Customs have moved from frontier checks to audit based controls and transferred a high level of responsibility and risk to the trader. It is now the duty of the trader to identify and report any error or irregularity and to keep an impeccable audit trail from initial quotation to receipt of payment. For the business, failing to provide satisfactory compliance records will result in delayed shipments and serious disruption in the supply chain. This will in turn impact on financial performance indicators. Errors uncovered during these audits will yield heavy financial penalties and a Customs debt. --

The historic growth in world trade, large container ships and information technology have triggered profound changes in international trade. A few years ago, customs officers at the border were meticulously checking goods and documents before releasing a shipment to the trader. A business could be confident that a shipment that had cleared customs complied with all applicable regulations. Today, to reduce congestion and give the trade quick access to their goods, customs have introduced risk management principles and a large number of shipments clear customs automatically. Controls have moved from the border to the trader’s premises and it is during site visits that customs officers check the business compliance records. Moving from frontier checks to audit based controls has transferred a high level of responsibility and risk to the trader. It is now the duty of the trader to identify and report any error or irregularity and to keep an impeccable audit trail from initial quotation to receipt of payment. For the business, failing to provide satisfactory compliance records will result in delayed shipments and serious disruption in the supply chain. This will in turn impact on financial performance indicators such as Days in Inventory, Days Sales Outstanding and of course Cash Flow. The business will also have to endure in depth customs audits during which customs officers will inspect each step of the audit trail disrupting day-to-day business operation. Errors uncovered during these audits will yield heavy financial penalties and a customs debt. Ultimately, customs risk will impact on shareholders value. Customs and finance reporting should receive the same level of attention. However, if all companies check carefully their tax returns, only a few check their import or export declarations with the same scrutiny. Managing customs risk is often seen as a cost centre but it is also a source of competitive advantage. A sound customs management can reduce or remov

Increasingly, top executives view supply markets as sources of competitive advantage and as means of achieving strategic objectives. Procurement is the management activity that makes this happen, and this process depends on a superior risk management capability if it is be effective. Yet, despite its importance, Procurement Risk Management is surprisingly under-developed. Recent Global Risk surveys have pinpointed Supply Chain Vulnerability as one of the four key global risks for the next decade. What is less well known is that this is only half of the story ... risk exposures also exist inside the company and can be just as damaging. No company is an island; it needs suppliers as well as customers. Conventional wisdom puts great emphasis on managing certain aspects of business such as customers; operations; strategy and finances. Typically, however, much less regard is paid to external suppliers and the risks present in dealing with them. As a minimum, suppliers are the sources of materials, services and expert attention which enable the company to feed its business model. When done well, a risk-aware procurement process provides the bonus of competitive advantage, with the ability to capitalise, on the occurrence of unexpected events. This short guide explains just how to do it. Each chapter explores the topic in hand, outlines the risks and the remedies available and offers guidance on the principles and risk prevention.

In a competitive and increasingly internationalised business world, many companies rely on the high risk/reward ratio of operating in unstable areas. Those companies willing to engage in emerging or developing countries can often be exposed to a politically volatile environment over which they have little control. Political risk, therefore, is one of the most hazardous challenges that an international business can face. In A Short Guide to Political Risk you will find a business-centric introduction to political risk that will familiarise international managers with the concept and accelerate the learning curve towards proficient and coherent political risk management. Robert McKellar explores: the key political risks that companies have faced in the recent past, and current trends in the evolution of the political risk landscape; the concept of political risk and its constituent elements; models and approaches for assessing political risk; the principal options for managing political risk, and suggestions for organisational structures to ensure a coherent and consistent approach; as well as wider issues that a company needs to consider in developing its own attitude and philosophy on political risk. A Short Guide to Political Risk is an essential introductory guide for risk managers and for all senior managers concerned with their organisation's global performance and reputation.

A Short Guide to Facilitating Risk Management is for all those who need to make sound decisions in important but risky situations; people who work with groups to identify, prioritize and respond to risks, and who wish to deliver value. The authors provide readable and practical advice in terms of avoiding pitfalls, understanding risk management and the role of facilitator. They include guidance for running workshops, and working with small groups and individuals.

There is a growing awareness across both public and private sectors, that the key to embedding an effective risk culture lies in raising the general education and understanding of risk at every level in the organization. This is exactly the purpose of David Tattam's book. A Short Guide to Operational Risk provides you with a basic yet comprehensive overview of the nature of operational risk in organizations. It introduces operational risk as a component of enterprise wide risk management and takes the reader through the processes of identifying, assessing, quantifying and managing operational risk; explaining the practical aspects of how these steps can be applied to an organization using a range of management tools. The book is fully illustrated with graphs, tables and short examples, all designed to make a subject that is often poorly understood, comprehensible and engaging. A Short Guide to Operational Risk is a book to be read and shared at all levels of the organization; it offers a common understanding and language of risk that will provide individual readers with the basis to develop risk management skills, appropriate to their role in the business.

A Short Guide to Equality Risk analyses the concepts, theories, and issues associated with the implementation in organisations and the service environment of an Equality, Diversity, and Discrimination (EDD) Agenda. Whether from a business, political, social, legal or medical view, the risks of failure of EDD compliance are escalating, be it in terms of cost, the possibility of damage to reputation, or the potential for loss of government or public sector contracts. Using the insights and specialised medico-legal knowledge he has acquired in the course of successfully defending his own rights, Tony Morden examines the subject from leadership, governance, management, opportunity, and performance-oriented perspectives. By using case studies and drawing on a growing body of international experience, the author analyses components of an EDD Agenda: equality, diversity, opportunity, and discrimination; and examines issues and dilemmas associated with implementing such an agenda. He offers a strategic and performance-oriented overview of the issues of leadership, prioritisation, management process, managing architectures, and the application of performance and risk management concepts. Written from a scholarly perspective, but in a practitioner-oriented and reader-friendly manner, this addition to the series of short guides to business risk provides a credible, strategic, and implementation-based overview of what is becoming a critically important, politically sensitive, and high risk subject.