Willis, a WTW business, has released its Reputational Risk Readiness Survey 2024/25, highlighting a sharp rise in concerns around cyber threats and environmental challenges among global senior executives.
Of the 500 respondents, 65% identified cyber risk—especially cyber-attacks—as the most significant threat to their organisation’s reputation, an increase from 52% in 2023.
Environmental issues followed closely, with 64% citing them as a major concern, also up from 52% the previous year.
Attention to governance risks rose to 56%, while social impact concerns increased to 47%, both reflecting the influence of tightening regulations across many regions.
The survey also found that a majority of organisations are still willing to accept some reputational risk when the potential benefits align with strategic goals. About 57% of executives said they would take on greater risk under the right circumstances, and 69% stated they evaluate such decisions on an individual basis.
Most businesses are setting aside dedicated resources to manage reputational fallout, with 94% reporting they have a reserved budget for this purpose.
However, confidence in modelling the financial impact of such events has declined. This year, only 11% of respondents said they have strong capabilities in this area, while 64% described their ability as moderate—a noticeable drop from 74% in 2023 and 87% in 2022.
Despite this, many organisations appear to be strengthening their structural preparedness. Nearly nine out of ten have formal crisis response teams guided by defined performance indicators, and over 90% conduct annual crisis communication exercises to test their response strategies.
Overall, the findings point to growing recognition of reputational risk factors alongside a more cautious approach to assessing potential financial outcomes.
David Bennett, Head of Reputational Risk Management, Direct and Facultative, at Willis, commented: “The results of the survey show that while crisis response teams are more robust than ever, modelling capabilities still lag. In today’s unpredictable environment, the ability to anticipate and assess costs and liabilities is becoming increasingly critical.
“Reputation has long been viewed as intangible and difficult to quantify. However, embracing advances such as AI-powered platforms, enables organisations to monitor real-time sentiment and model the frequency, severity, and potential sources of reputational threats with greater precision than ever before.”
Garret Gaughan, Managing Director, Direct and Facultative, added: “Leading businesses are managing reputation as an operational and financial risk, and have moved away from viewing it as a branding exercise, with some even linking reputation to board KPIs. To build resilience, companies should develop strong risk management processes, including sentiment tracking and risk intelligence.”
The post Cyber risk and environmental issues lead reputational concerns in 2024/25: WTW appeared first on ReinsuranceNe.ws.