The world is becoming a riskier place to do business in 2025. Even prior to the US Election in November 2024, the WEF (World Economic Form) survey of top global leaders revealed serious concerns that the world is at its highest risk level in years.1 This paper deep dives into five (5) of the leading global risk surveys published in early 2025 or late 2024, representing over 15,000 respondents comprising board members and executives, operational business leaders, civil and academic leaders, risk practitioners and buyers of commercial insurance. From this data, we have curated a short list of seven (7) top strategic risks which will very likely impact the mission critical strategic objectives of most organizations. This list should be understood by board members and should appear on risk registers. At the end of the paper, we provide Takeaways, guidelines for selecting the short list of risks to be managed by executives and overseen by board.

Riskier World: The American Institute of CPA, in their October 2024 report advises that +66% of global respondents indicate the volume & complexity of risks has increased “mostly” to “extensively” in the past five years.4

The WEF GRPS (Global Risk Perspective) survey advises “…as we enter 2025, the global outlook is increasingly fractured across geopolitical, environmental, societal, economic, and technological domains. We are living in one of the most divided times since the Cold War…”1. The WEF reports most respondents anticipating an unsettled, turbulent, or stormy global outlook over the next two years. In ten years, a majority expect stormy or turbulent times.

Five Surveys: To understand what world-wide leaders concur are the most pressing issues, in this paper we’ve done a deep dive on five of the top global surveys published early in 2025, or late 2024. We’ve compared all the rankings, and the deliverable is a compact list of seven (7) “Strategic” risks (see Chart B) which reflects not only the views of top leaders, but also considers “Operational”, and “Country/Political” type risks.

Interestingly, in comparing the topmost impactful risks, the five surveys we reviewed differ in their ranking, based on the perspective of the respondents. The WEF GRPS report considers input from global leaders from academia, business, government, international organizations, and civil society. This group of leader’s sees “State Based armed conflict, Political violence and related risks” ranked as the #1 most pressing risk, with “Cyber Espionage and related Warfare” ranked as #14. However, “Cyber Risk” is #1 in the 2025 Allianz Risk Barometer2, one of the worlds most respected risk surveys which considers global risks through the eyes of more operational people including Allianz’s global customers, industry associations, consultants, senior managers, and importantly risk management professionals, and others.

Why is Cyber Espionage and related Warfare top of list for many, and less important for others? Risks which may significantly impact the (mission critical) objectives of the organization are viewed differently through the eyes of operations people, by politicians, by civil leaders, as well as by board members and C-Suite people (who have a more strategic perspective on risks).

Methodology: We chose to review the risk landscape from differing perspectives, to ensure that varying opinions are considered. “Chart A, Surveys & Details” shows the “Respondent Types,” from risk professionals to board members. Chart A shows when the survey was published, how many respondents, and the focus of the survey.

Links to each of these surveys, for further reading, are shown in the footnotes of this paper.

Next, we populated “Chart B- the 2025 Global Risk Landscape”. Starting with the WEF GRP survey as a baseline (noting respondents came from varying perspectives, i.e. politics, academia, business, civil) we listed in column 1 the WEF’s top 15 risks, and included a few other risks (we refer to column 1 as “Country Risks”); In column 2, (referred to as “Corporate Risks”), we include risks ranked by risk practitioners, insurance buyers, and customers of Allianz. In column 3, (referred to as “Executives- Canada and US”)- we extracted WEF survey data examining feed back only from North American executives; Last, (from the NCU and Protiviti survey) 5 we listed the top risks noted by “Boards and C-Suite executives” representing their concerns in the next two (2) years (column 4) and, and also their view on risks 10 years from now in 2035 (column 5).

Last, on Chart B, we highlight in red and bold, seven (7) “Strategic” risks which appear not only on one or more of the Executives, Boards and C-Suite surveys, but on at least on three (3) of five (5) surveys. The red highlighted risks reflect senior management and director’s views, those being more Strategic, less Operational. A more Operational, “Corporate Risks” perspective would be represented in the second column, the Alliance Global Risk Barometer report, or for “Country“/Political risks in the WEF GRPS columns.

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Chart B does not consider different industries, different geographies, and different political and economic conflicts and extraordinary situations which might be unique. Hence, the longer list from column 1 (Country Risks) is more all inclusive but does not list all risks determined by the WEF. For a more extensive list of risks, choose a survey, and review its details.

Defining the Seven Critical 2025 Risks:

The Seven Critical 2025 Strategic Risks- Defined

*some risks overlap. Descriptions may differ from the specific survey descriptions.

