Fortis Bank was close to bankruptcy in 2008 after a combination of risky initiatives and the financial crisis depleted the company’s assets. One of these initiatives was the failed merger with a Dutch banking giant, ABN Amro, says Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez, head of transversal portfolio management at BNP Paribas Fortis in Belgium.

“Fail early and fail cheap,” is the motto at Suncorp, a financial services firm in Brisbane, Australia. If a project is floundering, the project’s executive sponsor is expected to identify the problem and make a decision about what to do before major resources are wasted.

Identifying and responding to unexpected events and emerging threats is a key responsibility for risk management, yet it is one with which many companies continue to struggle. Just 37% of respondents say that their organisation is effective at anticipating and measuring emerging risks. They also find it difficult to react promptly when the unexpected strikes. Only a slim majority of 55% say that their company's risk

Fortis Bank was close to bankruptcy in 2008 after a combination of risky initiatives and the financial crisis depleted the company’s assets. One of these initiatives was the failed merger with a Dutch banking giant, ABN Amro, says Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez, head of transversal portfolio management at BNP Paribas Fortis in Belgium.

“Fail early and fail cheap,” is the motto at Suncorp, a financial services firm in Brisbane, Australia. If a project is floundering, the project’s executive sponsor is expected to identify the problem and make a decision about what to do before major resources are wasted.

Synergy Asset Management is a Geneva-based family office that manages money for several high net worth families in the Middle East and Europe. In 2008, Synergy, together with some private investors, set up the Landmark Real Estate Fund, a Swiss-based real estate investment fund that aims to provide solid, low-risk, steady returns in commercial and residential investment opportunities in Switzerland and other parts of Europe.

The current financial and economic crisis has changed the way that investors view their investments, according to Guillaume Taylor, a Partner at de Pury Pictet Turrettini & Co. Ltd. (PPT), an independent financial wealth management firm based in Geneva. “Investors today are looking at performance over a much shorter time frame, and are much more concerned about liquidity,” he says. “These are aspects that we need to take into account when structuring portfolios currently."

Sterling Private Management Limited is a Hong Kong-based family office that manages the assets for members of the Chen family, a prominent Hong Kong family business that was a co-founder of Hang Lung, a publicly listed property company, among other business interests. For most of the past decade, Sterling pursued what was essentially an endowment model approach to managing the family’s assets. The goal was wealth preservation with growth, which was interpreted as a global balanced portfolio strategy.