Terrorism fears grow among international businesses

Readers may have heard that Michael Douglas is preparing to reprise his role as Gordon Gekko in a sequel to the 1980s hit Wall Street. Gekko’s famous motto, of course, was “greed is good,” a slogan that perfectly captured the spirit of the decade. For this decade, a better motto would be “fear is good” — for business if not for the blood pressure. Nevertheless, says Lloyds of London Chaiman Lord Levene, “there appears to be a significant gap between a growing risk awareness and tangible action actually taken by many companies, driven by a lack of understanding of the dynamics they encounter as they globalise.”

In a new report (.pdf), Lloyd’s found that, although thirty-six percent of international businesses predict being the victim of a terrorist attack within the next five years, two-thirds admitted they did not know enough about “their exposure to terrorism and political violence.” All this despite the fact that half of respondants thought it likely that their IT infrastructure would come under attack. One in four lack business continuity plans, and only 20 percent of those with a plan have made contingencies for WMD attacks. Perhaps it is all a problem in the doing, not the thinking. “The research shows that boards are spending an increasing amount of time discussing terrorism and political violence risks,” said Lord Levene.