MUMBAI: ICICI Lombard on Thursday launched what it claims to be the first corporate risk index to help businesses navigate the post-pandemic world by addressing a myriad of issues across the operation, supply-chains, cyber threats, falling revenue, hybrid working, among others.
Corporate risk index that uses risk measurement tool has been developed with the management consulting firm Frost & Sullivan covering 150 top companies from its own investment portfolio across 15 key sectors, ICICI Lombard chief executive Bhargav Dasgupta told reporters.
While the company will release an annual risk report in these companies for free, a customised report will be prepared on individual companies on demand, he said.
Launching the report, noted management academic and corporate consultant Ram Charan said going forward the risk index will be the main metric for any foreign investor to pump money into the country.
Some of the key features of the index include a quantifiable measure to gauge the level of a company's risk exposure and preparedness based on a framework that comprises 32 risk elements across six broad dimensions.
The company also released its first risk index report, which has found superior risk handling in healthcare, BFSI, media and telecom and IT-ITES, while companies from the FMCG, automotive and transportation and logistics sectors have high-risk exposure as they deal with high transaction volumes and customer touchpoints.
Sectors like healthcare, IT/ITeS, and metals/mining have low-risk exposure primarily due to the intrinsic nature of their business, which makes the sectors vulnerable to only specific risks while they stay immune from most others.
Real economy sectors like metals, automotive, manufacturing and infra/ realty are handling risks optimally, but new-age, hospitality and logistics sectors have high intrinsic risk exposure, which is handled sub-optimally now.
Telecoms, media and communications sectors are very well equipped to handle operational, physical, and market/economy-linked risks, but no standard practices around handling crime and security risks a major cause of significant variations of risk index across corporates.