Hi, enjoy this weeks curated risk and business updates.

We are initiating the use of DelCreo’s Risk Universe to find thought-provoking articles and use the same approach to better analyze and understand current and emerging risks. Your time is valuable and we will only include relevant and helpful top articles in a given category of risk, not just to fill up a category. Our Risk Universe categories include:

• External Risk

• Governance Risk

• Strategic Risk

• Product Risk

• Business Operations Risk

• Legal & Compliance Risk

• Financial Risk

• Technology Risk

These high-level risks are fairly consistent between different companies and risk profiles. Falling underneath these risks, at the second level of the risk hierarchy, are  specific risks that are more closely aligned to a specific company’s risk profile and cover topics like disruptive innovation which is a strategic risk and supply chain which is a business operations risk.

We leverage our understanding of risk maps and risk universes to better advise our clients in strategic business decisions and to optimize the management of risk throughout the enterprise.

Weighing the Risks

Weekly Highlights

• The Department of Justice is investigating how Apple has used “its control over its hardware and software to make it more difficult for consumers to ditch the company’s devices, as well as for rivals to compete”

• Complex economic indicators tell a mainly positive story despite negative public sentiment regarding the economy and increase in M&A activity

• Cautiously try to find the right balance of risk and reward regarding responsible utilization of AI

Risk Universe Weekly Updates

External Risk

• Economic Strength Persists With 216,000 New Jobs in December

  • Economic indicators are positive with a growing number of jobs added to the market in December:  “Leisure and hospitality companies added 40,000, health care 38,000 and governments 52,000”

  • Generally positive economic indicators stand at odds with negative public perception of the economy

Strategic Risk

• Eli Lilly’s direct drug sales alone may not upend the industry, but others could follow suit

  • Eli Lilly is launching a direct-to-consumer site similar to Tesla’s direct model

  • Analysts are doubtful that this new offering (LillyDirect) will substantially alter the current state of the industry

  • Related developments include Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drugs which also utilized a discounted direct-to-consumer model

Legal & Compliance Risk

• U.S. Moves Closer to Filing Sweeping Antitrust Case Against Apple

  • The US Justice Department continues to investigate alleged antitrust issues regarding iPhone and data-related dominance

  • The suit could bring about changes that competitors or new entrants could leverage

Financial Risk

• Late M&A Bonanza Stokes Healthcare Dealmakers Ahead of JPMorgan Conference

  • M&A activity in the Healthcare space is increasing versus last year in response to decreasing interest rates

  • With extremely high levels of unspent cash and mature portfolio companies, firms looking to make strategic changes should be prepared to act as opportunities arise

Technology Risk

• MIT experts weigh in on how to govern AI and the risks it brings

  • Managers should research and utilize frameworks that help them identify and categorize the dangers of respective use cases

  • Managers should “hover” before committing to integration of AI-centric advancements

  • Companies should create active use cases that structurally screen for bias or minimize data biases in AI applications