business continutity

The Risk You Can’t Avoid – Weather Disruption

minton bernadette 130x195By Professor Bernadette A. Minton
Academic Director and Interim Executive Director, The Risk Institute
Arthur E. Shepard Endowed Professor in Insurance
Professor of Finance
The Ohio State University Fisher College of Business

Weather plays a big role in our economy – from retail to agriculture to transportation, all industries are affected by it in some way or another.

A summer drought in the Midwest can negatively impact the agriculture sector while simultaneously creating a boom in new housing construction. Consumer behavior is also influenced by the weather. Consumers in Phoenix in light rain and 75° react differently than those in Portland, Oregon in similar conditions.

NOAA_Wavewatch_III_Sample_Forecast

Over the recent years, climate variability has been increasing with extreme weather occurrences becoming more normal. Thus, understanding your organization’s vulnerabilities to weather disruptions is important to achieving corporate objectives and creating value.

In the upcoming Risk Institute Executive Education Risk Series, we will explore the risk management and strategic implications of weather disruptions. Our session leaders from The Bryd Polar and Climate Research Center at The Ohio State University and from Analytics and Impact Forecasting Services at Aon Benfield (Aon is a founding member of The Risk Institute) will collaborate to provide executives with insights into how:

  • It is less about the averages and evolving weather trends and more about the increasing extremes in our global and regional weather patterns. The use of recent advances in technology, data collection and data quality has led to new predictive analytics tools to more reliably project the weather risks.
  • These new analytical tools can improve managers’ abilities to better understand their business’ exposures to weather and more effectively manage these risks.

No one can control the weather, but planning for weather disruptions and its impact on your business is vital. If you wish to join us for this timely and thought provoking discussion, there are still seats available for the session.

The Risk Institute Executive Education Series will continue on Nov 12, 2015 with Weather Disruption and Risk Management, a half-day course for executives. For more information, or to sign up for the session, visit FISHER.OSU.EDU/RISK