A Tsunami is a series of enormous and powerful ocean waves often caused by earthquakes, that can cause destruction when they eventually reach shallow waters. Many Australians will recall the deadly 2004 tsunami that devastated Indonesia or the 2011 one that hit Japan.

Recently I have heard several people state how lucky they feel that we are an island so far away from global unrest. Yet if you ran a business during Covid, or if you trade with the US for example, you will know how significantly we can be impacted by global events.

When I introduce the concept of risk management to executive teams, one area we look at is what is going on outside the organisation. It helps to ask ourselves what is the next tidal wave that we might be swept up in.

Executive teams need to be able to answer these questions:

• What’s going on in the world?
• What do people care about right now?
• What’s that got to do with us?

Global trends are not always destructive. Many of them bring opportunity to modernise ways of working or optimise solutions we offer to clients. But if we’re not across these trends our competitors will be.

Authorities around the globe, including Australia, now continuously monitor for tsunamis and have warning centres and protocols in place to protect our coastal populations. Companies can do the same by frequently revisiting those questions.

We might be the lucky country, but we can still be swept up by changes that start a long way away.