Roads to Resilience

a performance risk. We respond as soon as we see that performance in a hotel is slipping whether it’s financial or quality or employee satisfaction, procedures for this are all well documented ” (VP Operations, Central Europe and Germany). At the corporate offices, risk management is viewed through a wider, strategic lens. It is “ a lot more focused on our ability to have the right controls and processes in place to successfully implement our strategic objectives. Of course compliance is still important, especially in financial and other areas but really it’s all about things that allow us to fulfil the strategy ” (Director Global Internal Audit). To mitigate strategic risk, business leaders are “ always evaluating different options and thinking through alternative outcomes ” (VP Head of Strategy, Americas). Practice 2: Monitoring and Risk Awareness The Risk Management Framework, depicted by two interlocking cogs (Exhibit IHG-2), shows on the ‘A Safe Hotel Cog’ the categories of common foreseeable risks in a hotel, and the ‘Manage Risk Cog’, summarises the activities to mitigate risk. As risk management is constantly reviewed at the hotel level, employees are very used to discussing and preventing such risks. However, it is necessary for managers and staff to be aware and monitor emerging, previously unseen risks. Such vigilance is embedded at IHG by front-line managers encouraging staff to be on the alert for anything unusual. An example of risk awareness being embedded throughout the business occurred during the run up to the London 2012 Olympics. A member of a hotel’s cleaning staff noticed a number of suspicious items in a room including reading materials that could have been associated with terrorism. The Risk Management team, working with the hotel security, liaised with local police who investigated and found no grounds for suspicion, but the cleaner was praised for her vigilance and the story spread throughout IHG, helping to reinforce awareness. Risk is not just about the known and obvious risks, it is about vigilance – everyone being on the alert and ready to quickly react (see Boxed example: Luxury Hotel in Beirut). In addition to corporate staff and employees of the franchisees, IHG widen their risk awareness still further because they “ try to engage as many people as possible in the conversations, we look at benchmarking information, what other emerging risks there are across the globe. We work with organisations like the Institute of Internal Audit and other professional bodies with regard to hot topics ” (SVP, Head of Global Internal Audit). Intelligence-led Security at IHG Hotels Guests expect to be safe and secure in IHG hotels, wherever they are, this includes in high-risk places where security is more challenging. However, IHG has developed an approach and a security network to mitigate such risks. The approach starts with a TVA – Threat and Vulnerability Assessment – something that every IHG hotel operating in high ambient threat locations will conduct. However, in locations where the political situation poses more risks, the security network that IHG has created plays an essential role. The security network is key to IHG’s approach to security across the estate in all areas and threat environments. The network consists of all of the security managers at IHG hotels, who report anything out of the ordinary in ‘Security Intelligence Reports’. These feed through to the Global Risk Management Department, which analyses the information, seeks additional information from other sources, identifies trends and decides on actions. The IHG Risk Management and security community also has strong contacts with a wide variety of sources including government agencies around the globe. Such sources give warnings about possible terrorist

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Roads to Resilience: Building dynamic approaches to risk to achieve future success