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Why Grant Thornton
Whether you’re growing in one market or many, looking to operate more effectively, managing risk and regulation, or realising stakeholder value, our firms can help.
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Grant Thornton’s culture is one of our most valuable assets and has steered us in the right direction for more than 100 years.
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Beyond global scale, we embrace what makes each market unique, local understanding on a global scale.
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Join our network
In a world that wants more options for high quality services, we differentiate in the market to grow sustainably in today’s rapidly changing environment.
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Grant Thornton International Ltd acts as the coordinating entity for member firms in the network with a focus on areas such as strategy, risk, quality monitoring and brand.
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Americas
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Business consulting services
Our business consulting services can help you improve your operational performance and productivity, adding value throughout your growth life cycle.
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Business risk services
The relationship between a company and its auditor has changed. Organisations must understand and manage risk and seek an appropriate balance between risk and opportunities.
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As organisations become increasingly dependent on digital technology, the opportunities for cyber criminals continue to grow.
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Forensic services
At Grant Thornton, we have a wealth of knowledge in forensic services and can support you with issues such as dispute resolution, fraud and insurance claims.
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Mergers and acquisitions
We work with entrepreneurial businesses in the mid-market to help them assess the true commercial potential of their planned acquisition and understand how the purchase might serve their longer-term strategic goals.
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Recovery and reorganisation
Workable solutions to maximise your value and deliver sustainable recovery.
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Transactional advisory services
We can support you throughout the transaction process – helping achieve the best possible outcome at the point of the transaction and in the longer term.
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Valuations
We provide a wide range of services to recovery and reorganisation professionals, companies and their stakeholders.
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IFRS
At Grant Thornton, our IFRS advisers can help you navigate the complexity of financial reporting from IFRS 1 to IFRS 17 and IAS 1 to IAS 41.
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Audit quality monitoring
Having a robust process of quality control is one of the most effective ways to guarantee we deliver high-quality services to our clients.
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Global audit technology
Our global assurance technology platform provides the ability to conduct client acceptance, consultations and all assurance and other attestation engagements.
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Corporate and business tax
Our trusted teams can prepare corporate tax files and ruling requests, support you with deferrals, accounting procedures and legitimate tax benefits.
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Direct international tax
Our teams have in-depth knowledge of the relationship between domestic and international tax laws.
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Global mobility services
Through our global organisation of member firms, we support both companies and individuals, providing insightful solutions to minimise the tax burden for both parties.
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Indirect international tax
Using our finely tuned local knowledge, teams from our global organisation of member firms help you understand and comply with often complex and time-consuming regulations.
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Transfer pricing
The laws surrounding transfer pricing are becoming ever more complex, as tax affairs of multinational companies are facing scrutiny from media, regulators and the public
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Africa tax desk
A differentiating solution adapted to the context of your investments in Africa.
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Banking Holding banking to account: the real diversity and inclusion pictureWe explore how the banking sector can continue to attract, retain and nurture women to build a more diverse and inclusive future.
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Sustainability From voluntary to mandatory ESG: How banks can future-proof their operationsAs we move from voluntary ESG initiatives to mandatory legislation, we explore what the banking sector needs to prioritise.
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IFRS IFRS 9 - Audit of Expected Credit LossesGPPC releases The Auditor’s response to the risks of material misstatement posed by estimates of expected credit losses under IFRS 9
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growthiQ Steering your company to long-term successHistory has something important to tell us about the difficulties of steering a business to long-term success – through seismic shifts in technology, consumer demands and product development. With that in mind it’s unsurprising that over half the world’s largest companies in the early 1900s had shut their doors by the late 1990s. Some, however, have endured.
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International Financial Reporting Standards Implementation of IFRS 17 ‘Insurance Contracts’The auditor’s response to the risks of material misstatement arising from estimates made in applying IFRS 17 ‘Insurance Contracts’
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IFRS Get ready for IFRS 17After twenty years of development the IASB has published IFRS 17 ‘Insurance Contracts’, find out more.
