Five key takeaways from a breakfast discussion: What’s keeping risk professionals awake in these uncertain times

Our recent breakfast event, organized together with and hosted by Deloitte Finland, brought together professionals from across industries to explore how risk management can become a strategic driver at times of uncertainty. Rather than focusing solely on frameworks and compliance, the event highlighted the importance of inclusive collaboration and real-time insight in making risk work for business advantage. 

Several discussion points emerged repeatedly throughout the event — signaling where minds are turning as risk landscapes evolve and as AI, sustainability, and strategy become increasingly intertwined.  

Here are five themes that captured attention and invite further exploration. 

1. Top-down vs. bottom-up risk insight: The power of integration 

Risk awareness often starts from two very different vantage points: leadership teams focus on strategic, enterprise-level risks, while frontline employees encounter day-to-day operational risks and signals.  
 
Both perspectives carry blindspots. Discussions at the event reinforced the value of combining these insights to form a more complete picture of reality—one that drives better prioritization, stronger justification for actions, and more resilient decisions.  

2. Reframing the strategy-risk relationship 

A provocative question surfaced from among the audience: if risk management is truly integrated into strategy, should it even be seen as separate activity requiring a “feedback loop”? Some argued that risk should be embedded so deeply into strategic processes that separation is unnecessary.  
 
Yet others emphasized the importance of maintaining an independent risk function that can critically evaluate — and challenge — the strategy itself. Especially in high-stakes decisions, the ability to “challenge from within” remains a safeguard against groupthink. 

3. ESG risks: Underestimated or just unequally weighted? 

ESG risks received noticeably less attention on global risk heatmaps compared to cyber, geopolitical, or financial risks. Discussion suggested that this is partly due to geographic variance: in Europe, ESG is deeply embedded in regulatory and strategic agendas, whereas in many other regions, it's often seen as secondary.  
 
This raises questions about how multinationals can align their risk posture across jurisdictions — and whether current ESG risk models are keeping pace with stakeholder expectations. 

4. Cyber risks: Why are they always at the top of the list? 

Year after year, cyber risks dominate global risk rankings. One might expect that with time and investment, their perceived urgency would decline. But the opposite seems true.  
 
Participants highlighted how cyber threats evolve faster than the defenses meant to contain them—keeping organizations in a constant state of adaptation. This dynamic ensures that cyber resilience remains not just a technical issue, but a core business concern.  

5. Can AI help identify the ‘Unknown Unknowns’? 

Last but not least, as artificial intelligence enters the risk management toolkit, a key question remains unresolved: can AI help organizations detect emerging risks that don’t yet have historical data—the so-called “unknown unknowns”?  
 
While current models are trained on known events, participants noted that experimentation is already underway to expand AI’s foresight capabilities. It’s a space where technological promise meets philosophical uncertainty—and where breakthroughs may come sooner than expected.