Aon's regular business poll revealed the biggest threats facing organisations

The top three threats facign businesses today are economic stagnation, regulatory problems and increasing competition, according to a recent business survey.

For the first time in this survey’s history “failure to innovate” and “technology failure” made the top ten, whilst “failure to attract top talent” was also ranked highly as a problem.

The top ten risks are:

1. Economic Slowdown
2. Regulatory/Legislative change
3. Increasing competition
4. Damage to brand
5. Business interruption
6. Failure to innovate or meet customers needs
7. Failure to attract or retain top talent
8. Commodity price risk
9. Technology failures or system failure
10. Cash flow or liquidity risk

The survey made a distinction between global and UK risks, and “damage to reputation” was ranked two places higher in a UK context.

This study was carried out by Aon Risk Solutions, which surveyed 960 organisations from 58 countries around the world in Q4 2010.

George Zsolnay, head of Aon Analytics in the US commented on “the undeniable interdependence among various risks as well as economies around the globe.”

He also underlined the importance of “an enterprise-wide approach to managing risk.”