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Global business pulse - industry analysis Mid-market recovery spreads to more industriesThe index results for 13 key industries of the mid-market reveals a very uneven recovery from COVID-19
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Global business pulse - industry analysis A very uneven recovery across industriesThe index results for 13 key industries of the mid-market reveals a very uneven recovery from COVID-19
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Global business pulse - Sector analysis Clear patterns of damage from COVID-19 across the industriesThe index results for 12 key sectors of the mid-market reveal just how much or little the various parts of the economy were impacted by COVID-19.
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Not for profit Mission: possible – putting impact at the heart of charityGlobal charitable continues to decline and charity leaders are increasingly looking at their own unique impact journey.
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Access to finance Raise finance to invest in changePrepare your business to raise finance to invest in change.
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Private equity firms Private equity in the mid-market: reshaping strategies for 2021When the global COVID-19 pandemic stormed across the globe in early 2020, the private equity sector was hit hard but deals are coming back to the market.
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Mid-market businesses Getting ready for private equity investmentOur specialists explore how private equity firms are now working with their portfolios and how the mid-market can benefit from investment.
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Mid-market businesses Myth-busting private equityNervous about partnering with Private Equity? We explore some of the common myths we come across when speaking to mid-market businesses about PE investment.
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Public sector Helping build the government of tomorrow, todayLearn about the Grant Thornton US public sector team.
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Global business pulse - industry analysis Mid-market recovery spreads to more industriesThe index results for 13 key industries of the mid-market reveals a very uneven recovery from COVID-19
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Global business pulse - industry analysis A very uneven recovery across industriesThe index results for 13 key industries of the mid-market reveals a very uneven recovery from COVID-19
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Global business pulse - Sector analysis Clear patterns of damage from COVID-19 across the industriesThe index results for 12 key sectors of the mid-market reveal just how much or little the various parts of the economy were impacted by COVID-19.
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Industries European Real Estate PodcastJessica Patel, Tax Partner at Grant Thornton UK speaks with tax partners and directors across the network to share their insights on the real estate market and some of the challenges.
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Industries European Real Estate PodcastJessica Patel, Tax Partner at Grant Thornton UK speaks with tax partners and directors across the network to share their insights on the real estate market and some of the challenges.
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Global business pulse - industry analysis Mid-market recovery spreads to more industriesThe index results for 13 key industries of the mid-market reveals a very uneven recovery from COVID-19
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Global business pulse - industry analysis A very uneven recovery across industriesThe index results for 13 key industries of the mid-market reveals a very uneven recovery from COVID-19
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Global business pulse - industry analysis Mid-market recovery spreads to more industriesThe index results for 13 key industries of the mid-market reveals a very uneven recovery from COVID-19
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Global business pulse - industry analysis A very uneven recovery across industriesThe index results for 13 key industries of the mid-market reveals a very uneven recovery from COVID-19
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Retail How retail is positioning for successCOVID-19 provided some hard lessons for the retail industry. It is time to turn those into sustainable and well executed growth strategies in 2021.
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Telecoms Can tech and telecom leverage economic headwindsAs most businesses brace for an economic downturn, tech and telecom could see new prospects. But, to turn the headwinds to your advantage, you need to find your unique opportunities and risks.
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Technology Mid-market tech companies lead the way on diversity and inclusionWe explore how the mid-market tech sector can continue to build and nurture a culture that’s increasingly more diverse and inclusive for women.
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Tax Resetting global tax rules after the pandemicBusinesses are seeing rising challenges, and finance heads are dealing with a range of new measures. To say the next 12 months are critical for businesses is an understatement.
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TECHNOLOGY International tax reform: the potential impact on the technology industryIn this article, we’ve summarised key elements of the global tax reform proposals, their potential impact on technology industry and advice from our digital tax specialists on what technology companies can do to prepare.
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Telecoms Can tech and telecom leverage economic headwindsAs most businesses brace for an economic downturn, tech and telecom could see new prospects. But, to turn the headwinds to your advantage, you need to find your unique opportunities and risks.
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TMT TMT industry: Fully charged or on standby?Our research revealed five key trends that resonated with Technology, Media and Telecoms (TMT) industry leaders around the world. We asked a panel of our experts from UK, US, India Ireland and Germany, to give us their reaction to the findings.
