WILMINGTON, DE — A survey by DuPont Sustainable Solutions found that more than one-third of business executives surveyed believe their company has very significant or even critical gaps in their operational risk management processes, suggesting that many executives are facing challenges to identify the most important risks in their operations and lack adequate systems in their companies to address risk.

The survey findings were presented during the DSS Executive Forum on Extracting Value from Operational Risk Management, which took place at the XXI World Congress on Safety & Health at Work in Singapore. The International Labour Organization (ILO) reported at the Congress that an estimated 2.78 million workers die annually due to work-related injuries and illnesses.

The objectives of the DSS survey were to benchmark and measure the maturity of Operational Risk Management in organizations across industries and to examine the challenges organizations face in managing risk. The survey is unique in that it focuses on how a company’s operational risks impact their business performance.

“Though one-third of executives believe there are significant gaps in their ORM processes, the good news is executives overwhelmingly understand the importance of leadership and culture in effectively reducing risk,” said Davide Vassallo, global managing director of DuPont Sustainable Solutions. “More than 90% of executives felt leadership commitment and accountability were important to reducing operational risk, and more than 80% of executives felt organizational culture was important.”

Over 60% of the respondents to the survey were at the executive director level or above in companies with global operations. The companies represented had approximately $300 billion in annual revenue in a wide variety of high hazard industries including oil and gas, mining and metals, utilities, chemical and petrochemical, transportation, manufacturing, services, building and construction, food and beverage.

“The DSS Executive Forum was of tremendous value to me. By sharing my own experiences, and hearing about challenges faced by others and successful strategies they pursued their companies, I feel better able to proactively mitigate risk and turn operational excellence into a competitive advantage,” said Raj Narayanan, group executive president & SBU head, Aditya Birla and a panelist during the Forum.

For more information, visit www.dupont.com/dss/dss-awards/dss-executive-forum.html