A Willis Research Network (WRN) report, The Decision Advantage, highlights a gap between organisations’ understanding of risk and their ability to translate that knowledge into timely strategic decisions. The report’s Emerging and Interconnected Risks Survey found that about 50% of respondents were confident their organisations could respond to today’s risk environment, but only 23% believed their strategy would remain resilient over the next decade. Just 37% reported having an emerging-risk framework, register and management process in place.
The research argues that the problem is often not a shortage of information but the failure to connect risk information with strategic decisions before conditions change. It distinguishes between “value exposed”, referring to what could be lost, impaired or delayed, and “value unrealized”, referring to opportunities that may not materialise because capacity, infrastructure, resources or market access becomes constrained. The report identifies six interconnected systems influencing strategic outcomes: AI and digital decision systems; infrastructure and shared systems; energy, electrification and critical resources; human capability and resilience; geopolitics and regional agency; and nature, climate and interconnected capital.
The report also positions insurability as a leading indicator of strategic risk. Changes in insurance capacity, affordability or coverage terms can signal that an underlying exposure is becoming more difficult to manage before it appears in financial results. Two WTW client cases cited in the research illustrate this approach: one critical-infrastructure organisation identified an immediate 14% cost reduction by assessing climate exposure, retained risk and insurance together, while a global semiconductor manufacturer secured US$100 million in additional utility insurance capacity through an integrated assessment of utility resilience, natural hazards and insurance strategy.
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