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Cybersecurity One size fits nothingTechnology companies must adopt a new approach to digital risk: those that successfully develop a reputation for digital trust by demonstrating an unwavering commitment to cyber security and data privacy will be able to carve out a competitive advantage.
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Technology, media & telecommunications Why it’s time for a 5G reality checkFigures suggest the mobile sector is maturing. While data usage continues to soar, mobile revenues are expected to flatten out over the next few years.
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International business Mid-market businesses lifted by rising tide of optimismOptimism among global mid-market business leaders rose to 67% in the first half of this year and they are markedly more optimistic about their prospects with global optimism having increased by 8%.
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Global business pulse - industry analysis Mid-market recovery spreads to more industriesThe index results for 13 key industries of the mid-market reveals a very uneven recovery from COVID-19
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Hotels COVID-19: Checking in with the hotel industry one year onCOVID-19 provided some hard lessons for the hotel sector. It is time to turn those into sustainable and well executed growth strategies.
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Global business pulse - industry analysis A very uneven recovery across industriesThe index results for 13 key industries of the mid-market reveals a very uneven recovery from COVID-19
- By topic
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Women in Business 2024
2024 marks the 20th year of monitoring and measuring the proportion of women occupying senior management roles around the world.
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COP28: Mid-market firms should seize the opportunity from adaption and innovation
COP28 was the first time there has been a global stocktake on progress against the Paris Agreement.
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Scanning the horizon: Mid-market sets sights on global trade growth
The latest International Business Report (IBR) data shows that mid-market businesses have high expectations for global trade.
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Mid-market sees business optimism reach record high
Grant Thornton's latest International Business Report (IBR) sees optimism among mid-market business leaders reach a record high with 74% optimistic about the outlook for their economy over the next 12 months.
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Women in tech: A pathway to gender balance in top tech roles
Grant Thornton’s 2024 Women in Business data suggests we are far from achieving parity within the mid-market technology sector.
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Women in leadership: a pathway to better performance
What makes the benefits of gender parity compelling is the impact it can have on commercial performance.
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Women in Business 2024
2024 marks the 20th year of monitoring and measuring the proportion of women occupying senior management roles around the world.
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Women in business: Regional picture
We saw an increase in the percentage of senior management roles held by women, on a global level, but there are some significant regional and country variations.
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Pathways to Parity: Leading the way
To push towards parity of senior management roles held by women, who leads within an organisation is vital.
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Generating real change with a long-term focus
The most successful strategy to achieve parity of women in senior management is one which stands alone, independent of an ESG strategy.
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People at the heart of great business
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Focusing and developing a solid strategy around diversity, equity and inclusion
Grant Thornton Greece is pioneering a growing set of diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) initiatives that centre around three strategic pillars.
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Ten considerations for preparing TCFD climate-related financial disclosures
Insights for organisations preparing to implement the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB)’s Standards.
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COP28
COP28 was the first time there has been a global stocktake on progress against the Paris Agreement.
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Transition Plan Taskforce publishes its final disclosure framework
As organisations in the private sector make commitments and plans to reach net zero, there's a growing need for stakeholders to be able to assess the credibility of their transition plans.
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Promoting ESG excellence through tax
ESG considerations have never been more important for an organisation’s long-term success, but how can tax be used to add value to an ESG agenda?
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International business: Mid-market growth and expansion
The mid-market looks to international business opportunities for growth.
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Top five constraints to international business in the mid-market
Top five major constraints that are testing the mid-market’s ability to grow their businesses internationally.
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Brand and international marketing – breaking global barriers
Brand has been identified as a key driver of mid-market success when looking to grow and develop international business.
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The key to international business: Investing in people
How can recruitment and retention help grow international business?
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Building resilience in international business
Evolving supply chains and trade patterns amid ongoing global uncertainty.
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IFRS Alerts
IFRS Alerts covering the latest changes published by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB).
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Example Financial Statements
General guidance for preparers of financial statements that supports the commitment to high quality, consistent application of IFRS.
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Insights into IFRS 2
Insights into IFRS 2 summarises the key areas of the Standard, highlighting aspects that are more difficult to interpret and revisiting the most relevant features that could impact your business.