1. Economic downturn, Macroeconomic Developments, Inflation

• • The global economy was expected in late 2024 to grow at a steady rate of 2.8% in 2025 despite headwinds from geopolitical risks and rising interest rates. With the newly threatened tariffs by the USA, a new round of trade wars may change the growth forecasts. Further, structural problems in key markets like China and Germany pose challenges. In the countries such as Canada which are the target of US trade sanctions, the impact may be significant. Slowdowns in tariff related economic activity, may be offset by price increases leading to inflation.

2. Cyber espionage and warfare

• • Cyber risks remain a top concern with incidents like cyber crime, IT network disruptions, and data breaches being prevalent. These risks are particularly significant in industries such as aviation, financial services, in technology- but all industries are susceptible.

3. Skilled Worker shortage, attracting, retaining, training, costs

• • The shortage of skilled workers continues to be a critical global issue impacting businesses ability to attract and retain talent. The cost of labour is also rising added adding to the challenges faced by companies. Offsetting the need to recruit economic immigrants with specific job skills, are populist sentiments against immigration.

4. Geo-economic confrontation, changes in Legislation, changes in Regulatory, Tariffs

• • Changes in legislation and regulations including tariffs and protectionist measures are creating uncertainties for businesses. These changes are particularly impactful in regions like Europe, Canada, and the USA.

5. Misinformation, disinformation, Disruptive Technology, AI

• • The spread of misinformation and disinformation along with the rapid development of disruptive technologies like AI, are posing new risks. Companies need to adapt to these changes to stay competitive, while protecting themselves against more sophisticated attacks by hackers with new tools.

6. Extreme weather events, Natural Catastrophes

• • Natural catastrophes, such as storms floods and wildfires are becoming more frequent and severe. These events have significant impacts on businesses particularly in terms of supply chain disruptions and operational challenges.

7. State-based armed conflict, Political Risks/Violence

• • Listed as the #1 risk by the WEF GRP survey, this remains a remain a top concern for businesses globally, especially those with supply chain interdependencies abroad. Factors such as political instability, war, terrorism, and civil unrest continue to pose significant threats. The ongoing conflict in Ukraine, potential escalation between China and Taiwan, Gaza tensions, and the rise of populism and nationalism contribute to the uncertainty and challenges faced by companies.

Summary/ Takeaways:
From the five leading surveys compared in this paper, a top seven list of “Strategic” risks are curated.  Organizations should ensure that this list is considered when prioritizing their top risks, i.e. always ensure that you review information from credible outside sources, like the surveys compared herein. But the following must also be considered:

1. New & Emerging: World, domestic and intra-organizational risks change regularly. Risk Identification and Assessment is critical, but regular changes must be considered, and new/emerging risks must be identified regularly.
2. Short List: A compact list should be created which focusses management and which defines risks that are to be extensively managed and mitigated. Board should deep dive on top risk (s);
3. Customization: As can be seen in this paper, no single list of risks is applicable to all organizations. Factors to be considered include when prioritizing the key risks: Industry type, Regulatory, Legal Compliance; Unique organizational risk, etc. Risks can be Strategic, Operational, Political or from other categories;
4. Consider Bias: Risk Registers completed from one perspective only (i.e. by C-Suite without input from Board and from lower-level managers) can be biased;
5. Enterprise-Wide Risks: All areas of the “Enterprise” should be considered (i.e. Finance, HR, Operations, Sales etc.), along with all levels including line managers and board members.
6. Alignment with Organization “Mission Critical” Objectives: Selecting the most important “mission critical” risks must consider their impact on the organization’s objectives. Aligning such risks with the objective most impacted is a start, then consider the interconnectivity of other risks.

Footnotes:
1. WEF- The 2025 Global Risks Perspectives Survey (GRPS), 20th Edition https://www.weforum.org/publications/global-risks-report-2025/digest/
2. WEF- 2025 Executive Opinion Survey: National Risk Perceptions, Chart A from WEF Global Risks Survey. https://www.weforum.org/publications/global-risks-report-2025/digest/
3. ALLIANZ 2025 RISK BAROMETER (Allianz Global Risks) https://commercial.allianz.com/news-and-insights/reports/allianz-risk-barometer.html
4. Global State of ERM, October 2024, American Institute CPA, Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, Association of International Certified Professional Accountants, in Partnership with North Carolina State University  https://www.aicpa-cima.com/resources/download/2024-global-state-of-enterprise-risk-oversight
5. 2025 Executive Perspectives on Top Risks, North CU State and Protiviti, 13th Edition, https://erm.ncsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/41/2025/02/nc-state-protiviti-2025-top-risks-survey-final-250213.pdf