Judge. "More equitable societies are more resilient societies," Sarah Gordon told the 11th annual Risk Summit, held virtually this year. "If everyone had access to decent health care, shelter and clean water, the impact of the coronavirus crisis would have been far lower." A former Financial Times journalist, Sarah Gordon delivered a keynote speech at the Risk Summit and appeared on a closing panel that also included Alan Jagolinzer, Professor of Financial Accounting and Director of the Centre for Financial Reporting & Accountability at Cambridge Judge. She called on companies to issue – voluntarily for now but later as part of their compulsory annual report – a Public Interest Statement that outlines both their positive and negative impacts regarding social, environmental and governance (ESG) issues. "Companies that get on the front foot on this will have a competitive advantage and will be…

At Cambridge Judge Business School, we pride ourselves in our commitment to engaging with businesses, policy-makers and civil-society organisations. We believe that knowledge can be a powerful tool to help different players to improve their practices, policies and to develop their thinking. and, in this way, to generate positive social impact. But what does it mean "to engage" for a business school? And how can we keep on engaging as we all adapt to a life with physical distancing? Undoubtedly, many of our engagement practices have changed significantly in this period. But we would like to think that the creativity required to overcome current barriers to in-person physical engagement has actually improved and strengthened our connections to our community. At every level, Cambridge Judge people have committed to stay in touch with our key stakeholders and have come up with successful engagement initiatives. Here are just some examples of the many ways in which our faculty and research centres have been able to keep on engaging with students, alumni, and organisations, even as we have been working from home and adjusting to a new normal. Dr Simon Taylor, Faculty (Professor-level) in Management Practice (Finance) has published regular posts on his…

State-directed capitalism rather than trade imbalance is the real US worry about China, Michael Kitson tells the Risk Summit of the Centre for Risk Studies. The state-directed nature of Chinese capitalism that allows longer-term investments is likely of greater concern to the United States than current trade imbalances, says Michael Kitson, University Senior Lecturer in International Economics at Cambridge Judge Business School.  "Arguably it’s this form of capitalism, this longer-term perspective that will enable China to maintain its dominant position as the major global power in the 21st Century," Michael says in a video prepared for the 2020 Risk Summit of the Cambridge Centre for Risk Studies, being held online on 23 June, which focuses on "The Resilient Company – Managing Business Risks".  Michael's presentation focuses on the "Shift from West to East" in economic power in the 21st Century, and particularly towards China.  "The active role of the state to direct the market economy, that unique form of Chinese capitalism – yes, it has many limitations – but what it does allow China to do is to take a long-term view, a much longer-term view that many companies and corporations and governments can do in liberal market economies," Michael says.  "This enables China to make longer-term investments and engage in global expansion as we’re seeing now with the Belt…