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IFRS 3
Mergers and acquisitions are becoming more common as entities aim to achieve their growth objectives. IFRS 3 ‘Business Combinations’ contains the requirements for these transactions.
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IFRS 8
Our ‘Insights into IFRS 8’ series considers some key implementation issues and includes interpretational guidance in certain problematic areas.
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IFRS 16
Are you ready for IFRS 16? This series of insights will help you prepare.
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IAS 36
Insights into IAS 36 provides assistance for preparers of financial statements and help where confusion has been seen in practice.
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IFRS 17
Explaining the key features of the Standard and providing insights into its application and impact.
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Pillar 2
Key updates and support for the global implementation of Pillar 2.
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Global expatriate tax guide
Growing businesses that send their greatest assets – their people – overseas to work can face certain tax burdens, our global guide highlights the common tax rates and issues.
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International indirect tax guide
Navigating the global VAT, GST and sales tax landscape.
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Global transfer pricing guide
Helping you easily find everything you need to know about the rules and regulations regarding transfer pricing and Country by Country reporting for every country you do business with.
Businesses of all shapes and sizes are trying to carve out a competitive advantage by leveraging digital information. The most cutting-edge companies harness customer preference data for a range of reasons, including to create personalised services and targeted marketing campaigns; to scrutinise employee performance data to drive productivity; and to analyse supply chain information to drive efficiencies. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg, with digitised data embedded across business practices.
Digital information offers businesses huge potential, but owing to the increased use of personal data, it also creates vulnerabilities and interdependencies between two previously discrete threats – data privacy and security. For example, data breaches can result from a cyber attack, but have data privacy implications.
GDPR and other international data privacy regulations have started to bite, meaning businesses are starting to feel the commercial cost of data privacy violations. So it is perhaps no surprise that we see data privacy rising up the business agenda. Grant Thornton’s research of over 4,500 international business leaders found that 2 in 3 agreed that due to new regulation there has been a greater focus on privacy issues than there has on cyber security in recent years in their business.
However, it’s important to not lose focus on the real and growing cyber security risk - the number of cyber attacks causing losses in excess of $1m has increased by 63% during the past three years.[i]
Mike Harris, cyber security services, Grant Thornton Ireland, emphasises that data privacy and cyber security have never been more interlinked.
“In today’s data-driven world, data privacy and cyber security simply cannot be considered in isolation,” he says. “They should be viewed instead as part of a wider digital risk function.”
“Most companies never classified data before GDPR,” he said. “But they started to because they had to categorise personally identifiable information and other types of data in order to comply. If you run a programme like this, then it’s easy to extend it and combine it with other types of data to identify your data crown jewels and then link this with your cyber programme.”
Unless data privacy and cyber security are aligned, the classification process will happen in isolated silos and the benefits will not be shared.
An integrated response to breaches
The interconnection between data privacy and cyber security is never more painfully obvious than immediately following a data breach. Businesses need to know how the breach occurred and which cyber defences (if any) failed. But, crucially, they also need to understand which data were compromised and whether it was personal or sensitive. If so, they will need to disclose it.
Most businesses are not fully equipped to do this. Only 28% of businesses surveyed by Grant Thornton are ‘highly satisfied’ with their ability to protect against the risk of a serious breach and just 26% with their ability to respond consistently to a major breach across the entire business, no matter when or where it takes place.
Integrate privacy and security into one function, and businesses will be able to respond more effectively to data breaches due to their combined resources and holistic understanding of the threat.
“Privacy and cyber security are complex because they are crashing together in the real world,” says Harris. “A data breach could start off as something very technical in an outsourced cloud provider. But in responding to the incident you need to consider whether personal data are involved and what regulatory disclosures need to be made.
“All of a sudden, the two have become interconnected. Rather than two separate cyber and privacy functions responding to a breach, it makes sense to have one integrated function with the specialised skills to manage the process, so that nothing falls through the cracks.”
Managing supply chain and third-party digital risk
The increased interconnectedness of cyber security and privacy has implications for how third-party risk is managed. For example, data privacy regulation such as GDPR requires businesses to get robust guarantees from suppliers that handle data on their behalf.
