Traditional frameworks no longer suitable in new world: BDO

Australian organisations operating with a traditional risk management framework should look to rehashing the structure, as they were never designed to handle the growing collage of contemporary risks, according to new BDO research.

BDO's Global Risk Landscape 2026 report said Australian organisations are grappling with a risk environment where geopolitical instability, cyber threats, artificial intelligence and regulatory pressures increasingly overlap.

It found that 83% of business leaders believe risks are becoming increasingly interconnected and complex, while 89% said they now consider the interdependencies between risks when assessing threats.

Meanwhile, more than half of business leaders (52%) said they find it difficult to distinguish meaningful risk signals from background noise, while 55% said short-term operational pressures frequently override long-term risk planning.

Commenting, BDO Australia risk advisory partner Michael Hill said the findings highlighted a growing disconnect between the way risks emerge and the way many organisations continue to manage them.

"Risk is no longer a series of isolated events that can be managed within individual functions," Hill said.

"Geopolitical disruption, cyber threats, regulatory change and emerging technologies increasingly interact with one another. This means organisations need a clearer understanding of how these risks connect and what that means for decision-making across the business."

Hill said many organisations are still managing risk through disconnected functions, despite threats increasingly cutting across every part of the business.

"Risk doesn't arrive neatly packaged anymore," he said.

"A geopolitical event can become a supply chain issue, a cyber issue, a regulatory issue and ultimately a financial issue. Organisations that continue to assess those risks in isolation will struggle to respond quickly enough."

Businesses best placed to navigate uncertainty would be those that embed risk ownership more broadly across leadership teams, rather than leaving it solely to specialist risk functions, he added.

"Half of the business leaders surveyed said they believe risk information remains siloed across departments, while only nine per cent described their risk management approach as very proactive," Hill continued.

"This creates an environment where those best placed to navigate uncertainty will be those that embed risk ownership more broadly across leadership teams and operational functions."