As the economic climate deteriorates many organisations are becoming increasingly concerned about the viability of their key suppliers.

Supplier risk is increasingly a Board level concern due to the severe financial, operational and strategic consequences disruption can cause, coupled with greater scrutiny by key stakeholders from shareholders to lenders, to customers and credit insurers who want confirmation that organisations robustly manage and limit supplier risk.

The impact of supplier failure on organisations can be very significant as recent high profile cases have shown, including:

• Disruption of service and product delivery
• Reputational damage
• Loss of revenue and increased costs
• Threat to competitive advantage
• Significant use of management time sourcing alternative suppliers
• Supply chain or business failure.

Yet maintaining an up-to-date view of the operational and financial position of critical suppliers by proactively identifying potential issues and threats, is proving difficult for organisations in this fast moving economic climate.

Organisations need to start focusing on making sure their supplier risk management programmes can respond to the increased volatility and pressures in the current economic environment.

Click here for the full Supplier risk report.