“It would make a lot of sense for organisations to merge cyber security aspects of third-party risk management with privacy controls,” says Harris. “It’s just a matter of asking about both at the same time. It’s relatively straightforward, but it’s not happening widely at the moment. Cyber security teams and privacy teams are doing this separately.”
Of course, this ‘one-stop’ third-party risk management will remove duplication of effort and create efficiencies. More importantly, however, it will produce a more joined-up understanding of digital risk.
Benefits of an integrated digital risk approach
Taking an integrated business approach to managing digital risk delivers a number of key benefits to organisations –
Firstly, it can help to bring forward digital transformation initiatives because the data classification and compliance that companies are undertaking across the business for various purposes is aligned and co-ordinated.
Secondly, a digital risk function that conducts comprehensive assessments of third-party and supply chain digital risk is better positioned to ensure that risk is considered across the organisation. One way to do this is by pre-approving vendors from a risk perspective.
“Businesses can digitally transform quicker if they do the supplier approval process up front,” says James Arthur, partner, head of cyber consulting, Grant Thornton UK. “It’s a lot easier to do this if you have a single digital risk function that proactively assesses cyber security and privacy risk together.”
Thirdly, businesses continue to use new technologies to seek out commercial advantage, meaning their approach to data privacy and cyber security also needs to continually evolve, to address new threats and vulnerabilities. An integrated digital risk function is better placed to scrutinise some of these new technologies, such as blockchain.
“It’s vital that risk teams are involved right from the outset, because with any technology database there’s always the risk of attacks by third parties that want to steal the information” says Michel Besner, general manager of Catallaxy, a blockchain subsidiary of Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton. “To combat this, risk teams can ensure that there are proper governance structures around how the blockchain is implemented, managed and supported. Get this right, and you’ll avoid security issues further down the line.”
Board oversight is key, combined management essential
The case for an integrated digital risk function is clear. But who should oversee and manage it?
At the moment, there is confusion about where responsibility ultimately lies, and this is hampering digital risk management. Tellingly, surveyed businesses say that a lack of understanding about which risks individuals and teams are responsible for is their second-greatest weak point in managing digital risk.
The first important thing to consider is who manages digital risk from a day-to-day point of view. Most companies put the chief risk officer or chief technology officer in charge of this. But, as explained in our Digital risk: Technology is no silver bullet article, effective digital risk management relies on a lot more than technology. Chief risk officers report on more holistic risk to business – strategic, financial and operational. So what’s the answer?
Enter the chief digital risk officer function. “Organisations are starting to create digital risk functions headed by a chief digital risk officer,” confirms Arthur. “This is where responsibility for managing digital risk should lie. But at the moment they are still organisationally distinct at most companies.”
Once the day-to-day digital risk management is in place, its essential to consider who provides oversight. As with financial risk, the gravity of digital risk means that the board must take an active role. While the board needs to oversee it, they may not always have the technical expertise to understand the nature of the threat. Therefore ideally, a specific digital risk committee should be established within the board to oversee this risk, with representation from experts.
“Digital risk oversight should be at board level,” confirms Christos Makedonas, technology risk leader at Grant Thornton Cyprus. “There should also be a committee that discusses digital risk.
“Digital risk is multifaceted, so many people need to feed into this process. At the moment, this only happens in large, heavily regulated companies – especially those in financial services.”
Three steps to integrated digital risk management
- Combine the data privacy and cyber security functions, to create a single digital risk function. This new team should be governed by a single model and follow the same set of processes, goals and practices connected to wider business commercial drivers.
- Work out who is responsible for managing and overseeing digital risk, map out their activities and daily workflows, and see if there is any overlap. Identify synergies and strip out duplicated processes.
- Ensure that digital risk processes are managed on an end-to-end basis. For example, should assess both cyber security and data privacy. Both factors should also be evaluated when classifying data.
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[i] Linklaters, Global cyber-incidents soar by 63% in the last three years - January 2019.
[ii] Eur-Lex - General Data Protection Act.
[iii] Information Commissioner’s Office - Data protection by design and default.